WolfWeave

I spent the week before last in the Phoenix area—went for a garden wedding and stayed for a reunion with my cousins. Aside from the weather (seriously, you can say, “It’s a DRY heat!” all you want…but when the temperature hovers between 103º and 117º, it is “somebody staked me out in the desert and left me to die” weather, no matter which way you slice it), I had a great time visiting with relatives, drinking at The Blue Martini,

trying my first Sprinkles cupcake, and shopping at The Fiber Factory in Mesa and a Rings & Things wholesale bead show. Unfortunately, I never did make it to The Bead Museum in Glendale; I ran out of time (especially when I discovered that my flight home was on Thursday, not Friday as I thought—thank you to my son for that important and timely information!). By the way, The Bead Museum is in need of funding to stay open, so visit their site and donate, okay?

Despite the heat, I did enjoy one of its results: the incredible variety of cactus:

However, without a doubt, there were two outstanding exhibits that I did visit on my trip. The first was the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project at the Scottsdale Civic Center Library Gallery and the second was the Dale Chihuly “The Nature of Glass” exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden. Both were absolutely amazing in their use of color, texture, natural materials, and imitation of nature.

Here are a few photos of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project:

(yes, beads!)

(metallic thread)

And the amazing Dale Chihuly “The Nature of Glass” exhibit:

The International Freeform Fiberarts Guild 2009 Challenge is now online. The theme this year was the Four Seasons and the entire challenge can be viewed by clicking the link in the upper right corner of the main page. If you would like a sneak peek at my piece, I’ll post a photo of it below, but you can see the entire page on the Freeform site also.

Just as I am rushing to finish up my freeform crochet piece for this year’s challenge: The Four Seasons, the last challenge—EarthAirFireWater (or The Elements) is up on display in New York City at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio until August 1st! You can read about it at their blog for May 9th.

It’s beautiful to see the whole large tapestry hanging against the brick wall. If you want to see my pieces on the main International Freeform Crochet Guild page, click on the 2nd to the last photo at the bottom (because the lists of artists by name doesn’t seem to be functioning).

Okay, so it’s been well over a month (nearly 2?) since I wrote a blog post but, in my defense, they have been 2 very busy months. I don’t even want to relive them. Suffice it to say that the holidays are over; my mother is home from Florida; my sons are home from college for the summer; my knee is healing slowly; I’ve bought lots of fibery goodies on the internet; and springtime and sunshine are finally cheering me up.

I put away several unfinished winter sweater projects in favor of picking up the 2nd try at the February Lady Sweater for spring but then put that away unfinished and now want to work on some summer tanks and tees, since the weather has jumped into the higher digits so quickly. I’ll pick it up again later in the summer, as the colors I’m using would make it a great fall sweater.

At the moment I’m frantically working on the International Crochet Guild’s 2009 Challenge: The Four Seasons, which is due tomorrow. I still have most of autumn and all of summer to finish! And then I have to photograph it. And tomorrow is Mother’s Day and we have 2 mothers/grandmas to visit.

But the most exciting news, is that I am starting a WolfWeave jewelry business and opening shops on Etsy and Artfire, neither of which will be fully functional until June (so don’t go looking for them now, as there is nothing there). I have my business license, my business cards, my business checking account, my paypal account, etc.; all my supplies (boy, I love ordering supplies!); some designs drawn up; my photography set-up and light tent; and my eldest son’s abandoned room cordoned off as “MY SPACE.” I just need to get to work actually making some jewelry (LOL), and come up with a banner for my sale sites.

But all, including photos, in good time. Next week we’re off to Phoenix for a wedding and then I’m staying over for a mini-reunion with my 4 female cousins who are usually spread across the continent but will be in town for a college and a high school graduation of their nieces.

And the first week in June is the Bead & Button Show up in Milwaukee. Somehow I signed up for 5 classes!, despite the fact that I know I’ll be exhausted after the second one and won’t absorb or retain any of the information. I swore last time (3 years ago) that I wouldn’t take so many classes next time around…but I did it again. Oh well—here’s to a good time and fun shopping.

After that…WORK. I also intend to keep up more with my blogging; but, in the meantime, you can always read my twitter feeds in the sidebar (inane though they mostly are).

Till next time………