Textile Art by Linda Geiger: April 2017

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Focusing on #Fiber, Friends and #Florida Fun!

Again this year, I invested in Focus On Fiber Florida Style 2017, a retreat the wilderness of New Smyrna Beach at Atlantic Center for the Arts. Participants can stay up to two weeks and take advantage of classes, workshops, studio spaces, privacy, nature walks, and meals prepared by the amazing Chef Tom Kurtzhals. Single rooms, making new friends, catching up with "old" ones, and focusing on art without interruptions make this experience one I hope to do again and again.

Feet up and enjoying the view from my room

as I prepared myself

for a very intensive two days in the studio,

and some creativity cultivation in seclusion...

I signed up for the Eco Print and Indigo Workshop with fiber artist Kathy Hays. She is a marvelous teacher...patient, kind, generous and knowledgeable beyond the basics. She has spent many hours experimenting and perfecting her craft, so what we learned was without question as to what would work, what to be wary of, and what steps to take, in detail, to obtain amazing results.

Kathy Hays sharing her skills...

The workshop spanned two long, intense days (she usually takes three days for this workshop, so you can imagine the feeling!) I am amazed at not only the quality of my results, but the quantity of processes I learned as well. In those two digested days, we learned so many techniques, and how to do them well, not rushing through to get them done, but keeping up a steady pace that guaranteed a good night's sleep!

Not wanting to lose momentum (or my euphoric state of mind) I spent a few days post-workshop reviewing my notes, taking photos, and classifying what was done, so I can replicate the techniques and remember how to do all this when I get back to the studio. A future blog post will show the results, but here are a few random photos I snapped during the retreat: