Jewelry Artists Retreat 2009 (JAR 2009)

Jewelry Artists Retreat 2009 (JAR 2009)

2009 JAR is scheduled for the week of October 11-18, 2009.

The house is located on Lake Gaston in Littleton North Carolina, just over the VA line.

This is from the back balcony of the house - looking down to the boathouse/dock and the lake.

Some information to help you begin to plan.

Of note:

The house is a shared living space and while the house is large, the sleeping quarters themselves are tight. There are TEN beds between 2 rooms in the downstairs, 5 in each room that range from doubles to singles some of which are bunks (full on bottom, single on top) and trundles (pull out singles that come out from under the bunks). Everyone gets their own bed but its a tight arrangement!

Registration
Will begin in January 19, 2009 for alumni of the 2008 retreat.
Will begin February 19, 2009 for all others.

The number of participants is limited to 13

Fees:

Rate - 2009 remains the same as last year - no increase!

$250.00 - with $50.00 of that as NON-REFUNDABLE deposit required due at time of sign up to reserve your space.

Meals:

Meals may be eaten collectively or on your own, however all attendees will be required to pitch in $20.00 for a grocery run the first day which will include things like toilet paper and paper towels. This may be paid in advance or upon arrival. Breakfasts and lunches tend to happen in small groups as people got hungry and wander into the kitchen, however dinner was usually all together which was GREAT fun!

What to bring:

This is not a hotel, you will need to bring toiletries (shampoo, toothpaste, toothpaste, etc). Bed linens are provided, as are bath towels, however we are (collectively) responsible for washing any linens/towels we use and returning them to their place. There is a fee applied to uncleaned linens which will be passed on to the guest responsible (i.e, I will not incur the fee for your dirty linens). There should be enough pillows for everyone to have one. If you require additional pillows, please bring them.

There is a grocery store very close though as well as a new hardware store! (yay!) So if you forget something, you can easily go buy a replacement.

Planning:
We will begin getting together a list of jewelry related supplies in the Spring after we coordinate a bit and get a feel for who has signed up and what each person can bring. This past year (again) we had duplicate items that we didn't necessarily need and not enough of some other things (like tables) - we keep learning and will do our best to think it all through before hand. However, you can definitely plan on bringing your own handtools such as pliers, saw, files, etc.

Pictures

Here Saree is working on the back downstairs porch - from here she can see the lake and hear the waves gently slapping at the shore. Of course, she probably also hears lots of laughter and chatter and hammers striking metal!

Some gals selling/trading bead stashes. This was a LOT of fun this past year - sharing our bead stashes, unloading things we just don't think we'll ever use, gaining pretty shiny things and beady things from our friends. I think this year we will dedicate one night to setting up a big open trade/sales room. Come prepared!

And a pic of the garage with tables and tools, and just lots of 'stuff'!

You can see pictures of the house here (you do not need a google account to view, if it doesn't open right up, look down near the bottom of the page and see if there is a link that says open in new window or something similar)

More to come, so stay tuned!

If you'd like, you can begin to ask questions or chat with others in this thread at the Jewelry Artists Network Forum. (you will need to register for a free account. Its worth it - there are tons of great people there and lots of fabulous information!)

~Janice