Road Tripping to Learn with Amy Ngyuen
A couple of weeks ago, I hit the road for a class in Florida with Amy Nguyen. Amy is an amazing teacher and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from her again at the Aya Fiber Studio in Stuart FL.
Image source: World Atlas
I am home and finally rested enough to share my wonderful experience with you. I drove taking three days to travel this time and my friend, Janice, came along for the ride. We live in Texas, so it was quite a trip. Janice was great company along the way!
Our first day was full of travel and more travel, but on our second day we stopped in Laurel, Mississippi.
Laurel is where HGTV's Home Town show starring Erin and Ben Napier is filmed. It's one of my favorite shows and I was so glad we could stop and, of course, shop! Those of you who are also Home Town enthusiasts will recognize Ben's truck above.
We started by visiting the Scent Library for candles. You'll find a video on their web site to show you the Library.
Our next stop was the Mercantile for gifts and t shirts. And, we ate lunch at Wilson's Commissary.... fried chicken, fried okra and broccoli casserole. It is definitely the South! Then we drove on to Tallahassee FL for the night.
The next day I dropped Janice off at her son's home and went on to spend the night with my friend Diane. The next day we headed toward Aya Studio for the class with Amy Nguyen. It was an amazing three days working in this wonderful workroom!
We made garment patterns that reminded us of "paper dolls" and muslins for fitting.
We also cut up fabrics we had dyed (I brought Shibori, of course) and studied some design techniques. Lindsey brought a beautiful Bojagi, a Korean wrapping cloth she had dyed to use in class. You'll see it above. I can't begin to tell you all we did! It was an incredible three days and I learned so much!
If you ever have a chance to take a class with Amy be sure you do. Her work is phenomenal! Amy will be selling her designs at the Smithsonian Art Show in May, also. If you're near Washington DC, be sure to check out the show! It will be at the National Building Museum May 2nd - 5th. You can click here for more information.
Creating is about more than just what your hands are doing, Everyday we started our class with a half hour of Qigong exercises that I really enjoyed. Qigong is a traditional Chinese practice developed thousands of years ago. It's all about creating a healthy body and enriched mind and soul. The perfect start to our fabulous class days!
On my last day in Florida, Diane and I went to Miami to Mood Fabrics. After three days studying design, it was an awesome end to our trip.
Of course we bought some fabric!!! You can see our Happy Shopper faces above. It was a long rewarding trip, I learned a lot and the time with friends and fellow creators was so amazingly worthwhile!
DEBBIE
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