Another La Cascade Workshop is in the books and we certainly had a great time! Here is our annual report now that the studio has been tidied up and the materials have been organized and put away for future workshops. Rae’s studio in her French house by the river is bursting at the seams with ideas for future events, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
This year was a bit different from previous workshops since the shutdown: we added some fun bookmaking techniques and we welcomed Anna, Rae’s daughter, back to assist with transportation and organization since Carrie was otherwise occupied at home in the states.
On Thursday August 20, we welcomed 6 travelers to La Cascade to begin our week. Blessedly the weather, which has been relentlessly hot, had turned in the night. We had a bit of rain and wind over the week but mostly our days were in the 80’s and nights in the low 70’s, some even in the 60’s. Just perfect!
We began as always on with an afternoon tour of our small Durfort village ( three streets each barely 2 blocks long). Dayle Doroshaw, longtime teacher at La Cascade and a guest teacher during Fit for Art’s 2026 week, gave the tour. She has been teaching at La Cascade in the summers since 2004 and lived in residence down the lane for over 15 years.
After our welcome dinner, we visited the studio to review the week’s schedule and consider our opening project. Diving right into some paper and bookmaking crafts, each person chose a silhouette to decorate with paper and fabric to represent ourselves and/or our intentions for the week. There were plenty of magazines to cut and paste, even if jet lag was keeping one awake at odd hours. We shared our creations a couple days later and enjoyed the insider insights into each of our participants.
It was wonderful to have Daisy, an American ex-pat living in France, as an extra driver and translator. She came with Diana, a new friend from the Baltimore area. They have enjoyed over 40 years of friendship after meeting at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and were so fun to explore and craft with.
Friday morning we gathered in the studio to work on our welcome project and begin our first book project, a pamphlet book. We used a mix of cut, paste and sewing to decorate pages, covers and add pockets in the books.
Mid afternoon, we visited Aline (@antiquetextileshop) a local purveyor of antique fabrics and papers. She opened up her archive and showed us how fabrics, wallpaper, rugs and other textiles are conceived, mocked up and then created. We left with some real appreciation of the long process fabric and decorative papers have required from conception to completion. Each participant also left with a gift bag of wallpaper scraps for projects during the coming week. Later in the week we would visit Aline for a real shopping trip to find both fabric and paper treasures.
Saturday is, as always, a highlight with a visit to the beautiful 14th century Covered Market in Revel. This year, everyone was charged with choosing and purchasing some lovely food to share around the lunch table at Rae and Jim’s river house. It was the perfect exercise after Jim had given a little talk about food culture of the southwestern area of France where Durfort is located.
Saturday also included a demonstration of scrap lace making, perfect for making decorative elements for books, garments, or quilts.
Sunday morning we were up bright and early to visit Denise of Atelier de Pastel for a morning history lesson and practice dying with the French pastel dye (sometimes called Woad). The two different vats were a bit different in color so we had a variety of beautiful blues when we were finished.
Sunday afternoon was the village Festival de L’eau. A wonderful family event with food trucks and drinks in the large village square and family friendly events like bamboo boat making, Lego bridge building and a musical performance in the church featuring our own Dayle on cowbell and vocals. It was breezy but lovely day and everyone ventured out to get a taste of village life.
Monday, a stormy day, we were safely ensconced in the studio for Dayle to teach us how to make an Idea Keeper Book. Rae’s daughter Anna joined in the fun and we had lots of fun books to show for our work.
By Tuesday, each person had unfinished projects to work on in the studio between a few field trips. In the morning we went to the lovely Tissues Andre Calvet in the neighboring town of Castre. It is a very large store with lots of treasures and everyone came home with at least one special piece of fabric. We were so busy shopping we forgot to take photos but I have posted a photo of my successful pile of fabrics, including something to use in next year’s workshop.
Back by lunch, then later in the afternoon we shopped with Aline. Our final trip on Tuesday was up to the Bassin St Ferriol, for dinner out, practicing our French menu skills and enjoying a lovely evening of outdoor dining near the lake.
Wednesday, we gathered on our last morning to see some of Rae’s collage and memory keeping projects made with fabric and stitch. We also each made a page for a pamphlet book to give Nese, our host and chef for the week.
During our Wednesday afternoon show and tell we presented Nese with her little book after oohing and aahing at everyone’s fun creations. During clean up folks stocked up on some materials so they could continue their creative bookmaking and memory keeper projects once they return home.
Several of our gals went with Rae to the Dom Robert Museum in Sorez for a quick visit that afternoon. Nese made her fabulous Lamb Tagine for our farewell dinner, then off to bed before the next morning’s departure.
Be sure to keep an eye out for more information about next year’s week at La Cascade, July 22-29, 2027. The week will feature guest teacher Barbie McCormick, Couture instructor extraordinaire, who will be leading us in some Channel style stitching during Chasing Coco in Enchanting France.
