Turning A Corner and Considering Past, Present and Future

I spent the last week working on a step by step write up for a polymer clay on canvas project that will be detailed in an upcoming book. Details on that in a few months! I finished it with a sense that it was a final stage in what I've been doing for the last few years.

When the final photo and write up were sent I tidied my studio and got out the info package for the Northwest Weavers Retreat in Port Orchard Washington that I will be attending next week. It was a symbolic turning of a corner in what it is that I do!

I'm really excited about the retreat. I'll be taking three classes and will learn lampmaking, basket weaving with alternative materials and vessel covering. Everyone attending is asked to bring up to three baskets representing their past, present and future in basket making.  Newbies like me are welcome encouraged to submit work too. I will take a gourd piece I made sometime in the '90s,

 my present is represented with a kelp basket I made in October

and yesterday  I found myself crocheting brass wire to put together a little leggy polymer clay and wire prototype basket that might represent a future direction even though it does harken back to my leggy bowls.