Time passes so quickly, doesn’t it? It’s hard to believe another year is almost over. It’s fun to review what I have been able to accomplish in the last year and see if I followed my intentions for the year. My word for 2012 was ‘Focus’ and you can read about how I chose that word and what my intentions were in this post. My main focus this year was to get as much I could from the stitch class I am taking from Gail Harker. Many times, I had other things that popped up that I might have considered participating in but I kept reminding myself of my focus for the year. I think choosing this word really helped me to learn more and practice my skills from this class. Our last session will be in February of 2013 and the exciting news is that we will be having an exhibition of our class work at my store, The Purple Pomegranate in Whitefish, MT the first Thursday in September of 2013. Hopefully, my classmates will be able to join me for opening night so we can have a reunion. I’m already a bit sad that the class is going to be over so soon.

Looking back at the rest of my intentions, I did manage to follow through with most of them. My book The Complete Photo Guide to Felting came out in August and I held several book signings, book giveaways and promotions. I was on an internet talk show which was fun and I did better than I had hoped I would. I am happy with the book and proud that I was able to accomplish having a book published.

I began teaching classes at my local yarn store. I taught several classes including how to felt a hat over a flat resist and a two-day course in making a nuno felted cocoon style jacket. I found that I really enjoy teaching but I wasn’t able to teach as many classes as I might have since I was focusing on my stitch class homework. I do have plans to begin teaching at the local community college next year and continue classes through the yarn store.

The mentoring program for Montana Arts Council MAP students went well. I mentored a quilt artist in critiquing her work and hand stitch. I also had several artist internships through my store where I shared my knowledge about the business of being an artist. It’s nice to be able to give back to the artistic community and help emerging artists begin their business life with a better foundation of business understanding.

I have continued to meet with my local group and explore further fiber art and surface design techniques. We also have recently begun researching art history and discussing it with the group each time we meet. We started with paleolithic art and are moving forward in time. I also organized a felting retreat locally and it was a big success. Plans are in the works for a second retreat. Another group has formed just recently to promote the awareness of the fiber arts and to increase exhibitions of fiber art. I am sure I will be telling you more about this group in the coming year.

The three intentions that I didn’t complete this year were learning more about Photoshop, making video tutorials and working on the yurt. I have had the intention about Photoshop on my list for several years and have never really done much about it. Perhaps I don’t really care that much? I don’t think I’ll put it on the list this coming year. I did get a video camera for the tutorials but never got further than that. I will work on this for 2013 and I hope to have video tutorials up on this blog soon. The yurt project is still in the works. I have been sourcing wool suppliers and 2013 will definitely be the year of the yurt at my house so stay tuned.

What have you accomplished in 2012? Do you have plans for 2013? I’d love to hear what you’ve been doing this year and where your path will be heading in 2013. Happy Holidays!