Hi, Everyone —

Tour day is one of my favorite days at seminar because I just love visiting new, interesting places.

Our tour today had several stops.  The first was at Cosanti Bells.  Our tour guide, Jim, kept saying that we were going to Arcosanti after Cosanti Bells.  And even when we got to Taliesin West he called it Arcosanti again.  Arcosanti and Cosanti Bells ARE related, but our tour did NOT include Arcosanti, which is closer to Sedona.  Arcosanti is an experimental city that was designed to be self-sufficient.

The Cosanti Bells stop was mostly a shopping stop so that we could buy bells.  I walked around the site and saw the molds which are used to make the bells.  There was no commentary about the process, but I must say that the bells were beautiful and had a Southwest feel to them!

Cosanti Bells

Molds for Consanti Bells

Next we went to Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Camp” at Taliesin West.  Wright built Taliesin during the depression when his third wife suggested that since he didn’t have any commissions that he should teach.  Taliesin West still functions as an accredited school for architects — during the winter months.  During the summer, the students migrate to the original Taliesin in Wisconsin.  The students must learn by doing — including building their own “tent/rooms” on cement slabs on the campus.

“Taliesin” means shining brow.  Wright believed that the architecture should fit into the environment and not overshadow it.  Therefore, the structure sits below the top of the mountain and no structure is higher than the surrounding trees in this case the Palo Verde trees.

We were lucky to have a wonderfully informed tour guide to take us through the Taliesin facility.  We started with this petrograph that was found on site.

Taliesin Petrograph

It was from this petrograph that the symbol/logo for Taliesin is derived.

Taliesin Logo — Depicts Two Hands Clasping!

Since I know that Sue has some wonderful pictures of the facility, I wanted to show this one:

On the left in the picture is the Taliesin West kitchen. If you are familiar with Wright’s history, he twice lost his home to fires that started in the kitchen. Here in the desert, he built the triangular pond so that he could form a “bucket brigade” in the event of another kitchen fire!

The triangular shape of the pond and of the roof and of the windows was intended to reflect from the triangular shape of the mountains behind Taliesin.  Someone in our group asked about the orange fabric and paint that featured prominently in the furnishings of Taliesin.  We were told that it was “red” and that Wright used four colors of red:  Chinese Red (which seemed orange to us), Red, Taliesin Red (brownish), and Fire Engine Red which he used only for his many cars (and which all of his students also used for their cars).  So they made a long red caravan as they made their way from Wisconsin to Arizona and back every six months!  “There go the Wright boys!”

We also learned about a sculptor that came to Taliesin West while Wright lived here.  She did a bust of Wright and then everyone tried to persuade her that sculpture was her true calling.  She is now in her nineties and still lives at Taliesin.  Below is a sculpture tat she completed within the past six months:

“Equilibrium” by Heloise Crista

Most of her sculptures only have about ten copies made before the mold is destroyed.  The base on which this (and her other) sculptures are displayed rotates so that you can view it from all sides!

Finally — a lovely sunset from our hotel was a nice way to end our day!

Sunset at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak

Tomorrow Sue and I both begin “Jasper” with Toni Gerdes.

Cheers, Rosie

Tour day! Rosie and I went on the same tour today with the high point being the tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, an architectural school that is still operating today. He purchased the land in 1937 and began the place and program as a camp. The early buildings had canvas roofs which were rolled up every spring when the school returned to Spring Green, Wisconsin, and Taliesin East. The tour guide was excellent describing the history, the philosophy of FLW and his approach to architecture and the environment. Maybe these photos will give you an idea of the setting.

Building blocks formed from rocks, pebbles and a minimum concrete

He was very interested in Asian art. He acquired a number of Chinese friezes but they were broken into pieces. He had some of his students reassemble them. They can be found all over the property.

Chinese artwork

Shortly after his death, the third Mrs. Wright received this fountain dragon. After placing him in several locations on the property spouting water, she moved him to his current location. She decided that a dragon does not spout water, but breathes fire! Now it is hooked up to a gas line and during events the dragon breathes a flame of fire lighting up the area.

Fire Breathing Dragon

After the ninety minute tour, we returned to the gift shop which had a number of beautiful things such as these stand glass pieces.

Gift Shop Oieces

This stop was definitely the best of the day!

Sue

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My canvas is looking good! I can see myself finishing this canvas as there is no section that has me questioning whether it is something that I can accomplish. We added more sections to the scene today, including the river edge–basketweave needed for a foundation for the river, a large shrub, rocks in the river, and the river. We discussed the sky which is stitched the same way as the river but different threads obviously. Since our classroom was so dark, Lois recommended that we wait to do more than establish the stitching for the river until we get home where there will be better light. Then we will be able to see the shading done with threads better. So now I have a second canvas that I can work on if we get that blizzard that keeps me home but does not interrupt the electric power!

Cathedral Rock

Tomorrow is tour day so there will be different pictures to see.

