Really Pleased....

Layout...2 sides of last and largest piece for this installation.
close up..wool, silk
cat
one side wet out, resist in place next side ready to carefully fold open and wet out


handfelted, resist out...fulling begins (takes a couple of hours from here)

still fulling...
Ahhh, rinsed, spun to damp, ironed and hanging to complete drying

the pieces hanging together
(out of order! this is it ready to hand rub to felt)

After procrastinating and agonizing over a statement (thanks to a patient curator)...I have finished the pieces for "Vessels" for the show "I Am Water". They will be delivered and installed in a couple of weeks and I look forward to seeing them in their final space (however, I love them with the orange in my studio) I am very pleased.

they are so simple and they really speak to me in so many ways. I think this is why the statement was such a struggle. It can mean so many things, but a statement was required for a book on the show and the planned events around the cause of the Lake Ontario Waterkeepers...a wonderful cause which I am only beginning to educate myself about. Water, we take to for granted, don't we?

Sometimes with a series of pieces, I anticipate the final one, knowing I am almost done. With these, every one felt special and I enjoyed all the way to fulling the last large one. A wonderful journey for which I am grateful in an unexpected way. Perhaps because I had time to work on them and other work happened in between...or, I prefer to think, just because they are special.

With piece like these, it is unlikely they will find a home other than touring to a couple of places and ending up in storage, but I really wish they would find a permanent home. Maybe that will happen or maybe the permanent home will be with me. Time will tell. In the meantime, I look forward to the installation and I will certainly post images from the gallery and the opening. I may even be brave and make a special fascinator for the occasion.

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

Results from the last 2 days...

focused felting!
Steaming.
Laughing at how amazing this is!!

Susan with her bag with leather handle (loops added in the felting process to allow for leather strap)
Completed pod bag by Diane...so fabulous.
Gabrielle...resplendent with her felt in the sunbeam.

Other side...she began a handle, but may use some reclaimed leather :o)

The process of making the rope strap (roll, roll, roll some more...repeat)

We got a lot done yesterday, so today was a bit more leisurely and familiar as we had already spent the day together. We still consumed lots of coffee and had lots of laughs.

Web student tomorrow. A little bit of wine now as I head to the studio to hang up wet bubble wrap and sweep all the remains of the day away (except for the memories, of course)

Thanks, Women!

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

Felting adventures...

Working on side #1

After lunch Pattycake is inspecting layout. Yes, she got in trouble (see face below)

Basket shmasket

In the thick of it!

From the last few posts, this should be titled "Adventures with Pattycake". I swear, I am not cat obsessed and this cat has not taken over. She has, however, been a distraction while I teach her the household/studio rules:

1.) You may catch mice in the storage room and eat them in their entirety (good kitty)
1a.) When catching mice, please make less of a mess (not pretty)

2.) You may lay on the studio table while it is only Andrea in the studio
2a.) You may not lay on my students work on the studio table (thankfully, said student was very good natured and no harm was done!)

A door will likely soon be installed so when I do have students I can keep her out of trouble.

This past week, I had web students the first part of the week...Texas and British Columbia and then a couple of days of household catch up. You know those days when you look around and think, "Wow, what tornado struck?". A photographer came out to shoot my teapots which will head out on Monday to Pittsburgh, then setting up for this weekend bag workshop. I am glad I limited it to 3 students because we have just enough space. Now that we are all assembled and felting we have plenty of space, but we made use of every spare surface with a "prefelt station" and a "spike station". Tomorrow we will need a "rope station"!

Next week, I have a student to make a "fascinator" (so fun!) and will take a couple of days to then work on a large form for a local curated show "I Am Water". Then...you will laugh ...I am taking a beginner sewing class one evening. I am such a dummy when it comes to sewing machines. I want someone, to whom I am not related, to show me how to confidently use the darn thing. I am going to wear a rubber nose and attend under an assumed name. Yes...yes...I am a textile artist who cannot sew by machine. Shhh. I also hate to measure. This being said, I impressed myself by successfully putting a skirt on my counter table and machine table and curtains on my shelves. I love hem tape.

We are all a work in progress, aren't we?!

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

Last week and the week ahead...

Piece for "I AM WATER" in progress...

Studio Cat....
Pieces hanging to dry, ponder, decide how many more to make/size/placement
"What? You don't need me to move, do you?" These are squares made by some grade 8 students that I assembled and displayed...


