Split Rock has turned 25! And, registration opens today.

It used to be at the University of Minnesota – Duluth, which is where I attended two different workshops, the first led by Joyce Scott, and the second by David Chatt. They were hugely rewarding, invigorating, and challenging. You check in Sunday night, work/create all day Monday through Friday, and go home after breakfast on Saturday. There’s a meet-the-teacher event (Tuesday?), an open studio night (Thursday?), and a great (hilly!) campus and city to explore. I keep looking to see if there’s another that I could take.

Split Rock moved to the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. This is my metro area, so both more convenient — and less of a retreat. There are 3 workshops this summer that caught my eye.

Karen Searle is teaching a “short” (not the full week) in June, Creative Adornments in Knit and Crochet. From her website:

She judged something I entered once, and I met her in passing. She has a fabulous reputation as a teacher.

Another that looks interesting is Making the Ordinary, Extraordinary: Hand Felted Scarves by Chad Alice Hagen. I kind of like taking the idea of something that appears narrow in focus, and spending a week exploring it. Here’s an example from his website:

The other one that caught my eye was Digital Nature Photography: A Retreat. This one is taught by Craig Blacklock at the Cloquet Forestry Center, a campus for the University of Minnesota a bit southwest of Duluth. This is a beautiful area, and Blacklock is a well-known outdoor photographer specializing in the North Shore (the Minnesota shore of Lake Superior). Here’s his website, and here’s the cover of his book:

I’m not going this year, but I’ll keep watching for another class. It is well worth it!