Candlemaking and Community Singing

Wet Felting & Other Traditional Seasonal Skills Class Series with Laura Blankenship People have been creating shelter, clothing, and beauty, and singing together while we do it before time began. Come remember some of these traditional ways by dipping your toes into wet felting, singing, and candlemaking. Teen and Adult. Class Title: *Tapered Beeswax Candle Making & Community Singing Cost: $35 Time and date(s): Saturday 12/12, from 3:00PM-5:00PM Location: Art Lab Skill level: Beginner Description: Learn the traditional art of hand-dipped taper candles. While you wait between dips, be guided in the traditional art of song. Did you know that communities who sing together are more likely to stay together? Bring a friend and sing along as you make as many candles as you like to light your way through the darkest night, and be woven in a beautiful tapestry of song. [Children who can focus for 30 minutes+ or take quiet, self-directed breaks to the side who are as young as 10 may seek exemption from the age limit for this class. Younger than 10 generally doesn’t work well; feel free to email with questions. Babes in arms welcome; if your baby is crying loudly or child is making distracting noises, please take a break outside.] Other classes in this series: Wet Felted Witchy Hats (Requires Previous Wet Felting Experience) Saturday and Sunday October 24 and 25, from 12:00PM-3:30PM Easy Expressive Nuno Felted Cloths & Patches (Prereq for Wet Felted Hats) Saturday, November 14, from 1:00PM-4:00PM Wet Felted Handwarmers (Prereq for Wet Felted Hats) Saturday and Sunday, November 21 and 22, from 12:00PM-3:30PM Wacky Elf Hats (Requires Previous Wet Felting Experience) Saturday and Sunday, December 5 and 6, from 1:00PM-4:30PM Tapered Beeswax Candle Making & Community Singing Saturday, December 12, from 3:00PM-5:00PM About the Instructor: Laura Marie Blankenship’s wild, wooly work bridges the gap between the tactile craft of felting and the embodied art of abstract expressionism. Her art is deeply informed by her 8 years as a live music painter, teaching yoga and meditation, and time spent as a wilderness therapy field guide, and answering crisis/suicide hotline calls, with her formal background in Psychology from The College of William and Mary. She was awarded a scholarship and studio assistantship at the Penland School of Craft in 2015, is a frequent instructor of wet felting and needle felting at Earthskills Gatherings throughout the Southeast, and from 2022 to 2025, she served as a full-time public school art teacher. With painting names like “there is nothing that cannot be transformed into joy,” her current studio practice centers create action-painted abstracts that serve as victory cries (and sometimes desperate pleas) for emotional integration and personal transformation. Laura Marie Blankenship lives and works in Damascus, Virginia, where she continues to paint, teach, hike, bike, kayak, share beauty, create connection, and ask for guidance from the trees, trails, and beings in and around the South Holston River.