CAMP Doll U 2004

Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 11:16:08 EDT From: Jeanpeeters@aol.com Subject: FOCD - Just back from Doll U.

 Hi All I just got back from Doll U and am still just as upbeat as when I left yesterday for the drive home (drive was delayed by 3 hours shopping at Pacific Fabrics - a shop that you would not believe - came away with large bags of silk, trims other goodies. There were 63 students this year. Karen and Mary did a wonderful job of planning and the teachers were great. I only took classes from Sherry Goshon and Debra Pope, but I saw the results from the other classes. With a week's rest in between, I would be ready to take those classes too. I love the location (Trinity Lutheran College in Issaquah, WA). It is in a woodsy setting about 3 or 4 miles away from town. No distractions, but shopping close if needed. We were staying in college dorm rooms and eating in the cafeteria. The rooms were small, but there was only one person per room. We had a bed to sleep on and another one to pile all our "stuff," and boy did we have stuff. The meals were good and there was plenty of food. The fact that everything was in one big building enabled us to quickly bond with one another. We found we were all leaving our room doors open and we were wandering up and down the hallways looking into other rooms to admire the dolls people had brought. We quickly became friends with our floor-mates. The price was very reasonable, particularly since it included room and board were included in the total price. The low price enabled us to have more spending money for dolls, fabric and other goodies. My club friend, Billie Moss, and I drove up on Wednesday, arriving a day early to go on the bus trip. Mary's store (The Calico Cat) is beautiful. The 17 of us on the bus trip spend about 2 hours shopping there prior to moving on the Pike's Waterfront shops. Lots and lots of shops of all kinds built into old waterfront buildings. In one building there are fish shops displaying enormous prawns and lobster along with all other types of fish, next to fruit a vegetable stalls full of beautifully displayed perfect produce; next to those are flower stalls and meat markets. On the other side of the aisle there are craft stalls of all types. The 4 levels of shops go deep down below the street level into the old warehouse. Some levels are accessed by ramps, others by stairs. The aisles between shops vary between wide and very narrow. Tiny shops are tucked into corners and under stairwells. Larger shops take up the more open areas. There are still some catwalks in some areas and a huge brewing tank in another. There was only one fabric shop in the complex, but there were lots of others to keep our interest and our money. It was well worth going early. Classes started Friday at 9 and went until 5 with only a break for lunch. We had the same schedule Saturday and Sunday. The teachers had so much knowledge to convey to us in such a short time that we were very tired at the end of each day, but happy to have learned so much. Each evening a special program was planned. Thursday night was a pin exchange and preview of the classes and teachers, Friday we had a Jumble sale and Saturday special additional 2 hour classes (beading hair on a face, making a purse from a box, hair on tiny dolls or making a fairy), Sunday was the "campfire" supper and drawing for door prizes. Billie won the head donated by Deborah Pope. Very appropriate since she had bought a one of a kind doll of Deborah's. She has become an instant collector of Deborah's work. Elinor Peace Bailey was our speaker for the evening and was great as usual. Our completed and partially completed items were on display so that we could appreciate all that had gone on in the other classes. The best part (other than the new friends we made) was the techniques we learned. The classes were the type I love, ones that do not only teach a particular doll, but ones that teach techniques can be used for many future dolls. One of the classes I took involved wet felting combined with some dry felting to produce a figure - a fish for this class. We finished the fish, the embellishment has to be done at home. My other class was Sherry's Spring Fairy. The armature procedure can be used in lots of my future dolls. Her face painting techniques were totally new to me (I have always used pen and pencil - this was all paint). I have made molds before, but there are tricks I did not know. The skinning of the mold was different from I have done and produced far better results than what I had been doing. My doll has a body and a face. The clothes are still to be made, but that will be the easy part with the "Illusion costuming" Sherry uses. You would never know that costuming could be so easy. Now is the time to unpack and rediscover all the wonderful items I have in my suitcase. Then organize stuff to somehow take it for show and tell at club meeting on Thursday. I do not want to monopolize the meeting with show and tell and raving about the conference. I am ready to sign up for next year. We all had a great time.

Jean Peeters

Marcola, Oregon