Hello Friends and Colleagues:

I just finished my first grant proposal and it truly was a learning experience.
Just correlating the finished product was a huge undertaking! A heartfelt thank you to Angela who plastered the application documents with post-it-notes and highlighter marks, Jack and Deb who kept bringing me back to what I needed to say, Jen who helped me say it and Lesley who is a goddess of inspiration. They all helped me stretch a little into the scary place of writing about art.
The finished product is on my blog and I encourage everyone to check it out.

This brings me to tell you about all the things I've been creating in the studio.
I had to attempt creating an octopus egg for my grant proposal. Weeks of process, and opaque batches of transparent glass, led me to create some I am fairly happy with. Photographing them was definitely challenging but overall I thoroughly enjoyed being obsessed and consumed in the project.

Away from the home I taught a flame working class for Meta 4 Gallery in Bonnie Thomson's Studio.
There were some great moments! If I believed in such things as astrology I'd swear something was going on in the morning but then everything just clicked and the class was a huge success. The excitement of the students playing with glass was contagious and Bonnie has a beautiful studio.

The last two weeks I've been focusing on the production of beads and hearts for the Toronto Bead Society Fair. It's so nice to have the ease and enjoyment of making hearts, dot and disk beads.
I'm always exploring and focussing on new colour combinations.

I've had a window in the library booked for months but when it came to filling it I was stuck!
I needed my work for upcoming shows but I still wanted the display to inspire others to create. So in the end I took all the stuff I have beside my desk and around my studio and put that in the window display. So, it's rocks, shells and plant material with glass accents. Now I have to write something to explain what all this cool stuff is!
:) Check it out if you're going by the Bradford Library in the November.

Cheers,
Natali