GRADUATING FROM OXFORD part 4

This is the last installment in the series on my experience at the week-long certification workshop at the Oxford Rug Hooking School in Cornwall Vermont last week. 

I'll start with some pictures again--these are from Chris H, with his permission.  They are photos he took on a brief walk he took up the dirt road just to the side of Amy's property.  (I did not take a walk all week--unusual--and I lived to regret it, but that's another story.  Note to self:  Always take at least one walk a day...)

HOW UTTERLY LOVELY IS THIS? THANKS, CHRIS H., FOR LETTING ME USE THIS PHOTO.

THE POND ON THE PATH. PHOTO CREDIT: Chris H, 2016

It really was that beautiful there, and it was that way all week.  Sunny, warm but not too hot, low humidity,  Kind of staggeringly beautiful.

Amy is a genius as an instructor.  She had the entire week so well-planned...we introduced ourselves, talked about what makes a good instructor, and set goals.  And then we set about meeting our goals for the week.  Amy modeled the type of teacher we all hope to be.  She was completely organized, but not rigid.  She was great at time management, without making us feel we were on a "regimen."  She told us what we'd be learning for each day--and then we actually learned it.  And she had great handouts, clear and useful.  The kind of handouts we can use with our own students. 

At one point, the wonderful Diane Burgess came in for an entire morning to teach traditional rug hooking to those of us who had never tried our hands at that.  Diane specializes in teaching traditional hooking to newbies.

DIANE BURGESS TEACHING TRADITIONAL RUG HOOKING TO OXFORD STUDENTS

Amy even managed to squeeze in a thorough lesson on photographing rugs, something I think we all needed to learn.  (She's not mad here--the sun was so extraordinarily bright that she is squinting)

Every day she gave us tip after tip, provided lots of time to punch and to teach, taught new techniques, and then ended with a hilarious graduation ceremony.  I managed to photograph most of us at graduation, but unfortunately couldn't photograph myself and because Kathleen came right after me, I couldn't get her photo either. 

Here are the graduation pictures.  Note the kazoo in Amy's mouth as we go through the process!

Since we didn't have caps and gowns, we pitched balls of novelty yarn in the air to finalize the celebration.  And speaking of yarns:

Chris dyed up these colors before coming to the workshop and they caused a sensation.  I think all of us used some of his yarns in our work last week, and I also think all of us took home one of the colors.  Here are the colors he gifted us with.

CHRIS'S HAND-DYED YARNS. WOW!

I got to go home with the blue one, and just today used more of it to finish one of my homework assignments.  Chris raises sheep at his home, and spins; he also has the fleece commercially spun into rug yarn, but the hand-dyed yarns he dyed that are pictured above were, I think, from KnitPicks; they weren't from his own sheep.  Thanks, Chris, for letting us all take one of these home.

After graduation Amy gave us each a tiny charm, as well as our diplomas.  I loved the charm and am already using it on my keychain.

ONE SIDE

OTHER SIDE

SIZE RELATIVE TO A KEY

When I left on Saturday, I left with inspiration, with a good-sized manual for techniques, with the work I'd completed during the week, with plenty of resources, with plenty of homework ahead of me to complete the certification, and with the confidence that I could continue to improve and to pass on this technique as needed. 

I forgot to mention that part of the homework is to complete a rug of our own design within the next four months.  We had all sketched out our designs in advance, and one of my very favorite parts of the workshop was when we shared them with each other.  I think we were all stunned by the level of creativity shown.  I was impressed and inspired by what I saw and can't wait to see the completed rugs.

Because we had worked so hard, had bonded, and had so much fun, we were all pretty emotional as we were leaving.  I saw tears (and had a few myself) and although we were all eager to get home after such a long time away, there was substantial foot-dragging as we said goodbye.

My thanks to Amy, our incredible teacher, and to the school manager (and dyer extraordinaire) Heidi, who kept everything organized and running smoothly while we were there.

Final thoughts on all the inspirational, dear, creative people I met last week:

"When I find myself fading, I close my eyes and realize my friends are my energy." (Anonymous)
Thanks to all of you for making this such a wonderful experience.