journals everywhere

This weekend I taught a book-making workshop for some friends at my house. I sort of blissfully didn't know what I was getting into, or I might not have agreed to it.  But I'm glad I did.  I had 8 women plus myself here for 3 hours on Thursday night to prep their book papers, and then 7 of them back on Saturday to make covers and bind the whole thing together.  We were planning to have a couple of hours in the afternoon to talk about art journaling techniques and prep some pages with ink and stamps and collage and paint, but the cover preparations took too long and we ran out of time at the end. 

To make room for all of them to work, I opened up my dining room table to full size, covered it in butcher paper, and also cleared my kitchen counter and generously-sized coffee table for workspace.  It was wonderful. Art supplies on every horizontal surface, lots of excited creative energy all over the place. Each of them was making a book for the very first time, and all of the books came out just beautifully.

I forgot, however, how much energy it takes to teach, and I was totally wiped out by Saturday afternoon when everyone left.  I think I went to bed about 9pm.  On Sunday, my fellow class-organizer (and helper!) came over for a little follow-up work time, since all the tools and stuff were still out, and we had been too busy teaching to make our own books. I finished up the two books in the foreground of the top photo then. 

My journals were still strewn all around, since I'd been using them for examples and to demonstrate with, and it felt a bit like being surrounded by all my past lives.  Not all that comfortable, really. I had to put them away before I could really unwind that night.  But once I had, I made a fire and settled down in front of it with my knitting. And stayed there for about 3 hours.  

It felt really good to be teaching again.  I have missed that.  But if I do this workshop again, I'll definitely need to tweak the agenda and make a couple other adjustments to make it more manageable. It sure was great to have a helper, though! 

Comments

[Mic]

Awh. Sounds like an awesome time. I wish I could have been there! See you next week!

[Mary Beth]

Sounds marvelous and I bet you are a terrific teacher :-)

[Kirsten Liske]

So interesting to hear your interior perspective having been there. We can definitely do a more efficient job next time! (Maybe even recruit another helper)

Thanks again - it was so cool to do!

Kirse