Nancy Crow workshop: Lines, Curves, Shapes; day 1

Monday morning started a little “late.” Technically, class starts at 9 AM, but during the week the classroom opens at 7 AM for people to work on their own before class starts. On Monday, the first day of class, everyone was there by 8:30, eager and ready to start. So, Nancy gave us our assignment: in one day, we needed to make three interpretations of a single design, with several specific criteria. Each one needed to be 2 ft by 3 ft, and she wanted them finished by the end of the day. (Although she did end up giving us the next morning, too.) With a big gulp, I jumped in.

We had to start by “sketching” out our design with black fabric directly on our design walls. This is a weird way for my brain to process, so I always struggle with this part. I am determined to learn this technique, though, so I’m okay with the struggle. I think that if there is no challenge then I’m not really learning much.

Once we had our sketch done, we re-created it in a sewn black and white piece. That is done just by looking and freehand cutting, not by creating templates or measuring things. Again, not my usual way of working so it is rather intimidating. I resorted to “measuring” some things with my hand.

When the black and white piece was finished, we reinterpreted the design again and added a light color and a dark color. For the third version, we added two more values. In the last piece, I tried using some colors that are less appealing to me. I wasn’t thrilled with the end result, but I want to keep trying to expand the colors I am comfortable using.

My brain wasn’t working very clearly this workshop, so I didn’t really end up squeezing in everything she asked for, but I did finish the three pieces so I guess that’s something!

For future reference, I highly recommend coming to these things very well rested! I didn’t do that. Remember I was working hard to try to finish the GFG quilt last week? And I couldn’t, so, quite honestly, I was rather depressed about that. As a result, I was not refreshed coming into this workshop. I’ve mentioned it before, but a Nancy Crow workshop is not a week-long vacation, which is probably what I was ready for! Nevertheless, I still learned a lot, so that made everything well worth it. More on this tomorrow.