It's that time again...

My lists are growing, rather than shrinking. My stack of "things to pack" growing taller and taller. Warm weather? Cold weather? Rain? One thing I am packing little of is wool as I will be stopping at New England Felting Supply first to stock up on some goodies and have a wee visit. I am very fortunate to have received a generous grant from the Ontario Arts Council to attend a conference for 9 days. What a treat...I get to hang out with some new friends and former students, as well as many talented feltmakers from around the world who I am so lucky to have as friends. Whoopee! I will take all my electronic devices, camera and the sort, so hope to update you during my travels.

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

I need al list for my lists...

Yes, I am a list maker. I always have a grocery list on the go, but this week the list making is completely outta hand. Packing list (Felters Fling countdown!), studio to-do list, drugstore list, school supply list, school clothes list. I need everything from hair colour to boys underwear and just don't know where to begin. My instinct tells me to make a list of my lists, which is ludicrous, but just might be the best plan of attack.

I managed to pack some things in the studio yesterday and felt a small piece to send to a show in B.C. for a group show with my fibre group "Connections". It is really a departure from my work as it has stitching on it for surface design. The theme of the show is "Pentimento", so I needed to add more depth and visual "layers". I now have to task of mounting it, the case for my completed pods also. Crap...I need to start another list. I'll keep you posted!

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

Roller Coaster

Ahhh, yes. The ups and downs. Anticipation followed by fear and, in the end, exhilaration. The perfect metaphor, no?

In fact, I am not talking metaphors, but reality. I spent the day with the family in Toronto at Canada's Wonderland. Lots of coasters and spinning/tilting/high flying rides that made me question why I drank 32 ounces of $8 cherry slushie. We stayed at a real hotel with a heavily chlorinated pool and minibar. We ate good food with napkins in our laps and junk food too. We braved Toronto traffic and played silly on-the-road games while I endured lots of boy behavior that, at this stage in my parenting, makes me smile more than it makes me scowl (mostly). What a sweet 2 days.

Okay...so the metaphor applies.

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

What's Up

"Svetlana"...still needs some accessories (by me)

I had a lovely small group of women here for 2 days making needle felted figures. As the studio tables are high and we wanted to be comfy, we all fit nicely around my dining room table. It was so nice to just feel like a group of friends gathering to sip coffee and have some fun. One of the advantages to having a small group was I dis not have to run around and actually got my demo sample ("Svetlana") mostly done, which does not usually happen. All the women have taken workshops with me in the past and we have crossed paths over the last few years, so it was really a joy.

yesterday we did some family make up time and zipped around on some go-carts and drank slushies that dyed our tongues blue...ya' know, the things we just need to do in the summer. Today will be a bit of work, of the paper variety (argh), a bit of play and then, who knows.

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

New Pods

These are almost ready to send off to New Mexico for a show in October. Still need to figure out how they will hang and attach appropriate things to do so.

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

Love this picture

My lovely student, Carmella, sent this to me. Thanks! This is Eva and I working on one of her pods. Nice to look back and recall our time together. I really do enjoy having students here and and fortunate to be able to do so. In fact, I will have 4 students here next week. I thought that the summer would be long, lazy days, but not so much with my busy family added in.

Things on the go:
-3 pods for New Mexico
-agenda to do for Ontario Crafts Council meeting (tomorrow!)
-short article to write (for tomorrow or before)
-create a couple of pieces for a show in B.C.
-tax forms (argh)

You gotta take the good with the "bad"...and even that is not so bad at all.

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com

What's Gnu...

A Gnu.
No connection to felting whatsoever, just a lame pun. Although, now that I consider it, that chin fibre has me intrigued.

Pod sketches for piece in the works...although, they have evolved somewhat in translation


A (sideways, if you had not noticed) image of the feature article on "Moi", In "A Needle Pulling Thread" mag. The article is attributed to someone who mostly took things off my website...Oh, well. 10 more images to contribute to my share of the copyright collective, at least.

The last 2 days I have had a lovely woman, Barb, visit from Sioux Lookout, Ontario. She made 2 vessels and they turned out great. She is a natural, for sure. I did have an image here, but the click of the wrong button and it has disappeared. The first was the learning curve piece (albeit, very nice) and the second a shapely, green vessel with a 3d leaf.

The studio sits in silence with wet towels and bags of delicious wool strewn about and it shall remain so until later tomorrow. Saturday brings tournament-soccer-mom duties, grocery shopping and the like. I will hopefully steal away at some point to work on those pods. You know I will keep you posted....

Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com