While I am still on my “Blog Tour“, I am physically home safe and sound after a fabulous trip to Raleigh, NC. On Saturday I taught my MYOB (Make Your Own Bag) workshop combined with the extra felty goodness of embellishment. The class had a good turn out and, as always, I am truly inspired by all of you who participated. Thank you for coming and sharing your day with me!
There was busy bag making and needle felting and lots of creativity flowing. For a few pics of some of the finished projects, check out the Flickr Set I put together. I wish I had taken more photos, I always forget!
Special thanks to Cynthia of Panopolie for hosting the event and opening up her home to me and my family afterward for food and socializing with her hip friends. π
My husband and kids came along with me and made it a nice long weekend. Sunday we enjoyed the beautiful weather by walking around the flea market and then visiting the North Carolina Art Museum. We especially enjoyed the Museum Park that consists of 164 acres of woodlands, open areas and streams filled with trails and monumental works of environmental art. This was right up our alley.
Of course we had to pose by each work of art, like these giant cement rings…called Gyre by Thomas Sayre (hey, Sayre is my maiden name!)
And this enormous tower of stacked newspapers by Steven Siegel. It is amazing!
Our hands-down favorite is the Cloud Chamber by Chris Drury. Here is the description from the museum website:
“This shelter operates as an oversized camera obscura or a pinhole camera. A small aperture in the roof projects an inverted image of the sky onto the floor of the chamber, an effect that seems to pull the sky down to the viewer. Inside, your perspective is turned upside down. Instead of looking up at the sky, trees, or clouds, you will look down on them from above.”
We entered through a small wooden door and sat on little benches around the perimeter. After our eyes adjusted the forest appeared upside down on the walls and floor around us. The bright spot in the photo is the sun shining in from the hole in the roof. Can you see the tree image? I need to build one of these, it was very cool.
This concludes the recap of our NC weekend! It’s good to be home, although I should’ve brought that warm springy weather with me. I hope you’ll continue to follow me around this month with the blog tour. It may sound confusing, but it’s really simple! Just follow the calendar to find out about reviews, book give-aways, etc! There are lots of opportunities to win a copy of Sewing Green, just click on the link to the blog of the day for info! Questions? Just ask me. π
Oh, wow, you ROCK. These photos are awesome. And don’t you just love Raleigh?
Thanks for doing this tour. But I bet you’ll be exhausted at the end!
That camera obscura is amazing. And it looks like you had so much fun at your workshop! Could you repost the photos link though? The current link seems broken. Thanks!
Thanks Kim,
I fixed the link!
Thank you for this post. It seems we always miss the “treasures” in our own back yard. I have been trying to find info on places to take my boys and the Art Museum trail sounds perfect.
You can make a camera obscura in your house by covering a window with rubbish bags, taping up door frames etc, and then poking a hole in one of the rubbish bags.
Really cool trip all around!! Love the outdoor art!!
Thanks for sharing pics from your trip to NC. It’s a beautiful place to visit – though I’m a bit partial since it’s home for me π I didn’t realize you were holding an event in Raleigh. I would have been there lickety-split to join in the fun!
Looks like great fun. I love sculpture parks- what a nice way to round out the weekend.
The cloud chamber looks like a magical place…I’d love to build one too!
I love the Cloud Chamber, neat science and beautiful too!
Next time you are in NC, you really should stop by Durham and visit the Duke Lemur Center!
Cheers!