We are here in Bisbee, Arizona, for Caroline, who is attending a two-and-a-half-day workshop on cotton dyeing. The class is led by Joan Ruane and is being held at the Bisbee Fiber Guild. Joan is a renowned expert in this field, and it shows by how far some of the students traveled to be here. Today, they spent time dyeing the fiber and learning how to card the cotton to make punis. Tomorrow, they will begin spinning the cotton to make yarn.

As for me, I spent the first half of the day walking the steep streets of this historic old mining town. Between the houses are these often uneven stairways. It doesn’t take long to walk the better part of the entire main area around downtown; what takes time is stopping to appreciate the nooks and crannies, the decay and beauty, and the view from the hillsides to imagine what this place looked like in its heyday.

A walk around town offers visitors plenty of opportunities to stumble upon art; just don’t stumble so much that you fall on the rusty hand of Barbie.