Arts

There are so many amazing arts and crafts camp activities at Rockbrook. Girls are creative in ceramics, fiber arts, painting, drawing, leatherwork, needle point, beadwork, jewelry making, and paper crafts. There is art and craftiness everywhere!

Arts and Crafts Activities at Camp
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Fun Arts and Crafts

Arts and Crafts Activities

Here is one of the arts and crafts activities the girls enjoyed this summer at camp.

Can you tell what it is?  Pine cones tied to a branch with string— it’s a mobile.  What’s fun is using different sized pine cones and then arranging them with different lengths of string.  When the stick has more than one branching part, even better!  This kind of craft activities is really like making a sculpture.  It’s putting three-dimensional objects together to end up with some cool art. One girl turned her mobile into a bird feeder by adding some peanut butter and birdseed to the pine cones. Functional art too!  Arts and crafts are always fun at camp.

Take a look!

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https://www.rockbrookcamp.com/crafts/
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Tie Dyes are Always in Fashion!

Camps Craft Tie Dye

One craft at summer camps like Rockbrook that’s always popular is making a tie dye t-shirt. It’s certainly a classic thing to do, and while you might think of swirls and colors on shirts from the 1970s, tying and dyeing cloth is common all over the world. For example, there is adire tie dyeing in Nigeria (Africa), shibori dyeing in Japan, and mudmee dyeing in Thailand, just to name a few.

In the Rockbrook craft activity called “Hodge Podge,” the girls use rubber bands to tie up the cloth. Folding, twisting, bunching, pinching, and wrinkling the material you make all sorts of different patterns. Then with the rubber bands, you keep everything tight. The tighter the fold, the more resistant to the dye that part will be. That’s part of the creativity involved— deciding what to make tight (resisting the dye) and what to leave loose (taking on the color of the dye). Plus, there’s the fun of picking what colors to use, and in what areas. With so much variation, it’s neat to see how each shirt turns out different.

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sweet camp girls
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Knitting Camp Girls

knitting camp girl wearing a hat she made

“Like your hat Maddie.”

Knitting! It’s just one of the fiber arts needlecraft activities available at Rockbrook each and every camp session.

With so many arts and crafts opportunities, you get to make some pretty cool stuff when you come to camp… like this hat for instance. Maddie knitted it when she first got to camp last summer, and from then on was rarely seen without it. A camp arts project that she used every single day!

It’s true; knitting has become an increasingly popular activity at camp. The Rockbrook girls are learning that it isn’t all that difficult (once you master the basic stitches!) to knit, is really a lot of fun, and is so satisfying when you see what you’ve made. Some girls describe the feeling of it, the process of twisting, looping and tying yarn in patterns of knots, to be relaxing, even meditative.

It’s the kind of thing that can become addicting.  As soon as you finish one project, it’s easy and exciting to imagine and start another.  In the long run knitting can then continue after camp at Home. It can become a life-long hobby!

P.S. That’s Looking Glass Falls in the background.

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Girls Crafts and Ceramics Camp
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Pottery — A craft tradition for girls at Rockbrook

Girls Crafts and Ceramics Camp

One of the many folk crafts of the Appalachian region, including the area around Rockbrook Camp, is pottery. Following a long tradition of people making household pots from clay, there are now, according to the Southern Highland Craft Guild, more than 125 ceramic artists and potters working in western North Carolina. Using traditional and modern techniques, the most amazing sculpture, tiles, pots and other vessels still spring from these hills.

At Rockbrook, girls and crafts definitely go together, and making pottery is something just about everyone does. It’s probably one of the most popular activities, in fact (not counting horseback riding 🙂 ). Working with clay, pinching, rolling, flattening, shaping, texturizing, and spinning on the wheel, the girls make some amazing things. It’s particularly exciting to see how the glazes come out after firing their work. Who would think continuing an Appalachian crafts tradition would be so fun!

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camp needlecrafts summer porch
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Childrens Summer Camp Needlecraft

Children Needlecraft at Summer Camp

Another super popular summer camp activity for children at Rockbrook is something we call “Needlecraft.” It’s a craft activity where we make all kinds of things out of yarn, string, and thread, and as you might expect, use “needles” to weave, tie, twist and knit the strands into interesting patterns and shapes. Sometimes we do cross stitch (like in this photo), sometimes knitting, sometimes crocheting, or needlepoint, or other kinds of embroidery. It’s fun to learn these “old timey” crafts, and you can make some amazing things… hats, scarves, bookmarks, monograms, blankets, even socks! Plus, it’s the kind of thing that you can keep doing when you get home if you like.

Sitting on the back porch of Curosty, under the trees, listening to the creek and the birds, with lots of friends… it’s the perfect summer place to enjoy needlecraft.

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summer camp pottery face
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Pottery Camp for Girls

Pottery Camp at Rockbrook

What’s the pottery program like at Rockbrook Camp?

It’s fantastic! There are two different pottery studios at camp, each with work tables for hand building (using coils, slabs, and pinch techniques) and potter’s wheels for learning how to make wheel-thrown pots. No matter what their level of experience, campers can make all sorts of bowls, plates, cups, and sculptures. One popular thing to make is a whistle that you shape into some kind of animal, like a turtle for example. It’s neat to actually make your own pottery at camp instead of just glazing pre-made pots. After your creations are “bisque fired” (the first kiln firing that completely dries and stabilizes the pottery), you then paint on different color glazes, and after the final firing, you’ve got the coolest, shiny colored ceramics. Of course, in addition to learning all about this, it’s great to bring home all the pottery you’ve made.

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Craft Weaving Summer Camp
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Loom Weaving at Summer Camp

Craft Weaving Summer Camp

One of the most traditional arts and crafts activities at Rockbrook is weaving. It’s been something girls have done at camp since the very beginning back in 1921. In the craft cabin we call Curosty (which even pre-dates camp!), there are several table-top and floor looms we use to teach basic weaving techniques. It takes some time to set things up and to learn how to operate the looms, but you can make really cool designs. Bits of yarn and string, even natural fibers you gather around camp, all come together to create fabrics, place mats, belts, and other straps. Weaving is a lot of fun, and if you really enjoy it, it’s something you can do at home too.

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Kids Craft Camp Activities
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Kids Craft Camp

Kids Craft Camp Activities

We found this great photo from last summer and it reminded us of how much fun it is to tie-dye t-shirts at camp. It’s always exciting to see what your shirt looks like when it’s done, and so difficult to wait overnight while the dye sets! And like all the craft activities at camp, getting to bring home all of your creations makes it even better.

How many tie-dye shirts do you have? Let’s see…. one every summer at camp, at least!

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