Haystack Mountain School of Crafts

This was what I worked on for two straight weeks while at Haystack in the summer of 2009. I would wake at 5:30 am shower, get dressed, head to the metal studio and work all day and into the night taking breaks for meals and occasionally a stroll to the water for some relatxation. I often worked until 11:00 and 12:00 at night and headed back to my room to write in my jounal. Some nights we had demonstrations from other artists and mediums, auctions, etc. Occasionally I would take an afternoon off to head to town and check out the gallery's and do some shopping and some afternoons I would go for a run. The best part of the trip were my instructors, Fred Fenster and Hiroko Yamada. They were fabulous and fun and very knowledgeable in Pewter. The theme for the class was "Tableware". Our instruction included, raising to make cups, score and fold, a collapsing technique and some anticlastic raising. I decided to make a teapot, it was something I had wanted to make since my start in art metals. Hiroko made sure I was challenged and had me add some design elements that really made the teapot more interesting to look at. I went with the asian inspired roller print on the four sides. I was very interested in curved lines, but had no experience in the sinking or raising at that point, so I settled on making a four sided teapot. I used the score and fold technique on the lid, which used to have a pewter ball on top (this was lost while being displayed at the Meridian Library) to help with the removal of the lid. The teapot is usable, and in fact the holes where the water drains through on the inside were drilled to spell out Hiroko and Fred in Japanese, so if someone were to take this apart one day they would find those names. I learned lot while I was at Haystack and being on an island with many artists for two full weeks was inspiring.