Sue

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Today was the beginning of class number two and what a great one it is! It is another scene but the picture is handled in a different way. The scene is simpler and the shading is created by blending the threads in thread painting. Because there are fewer sections of the scene, the pace to teach all of them is much less frenetic. One concept that she taught was on straightening threads for laying threads in the thread painting. Her technique was taught to us by Sue R.! I felt so smart that I already knew it. Sue told us to take one of the hair straightening irons and run the threads through the “iron”. It works great on cotton, silk and synthetic threads. And no waiting for the threads to dry as was necessary the old fashioned way.

Sedona by Lois Kershner

You can see the lines that were drawn for us on the canvas showing the different sections of the design. Today we worked on the shrubs, rocks, tree trunks and two sections of the tree leaves. One of the things I have most appreciated is that instead of compensating for the cross stitch shrubs, she has us using the continental stitch. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Sue

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Hi, Everyone!

I know I’ve been a bit quiet for the last two days, but I was working on the NJNA October Meeting Summary.  It is an honor to get to see everything from the meeting even when I can’t attend in person!  I worked on it during commercials of the football game — sad to say that my team lost.

As you know from Sue’s posts, our first two days of classes are done here — which means that my first class, “Horus”, is over!  Horus is a pulled thread piece worked on linen.  It was taught by Gale Washington who was a joy and ever so patient as many of us were new to both linen and pulled threadwork.

“Horus” at the end of class. Horus is the Egyptian God of the king, sky, war, and hunting. A general purpose god, so to speak!

Although I know it’s hard to see “Horus” since he is stitched with white on white, I hope you can see enough to appreciate the way the pulled threads delineate the falcon.  The blue lines will disappear when water is misted onto the linen.

Yesterday, after class, I visited the hotel pool which is just outside our room.  But, I definitely missed my water aerobics companions from Chicago seminar!

The view from our room! The pool is the perfect temperature and depth for water exercise!

Tonight was the opening banquet for the EGA Seminar.  We were seated with other attendees from the Metropolitan Region of EGA.  We learned that over 650 people are in attendance for what was anticipated to be a 500 attendee event.  This means that classes are taking every available smidgeon of space and that there isn’t a reserved space for open stitching.  Looks like they will be setting up some outdoor patios for our exclusive use!

Opening Banquet!

Dessert!

By far the highlight of the banquet was Sue’s receiving one of the coveted Golden Thread awards.  Here she is accepting her award!  I clapped hard but was mad at myself for forgetting to bring my pom-pom from the Arizona football game!

Sue accepts her rose, pin, and certificate!

Maria, Sue, and Janice

Tomorrow, I will start “Navaho Blanket” with Toni Gerdes — this was my first choice among all of the potential classes.  I am the angel for this class and am pleased to show off my angel pin — a special design for this Dreams and Legends Seminar.

My beautiful dream catcher angel pin!

Stay tuned for more regular reporting — and shorter posts!

Cheers!  Rosie

We continued on our various snow banks of winter with a variety of both stitches and threads. I was anxiously awaiting the trees as that was the part that seemed to me to be the least structured. Finally after the afternoon break we started on the trees which ARE very randomly stitched in a fly stitch. The first thread we used was so thick and rough, the stitches are not smooth and cover a multitude of sins! I did not finish that tree because I did want to stitch at least one tree with the silk to see if I had major issues. So far it looks good.m the last portion of the class was going over the sections we had not yet stitched and for which the directions were really incomplete. It will be interesting to see what my finished product looks like! I am on my own for bushes, mountains, shading of the sky, etc. Much of this I should be able to figure out from the photo.

A few more snow banks

The canvas is really white, not sure why it appears to be so yellow!

I spent some time in the boutique today. Just Nan designed a Gingerbread notebook exclusively for the shop, ABC Stitch Therapy, to be sold first at the Seminar. Denise B. asked me to pick it up for her so she would be sure to get it.

Ornament stitched into the design

Another class, new techniques, more fun tomorrow!

Sue

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A beautiful day in Phoenix. I spent much of it indoors, but it was worthwhile because High Country Winter with Joan Thomasson is a great class. The congress cloth that we received already had the various areas drawn on the canvas. Joan told us that the lines were “flexible” which makes compensation much easier–or not necessary! We started with the water and then moved to the snow banks. We had begun the day painting a piece of ultra suede cloth which will be cut into rocks and appliquéd. She wanted us to begin to appliqué the rocks after the afternoon break, but I wanted to get the water stitched so that the water stitching is under the rock. Trying to make sure that all the canvas threads are covered after the rock is secured I thought would be difficult. When Joan stitched hers, the rocks came after the water. Can you see the outlines of the rocks?

River with some snow

One of the neat things about the directions is that she has a master plan for the whole piece and each section numbered for us. Then she has a page of the same outline with all the rocks colored on two sheets so that we can cut out the pattern pieces for the rocks and still have the master plan intact. There are other sheets with color which I expect we will learn about tomorrow.

I went to the boutique for a very short time this afternoon. It is a good boutique with a wide variety of things, a variety of threads, of accessories, many cross stitch charts (with samples to “sell” them), some counted needlepoint designs and some canvases. The samples make quite an impression and I am sure are selling charts with the threads to accompany them.

We are underway!

Sue

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