I had a wonderful week last week teaching Beckie in Greece some wonderful felted jewelry (by webcam, of course) I volunteered in my son's grade 6 class doing some crazy needle felting (aliens, unicorns, lots of birds, rabbits...etc!) I had another school event the following day and 2 students from nearby in my studio to felt vessels on Friday, which was super fun. Pattycake was a happy cat with new people to pet her. she became a pest, however, and was ousted from her studio space. Saturday I had an impromptu consultation/lesson with another felt friend/student. I spent the rest of the day felting a form for an upcoming local group invitational show...Good week!! I also bought some pretty fabric to create a skirt under my counter table and machine table to hide the crap underneath. Covering in progress.

This week coming I have web students Mon-Wed and a weekend bags class here in my studio. I am hoping to find more time to make more forms for the previously mentioned show and will be able to fit them in here and there. In the meantime, I must write my statement...and don't really have one for this piece. It could be so many things, I hate to limit how it can be interpreted. I'll figure it out...I'll be very vague, perhaps.

So, right now I think I will pour myself a glass of wine and go back to the studio and see what gets done!

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

What's new...

Pattycake (the name she came with)

One side of new little teapot. A bit of white glue on little fabric "cups" will dry clear...

Fasssssscinator!
Dashing!
A beret sample in a short fibre merino "Strata Batt". Only used 2 oz. on a 15 inch round resist
The fascinator...only .5 oz per side (can you believe?)

Other side of the teapot...way too sweet and precious to be my work, no? The spikes and stripes are me though...I was just having some fun with those flowers and had to get it out of my system :o)

Time has been passing so quickly and I have had some distractions. I adopted a 6 year old tabby kitty named "Pattycake" that now keeps me company in the studio and makes me so happy to have her purring nearby in her basket. of course, I must stop to pet her, feed her and make her felted cat toys that, thus far, she has has no interest in. I am the crazy cat lady waiting to happen.

I had a web student this week (a repeat offender ;o) to make a beret and a sculpted hat. In my effort to stay ahead of my student, I made a half-sized hat, which is now an adorable fascinator that I really do plan on wearing when I am feeling particularly brave. My good-sport husband was so kind to unofficially model...I might not have mentioned it would appear on my blog, but I think he knows me by now (like when he said we did not need another cat). Poor man...the things I make him endure.

My student this week (Hi Karen!) from Argentina wanted to add a flower to her beret, so I made a quick one to show her how to attach it...well, her flower inspired the flower for the fascinator...and then the wee teapot I made for my second piece to send to the Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery in Pittsburgh. I used short fibre merino and it is a dream
I made both the hats from it also. Amazing colours, lightning fast felter and smooth finish. Of course, super fast felting is not always good depending on what you are doing. It is like anything, you need the right wool for the right job. I do love this wool (from New England Felting Supply) The beret is a strata batt with silk fibres for detail.

With the weekend ahead, I must assemble and felt together 46 squares, of varied feltedness, made by grade 8 students together to display next week. I have a student the beginning of the week, felting with a grade 6 class and a vessels workshop...so, getting these all together must be done in the next 2 days. I was going to make a large piece of prefelt and attach them, but they have all already told me that they want their pieces back, which means cutting it again (which I have no problem with). So, some problem solving, and felting ahead.

I then have a few more pods to make for the Canadian Guild of Craft so I can get them all sent off. They look so cute in my studio, I know they will look amazing in their unbelievable gallery.
Well...isn't this a long post!! More to come....there always is. Thanks for checking in.


Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

Student blog post...

(pods by Andrea)

My lovely student, Shana, has posted on her blog a little blurb about her experience with the web cam class. I hope you will read it and have a look at her wonderful art...

Shana's Blog



Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

Wow...what's up??

I have been busier than a one armed paper hanger, as they say. All really fabulous stuff though. I am loving my web students. I had a great 2 days of PODS with the lovely Shana in Tennessee, a talented painter and now, a professional feltmaker. So exciting. I am booked for weeks in advance, but I can fit people in or book in advance for those who do not mind, so hope you consider it!

I have made a teapot for the fabulous Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery in Pittsburgh. It is an invitational show that I was in last year...this year I invited myself after some prodding from a fellow artist (Pam MacGregor- also in the show) and they said "absolutely!" (thankfully ;o)

I adopted a new feline named "Pattycake" who has become my studio cat. I made her a bed (an old sheepskin) under a table with some food and water and will be making her a little curtain. She can be such a distraction looking so cute in her basket sleeping all day.

Family/Boy stuff/end of term exams/etc. and a lovely visitor that is considering a purchase at some point this week. All wonderful stuff. I have just photographed my teapot and have more Pods to make for The Canadian Guild of Craft. I hope to send them next week.

Sunday (duh, Super Bowl Sunday) I scheduled a small vessels workshop here, so it will be nice to have some human to human teaching (I cannot feel fulfilled on web teaching alone!) I will keep you all posted!!


Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com