I taught a boat making  class at The Squam Art Retreat in the beginning of June.  It was my first time at  Squam  and my first time teaching anything ever.  Teaching was a leap of faith sort of thing and I think it went well – I didn’t spontaneously combust or anything and everybody made truly great boats. I liked teaching more than I expected to, so much so I hope to do it again soon – maybe here in NYC .  The class was held in the nature center – Sugar House – it’s a  camp so all the buildings have names.

I had wonderful students – skilled, generous and lots of fun.

I have written a few tutorials but participating in other people’s very individual processes, feeling their enthusiasm and having a peek into their imaginations was an interesting shift in perspective. I left with some new energy for my own work and pretty fired up about teaching again .

And  I made new friends  including some from right here in Brooklyn :  lovely and talented Jessica  Marquez – she has a book coming out in October ( congratulations!)  and   Rebecca Ringquist ,   I have  been a fan of her work for a very  long time  – she gave me two of her beautiful  hand screened embroidery samplers.

I wish I had taken more pictures. I saw the biggest weirdest bug I’ve ever seen in my life marching up a dock and did not take a photo.  The lake and the forest and the turn of the century cabins  are astoundingly beautiful and so up my alley – not one picture.  I was too busy having a fabulous time.  Other people took lots of great photos though-  there is a flickr group here.

(photo by Christine Chitnis)