My Happy Place

Wow, I just spent a week teaching “Pysanky for All” at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, and I declare to one and all…this is my happy place.

Farm House, my home for the week.

For those who are not familiar with the Folk School, think of summer camp…only year around…for adults…filled with folk art classes…on 300 beautiful acres of gently rolling hills and woodlands…with other like-minded life-long learners.  That should give you the beginnings of an idea of this place.

Years ago my sister and I attended an artisan bread-baking class there.  In spite of the misty cold January weather, we had a blast baking all week long.  With our fellow students we started with basic breads and then experimented with sourdoughs, crusty ciabattas and even got to bake in the wood-fired hearth oven right there in the kitchen.  The communal meal-times offered lots of opportunity to meet fellow students and instructors from around the country.  I fell in love with this whole concept of non-competitive, cooperative learning based on the Danish “folkhojskole” or folk high school and I knew I wanted to come back someday and teach.

It took me a few years to gain enough experience teaching and then a few more years to work up the courage to apply, but I was delighted to teach for the first time in June 2016.  And even more delighted when they asked me back for this year’s class and scheduled me for October 7-13, 2018.

Rock Room our Pysanky Studio

This year’s class of eight students exceeded my expectations greatly.  On Monday morning we worked our way through an introductory egg to learn the basics.  Step-by-step through the next few days they gained skills and confidence so that by the end of the week they were designing and completing their own masterpieces.  We bonded as a group quickly and constantly helped each other by calling out, “Did you plug your egg?” as one or more students headed for the dye table.  “Show and tell,” was followed by oohs and aahs as the finished eggs made their way around the class.

Finished class eggs from our week together.

Saturday and the end of our stay came too quickly, but with the hope of a return trip next year, we parted as long-time friends instead of students and teacher.  That’s a really good feeling in my book.

The total eclipse was a wonderful unexpected extra.