Dawn following Horst's directions to attach a roving skirt to a ready prepared bodice

Dawn and I had the most AMAZING time in Streetsboro, Ohio with Horst, Jess, Gina, Choxie and Panzer, Choxie and Panzer being a Pomerarian and a Corgi respectively!!!  We can’t thank them enough for their warm hospitality and Horst’s mother for all the wonderful sweet deserts she brought every day, peach cobbler, apple crisp, cheesecake with cherry topping, German chocolate cake and some tasty and seasonal pumpkin cookies, reading through this list it’s amazing that we didn’t return to Michigan 2 stones heavier than we arrived late on Monday afternoon!  I know from all the emails and Facebook comments I am recieving that you are really looking forward to seeing some of our photos from the visit so here goes with just a couple and as soon as the Kalamazoo workshops are finished (I had a marvellous time today) I promise to write a longer post and share the finished dusters (THREE!!!) with you.  I do hope to add some more pictures to my Flickr account tomorrow evening but in case I don’t have time after the complex bag workshop is over please bear with me as I still need to prepare my presentation for Monday night’s talk to the Kalamazoo Weaver’s Guild!  To give everybody some background information (for all of you who are SO envious out there in cyber space!) we started our ‘Horst Couture’  induction on Tuesday morning by learning how Horst attaches an organic style duster bottom to a partially felted bodice, watched as he wetted it out, worked with personally adapted electric sanders, rinsed to remove the soap, dyed the duster by hand (he is a master colourist!) and then fulled the dyed coat in the tumble dryer before removing it to a fanfare of trumpets just ready for Dawn to model and me to take some photos!  The second day when Horst was off teaching we prepared HUNDREDS of various attachments for the next few dusters (petal like attachments, leaflets and loops) and spent some time that evening working out exactly what we would be doing on the following day as well as watching while Horst dyed the bottom of 8 sleeveless vests in preparation for further work the next day.  It would also be fair to say that we prepared 5 large bags and 4 ‘pocklets’ but equally true to confess that not all of these worked out exactly as we planned.  We nearly died laughing when we discovered how disasterous some of these bags (purses) turned out to be but more about this and loads more photos to follow in the next post when the KIA workshops have finished!!!  I also can’t resist adding another photo to today’s duo, Dawn modelling a fun fur hat which we just happened to find in Horst’s studio and I’m sure you will agree looks absoultely stunning when modelled by her!

Dawn looking absolutely stunning!

Dawn modelling the amazing finished duster (which now sits proudly in her closet ready to be worn to the Weaver’s Guild meeting in Kalamazoo MI on Monday night!)