Thursday, November 20, 2008

Where We Go to Wonder

First, my continuing project: I'm still working out some test shots for my Craft magazine piece. The colors still look a little washed out to me and the image isn't sharply focused (my eyesight sucks, so I rely a lot on autofocus, but autofocus? Eh.), but I figured out that the overall tone would look better if I didn't pose my artifacts on, you know, a BRIGHT GREEN background. You learn something new every day...

And today, the girls and I spent quite a bit of time learning at the Wonderlab.

The Wonderlab is our third-favorite public area in all of Bloomington. I've been taking Will there, daily, weekly, monthly, since she was just over a year old--Syd's been going there since she was a newborn. My favorite thing about the Wonderlab is that since they were old enough to put their hands on anything, each of the girls has been able to interact with every single exhibit there in some meaningful way. Mind you, the kids aren't necessarily grasping the finer points of how hot air makes the balloon rise, but they grasp the cause-and-effect of push the red button, watch the digital thermometer numbers rise, and up goes the balloon. It's that kind of learning that's especially valuable, I think--as the girls visit these same exhibits over and over throughout the years, old lessons are internalized and new discoveries are made.

Here were the favorites today: Our other favorite thing about the Wonderlab is their membership in the ASTC Passport Program. Every time we go on a trip, I always pull up the complete list of Passport Program participating museums, and we ALWAYS find some cool place to get free admission into--St. Louis Science Center, Chicago Field Museum, San Francisco Exploratorium, etc. On our California trip, Matt and I took the girls to the Exploratorium for the day two times, and the first time we basically recompensed our entire year's membership at the Wonderlab. It rules.

But in case you think I didn't do anything crafty today, you're wrong! Here's a little peek at a project I'm trying to work up out of some of my felted wool:
Can you figure it out?

3 comments:

  1. i'd say a design on a shirt, for the felt project? it looks great so far.

    and i agree with you on the wonderlab. it is cosmo's favorite place to go. when he hears it mentioned on the radio he says "(gasp!)they just said wonderlab!"

    i have never checked out the passport to other museums etc. i'll have to look into it for our upcoming trip to texas. oh, and you reminded me that i need to renew our membership.

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  2. ps i think the artifacts look really good on the wood background, and i like the color saturation. you are a skilled photographer, what you decide on will be just right.

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  3. You are so sweet and supportive, and I'm stoked that you're going to Texas--it totally rules.

    I'm trying to get that realy clear, really clean look that you see in magazine photos, where the colors are so bright and nice. Handy Matt is talking about building me a soft box, but hell, I don't even have a tripod. Perhaps I could start there...

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