Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The theme is "green."

In my last blog post, I talked about being able to work with color. I love it. Color excites and motivates me. It inspires new work when I reach a stumbling spot. Add to this, the joy of watching colors emerge and grow in a garden and you can see why I weave color into my work and live in a temperate jungle (a polite way to refer to my cottage-gardening-style). Tomorrow I want submit one of these photographs to a garden blog competition where the theme is the color green. All shades are included, from chartreuse (a favorite) to the blues greens in my hostas. I'd love to hear which of these you'd pick, because I can't decide.
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I decided to enter #2 the chartreuse and blue-green hosta leaves, to Gardening Gone Wild's April contest. The link is here. There are over 60 other "green" entries, go take a look. (The results are in. My work wasn't chosen, but you can see how green was interpreted by the winners here.)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

My display at Craft Boston and a peach flower ...

Craft Boston is finished. Between having a wonderful place to stay (with a friend and her 2 dogs), lovely, upbeat neighbors to pass the days with, a group of baskets I was proud of (including the one I made for the Fuller Craft Museum which they had on display) and my sister's help at the end of the show, I sold a few baskets and made a couple of good contacts for the future. It was a good show.
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On the way to the show one morning, I saw a flowering quince and next to it, an almost painfully-beautiful, peach-colored flower growing between a driveway and the brick wall of a rough building. The delicate strength in the flower and its color, haunted me for the rest of the day. The unexpected, vulnerable color reminded me of why I work with color. I love it, and I can immerse myself in this passion when I weave baskets. By surrounding myself with gardens, I get to celebrate all the color and textures when they appear in nature. I was asked if I'd gotten a photo of the flower, but I hadn't. I don't think a photo could live up to the impact that color had on me. I feel very fortunate to live the life I do. (And then there's the new cat who has adopted Emma and me, but that's another story.)

Monday, April 5, 2010

I'm off to Craft Boston later this week

After spending the last two months working on the double-wall for the Fuller Craft Museum, I wanted to weave smaller pieces where I could play with color. Here are three little "hairy pots" I've woven for Craft Boston, April 9-11 at the World Trade Center.