Although Gourd Camp was a glorious triumph last year, we learned a lot from the experience and can make it even better next time. The under-enrolled gourd program was embedded in Club Lair, and adults-only session in its 26th year. This worked out well. It provided the regular campers with an unanticipated, superior art experience, and gave gourd aficionados the opportunity to sample the camp and region’s other offerings. It also confirmed our expectation that the gourd program itself would be enhanced if we stepped back from the studio from time to time for trail rides, soapstone prospecting, cool swims through a cavern, tie dye, yoga, tennis, yoga, a hike or nap.
A week-long session enables us to forego rigid schedules and formal group instruction. Our drop-in, open-studio format encourages campers to explore, experiment and discover, and tempted a couple dozen non-gourd campers to join in, produce and get hooked. Help was always available from Betty Finch, Peggy Blessing and Kemper Stone, but we consistently found that if we got out of the way, the magic of gourds was enough to make the right things happen. The extent to which even first-timers were able to assist each other and did so instinctively recommends casual play days with participants of all skill levels (or even a full house of total novices) as a valuable alternative (but ideally a warm-up or compliment) to formal instruction from a celebrity gourd guru.
I’d almost forgotten how different entry-level gourd craft is from learning MS-Dos or how to throw pots on the wheel. First-timers need only engage to enable gourd magic to occur. They can’t figure out everything in early sessions, but they know, can deduce, or will blindly stumble into enough of what it takes to keep ‘em busy and inspired, and to produce remarkable results. The uninitiated are all the more inventive specifically because they are unschooled, and commit inadvertent gourd craft heresies in which techniques or material combinations that would be unthinkable to journeymen may yield the best finished project or innovation of the session.
Lair management still can’t quite comprehend the gourd phenomenon, but has committed to sponsoring at least three sessions. Unfortunately, the prime mid-summer weeks have been solidly booked for years, and he only open sessions are early or late.
No previous gourd experience is necessary! Gourds, materials, tools, etc. are part of the package. If you have special gourds, tools, beads, fur, feathers or materials, please bring them along, but don’t hesitate to attend due to lack of experience, skill, tools or materials.
The first session runs Friday through Sunday, June 8-10, but gourd campers will unofficially be allowed to arrive late Thursday and stay over Sunday night* to avoid traffic and maximize the value of a relatively short session. Adults or families are welcome; Well be sharing the facility with other family campers. $190 for adults, $120 (5-13), $70 (2-4).
The second session is concurrent with a “mini-week” session for family campers. Again, we’ll have a separate area exclusively for gourd campers, but will set up a public gourd craft area so others can discover what gourds are all about, and perhaps become indoctrinated, hooked and enrolled in CGS before the realize it. The session officially runs from Tuesday afternoon through breakfast on Saturday, June 12-16. Campers willing to help set up the gourd craft area are welcome to arrive a day early, or sign up for both of these sessions and spend the two intervening days in and around camp at no charge.* The price of this session is $420 for adults, $360 (13-17, $265 (5-12), $180 (2-4)
Gourd Camp at Club Lair runs from Sunday afternoon to Sunday morning, August 26th through September 2nd. To accommodate campers who’ll arrive exhausted from afar, we’ll discreetly violate official protocol by allowing gourd folk to arrive on Saturday afternoon*, to settle in and help gourd staff set things up and refine our plans. This is an adult session with a population of about 100 other campers and an upgraded menu and selection of programs. Generic campers will be encouraged to participate in gourd craft and our mystical gourd campfires, excursions and drum circles, and gourd campers will be welcome to take tennis lessons, play golf, hike and kayak, taste wine, star-gaze or lounge ‘round the sparkling pool. This is not gourd boot-camp, a crash course in new materials and techniques, nor a post- doctoral program; Campers are welcome to immerse themselves in gourds around the clock, but our experience makes it apparent that the best Gourd Camp experience is one with a nice balance of other camp activities.
