WE MOVE IN NEW DIRECTIONS

Some years ago, probably at least 20,I met a mini friend on the computer. In those days we were on Prodigy....does anyone remember that? I discovered that Debbe was very much into miniatures and we became very good friends on the computer. Later we actually met and that became almost a yearly ritual. We managed two delightful trips to Maine when Debbe moved there and she was always anxious to get out of the snow in winter so Florida was her retreat in the bad weather. Debbe was very much into the Guild (IGMA) and she told us about the Guild Study Programs, especially those in Colonial Williamsburg. Tom and I decided to try a Study Program and the first class we took was in Williamsburg. The winter programs are held over theML King holiday in January so it makes a nice break for us as we might even see a bit of snow while away from Miami. The programs run over a weekend and there is plenty to do when one is not in class. Usually, a student will not finish the project, but one will have all that is required to finish the project at home. The first year I took a class from Therese Bahl, a remarkable artist whose work I much admire. My project that first time was to reproduce a picture of George and Martha Washington. All projects are copies of a piece or work which exists in the Williamsburg collection. The picture of George and Martha was actually finished in class so in the extra time, Therese had frames for us to paint and she showed us various techniques for antiquing and distressing the frames.

Tom's class that year was with George and Sally Hoffman and he constructed a small table. The Guild programs were great at encouraging Tom's love of furniture building as that was what he took in all of the programs that we attended. Tom learned that first year that he was not as adept at staining/finishing furniture so he concetrated on that when he returned home from class. We found that taking classes was a marvellous way to enhance our knowledge in our hobby and wondered why we had not pursued classes earlier.