All Fantastic

Saturday is a day when we sometimes arrange a special workshop offered by a guest artist or performer, making it an optional activity the girls can select to mix up their schedules. Today we had the treat of George Peterson and his wife Margaret (who is an Alumna of Rockbrook) presenting a wood turning class. George is an artist who lives here in Brevard, and is well known for his work using wood. He makes both functional and sculptural pieces by carving, etching, sawing and marking the wood using different tools and methods (e.g., burning or branding). He has sculptures displayed in galleries all over the United States and abroad. Later this month, for example, he is traveling to Japan to present two shows of his work. Check out his studio or some of his exhibited pieces, and you’ll be very impressed.

George began his session with a demonstration of a wood lathe, taking an eight-inch cube of wood, turning and carving it into a shallow bowl. The 12 campers watching were wide-eyed as the twisty chips of wood flew out from the chisel he used to shape the bowl. After the lathe, he showed the girls how to form the outside and bottom of the bowl using an electric carving tool. The girls then took turns carving their own bowls with the tool (George had cut the interior of these pieces in advance), and using sandpaper to make a smooth finish. George also has a cool metal brand of the letters “RBC” that he heated and burned the letters into each piece. The final step involved painting their bowl with mineral oil, which, as you can see, really warmed up the grain of the wood. The finished bowls all look fantastic.

There are 3 different creeks that run through Rockbrook, each providing easy access for the girls to explore the insects and other creatures that live among the rocks, mosses, and cool waters flowing down the hill. Armed with nets and loaded with curiosity, the campers who select the activity we simply call “Nature” are sure to spend an hour getting their feet wet in one of these Rockbrook creeks. There are worms to find, but also tadpoles, salamanders and crawdads (aka, crayfish or mudbugs). The nets you see in this photo make it much easier to catch these larger critters, and putting them temporarily in cups is a nice way to get a good, up-close look at what they catch. With this kind of outdoor exploration going on at camp, there’s certainly no deficit of nature around here!

During lunch rumors began to spread that we would be having a dance with the boys of Camp Carolina tonight, so as you can imagine, our never-ending-hot-water heaters began to get a workout long before dinner. Fortunately, the rumors were true, and all that cleaning up and hair brushing paid off because around 6:30, we loaded up all our buses and vans to transport our Seniors over to CCB for their dance. At the same time, the younger Camp Carolina boys came over to Rockbrook so we could make each group a more reasonable size and tailor the mood of the dance appropriately at two dances simultaneously. Some girls felt more comfortable to attend our “Dance Alternative” friendship bracelet party instead of the dances. These dances can get a little hot and sweaty as the crowd jumps around, sings and laughs to each familiar pop song. The group dances like “Cotton-eyed Joe” kept a lot of people moving, but all the Taylor Swift songs clearly had the most pull. Everyone was enjoying the silliness of the event, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. Thanks for a fun evening CCB!