Finally......

No, I hadn't got lost! After that last post from Falmouth, we never found the time to post any more photos to Flickr, and frankly, I ran out of energy. Then, when we left the college to go to our rented cottage, the only internet access I had was a very faint signal from an unencrypted wireless network right up the top of the garden. It was so slow that I decided that the game was very definitely not worth the candle, and that this could well wait until I was home and somewhat recovered.

Which I suppose I am.

So, here is the final word on Summer School 2007. Loved every minute of it. I was very pleased at how the class went, enjoyed enormously the company of the participants (oh, well, if I am being honest, there was one who was just a tad difficult, but quite sweet with it, so not too horrendous) Everyone worked and laughed hard and produced some great workbooks and little objets. I think that we all learned a lot.

I was ever so slightly miffed by a couple of things - one incident reported to me by an indignant student who had overheard two people from another class walking on past our classroom door saying blatantly that they didn't need - want - to go in there, it was only spindles. Silly, ignorant people, that's what I say. The other was on the last afternoon when everyone mills round seeing what has been going on all week, and one of the well known and extremely talented weavers came in. In a rather patronising tone, she asked "Where are all the garments, then?" and I took great delight in telling her that there was one. check out all the photos here to see what I mean!

I'm not going to add any photos actually in the blog this time, there are too many. there will be more to come later, an' all. I took several of work from other classes, and of the Certificate of Achievement displays. And of course, there are the obligatory shots of Hemmick from the following week, but more of that later.

Summer School was not what I had expected, and not really like what I had been told about it. Of course, people's perceptions differ, but I think there may have been a couple of factors influencing this. One being the superb organisation by the Convener, Sue Dwyer, who had put huge amounts of effort over a long period into the job and in my opinion succeeded brilliantly. It will be a very hard act to follow. The other may have been that there was a bigger age range than I had been lead to believe was the case, and over one third of the attendees were first timers (including some of the tutors, of course!)
Oops, that's three factors. Sorry.

The campus is very new, and rather delightful. Excellent student accommodation, attractive layout, and good workrooms, studios, etc. Even the food was not half bad, better than I had expected, and the students working there for the summer were great kids, seemingly not at all fazed by the influx of eccentrics. I kept on having fantasies of applying for a course and going to live there for three years, but perhaps that isn't a feasible option. Ah, well.

I somehow feel that this is a rather inadequate synopsis of what I have been up to. Ask questions? I will put up the later photos, and rabbit on about stage two, the "holidiy" in a subsequent post.

But first, I still need to catch up on....what? Sleep? Myself? Work? All of the above?

Probably.