The Calendar Project

July 1, 2011

June has been the craziest month for me. I left a part-time job, attended a weeklong conference/workshop in Minneapolis, prepared for and sat at booths to sell my books at two different venues, and prepared at least 4 lesson plans for upcoming classes. After most of it was over, I gave myself a week to recover and not feel guilty for avoiding work--which turned into something more like two weeks because I'm terrible at transitions and can't decide where to start in figuring out my new daily schedule.

So I've come up with a new plan to give me some structure and force me to get to the studio. As I was reading through some old March journal entries, I came across a list of how I could describe my current life, and was drawn to #5: "chaos organized into the grid of a calendar." Immediately this project came to mind. Each day I will make one felted sample as part of my goal to better acquaint myself with different types of wool and layering of silk and how various elements behave when felted together. I'll wrap each sample around a 6 x 6 inch wooden frame and eventually arrange the squares into the shape of a July calendar. My goal is to do this for the entire month, but I already have visions of what a room would look like with 365 of these pieces hanging on the wall. I'm sure some days I'll get lazy and do none, some days I'll do 3, but my aim is to not have high expectations for each sample--not everything needs to be a masterpiece, but it does need to be made to spur on knowledge of the material and trigger more creative ideas. Wish me luck!

The first three days. Can you imagine what 31 grouped together will look like?