Summer Camp for Me!
Doing what you love is a good thing…but doing it with a bunch of other people who also love it is an amazingly good thing. I spent last week in Pennsylvania with 60+ other pysanky artists at an egg retreat learning, teaching, connecting and laughing with friends old and new. To put it simply, I went to summer camp for adults…and I highly recommend it.
This is my third year attending the Pysanky USA Retreat. I took a few classes, taught a few classes and mostly hung out in the “play room” where we could work on our own projects as we talked and shared about egg art and life in general. The room population ebbed and flowed throughout the day as classes started which allowed me to meet new people with the luxury of unhurried time on our side. Free flowing ideas sparked new techniques, new color combinations, new dyes to try. Wow, my brain got full fast!
I came away from this week not only with a renewed enthusiasm for this art but with a sense of community and connectedness to my fellow pysanky artists across the country. And I’m already looking forward to next year!
Eggs by Teresa 
Hi, Teresa,
This is Chris Fleener — I took your intro classes at Carmichael Park last April with my good friend Beth Laffoon. It was great to hear of your August adventures in Pennsylvania. Sounds like such a wonderful time!
My daughters & a few of their friends are interested in learning to do pysanky. (They have been interested for some time but had to wait until they weren’t as busy.) I didn’t know if you had any upcoming classes in the community that they could sign up for. I didn’t see any listed under upcoming classes on your website.
You had mentioned that you sometimes teach classes in your home for groups of 3-10. This group would be 5-6 in number, provided we came up with a date that would work for all of these busy young adults. Are you still open to doing that? If so, would you let me know of some Saturdays in the next 2-3 months in which you’d be free to schedule their class?
Beth has been quite prolific, producing some lovely pysanky. She has even been commissioned to do several eggs for a couple of folks who just happened to see her eggs in passing. I, on the other hand, have had a coue of health issues that limited the time I could sit at my table to work & as I was commuted to teaching a Bible study over the summer, I had to use my available “sitting” time for study & class prep. So I haven’t been able to complete an egg since late May. My commitment is competed now & I hope to get back into pysanky gear this coming week! Back in May I’d begun working on an egg design that incorporated one of my favorite doodles from college & nursing school note-taking days. So I might ease back into the saddle by spending time on that project.
I so appreciate you introducing us to this delightful (and, okay, sometimes frustrating) art form.
In Him,
Chris
Sent from my iPhone
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August 29, 2014 at 2:05 pm
So good to hear from you and I’m glad you’re still interested in learning more about pysanky. I’ll email you so we can get some possible class dates on the calendar.
August 29, 2014 at 2:57 pm