Day 13

Go to this link if you wish to keep up with my posts, it's proving to be a challenge in and of itself posting on two seperate blog platforms! https://kbaxterpackwood.com/blog/

Day 3 It's Monday

This is the marigold vat approximately twenty-four hours after I put the flowers in to soak. I’ll be adding the mordanted wool samples later this afternoon.

It’s Monday and I really don’t have much to say at all, other than I woke up thinking today was Sunday.

I weighed myself yesterday, I was 254, which is good it means I didn’t gain any weight during the thanksgiving holiday, but I didn’t lose any either. Am I worried? Somewhat it tells me I’ve plateaued, but I’m also exercising now with a medicine ball and I know I’ve been converting fat into muscle., I’m losing inches but not weight.

The solution is to re-evaluate what I’m eating, I’ve slacked off on the veggies and need to add those back into my meals, and for a variety of reasons. I slacked off due to food exhaustion, I eat the majority of my meals alone and it’s really easy to just not eat a meal and replace it with a can of soda pop instead.

Day 2 Let there be Marigolds

Time to make the Marigold Fermentation Vat!

I started out with a clean one-gallon bucket (you can pick these up at any big box store that sells paint) and filled it with screaming hot water out of my tap. I don’t use boiling water, but you could use boiling water if you wanted to do so.

I then added my two cups of dried marigold heads, you can put them in a piece of pantyhose if you don’t want debris on your final samples. I gave the marigold heads a good squish in the water and have covered the vat with a plastic plate. I’ll check on the marigolds in an hour to see if they need to be squished with water again, they should sink to the bottom of the vat within a couple of hours.

Tomorrow I’ll add my wool samples to the vat.

Off to get groceries and do meal prep for the week. Two years ago, yesterday, I started my weight loss journey. I’m down almost 100 pounds from 331 pounds. I made a decision to change my, actually our lives that day. He’s down almost 75 pounds. We both have additional weight to lose for me it’s 85 pounds, and for him, it’s another 45 pounds.

More later on how we both lost weight.

Day 1 of the 31 Day Writing Challenge

Day 1 of the 31 Marigold Fermentation Dye Vat.

Today I made thirty-five wool loops for my dye vat, one of which will remain out of the vat as my test swatch and I will put it in a journal later. I’ll remove one loop per day from the vat, photograph it, wet and after it’s been rinsed and dried.

I really don’t have much to say today philosophically speaking, it’s a wet cold day here and to be honest I wish it would snow.

I am thinking about washing the one-gallon bucket I found in my wet studio and starting my fermentation vat. I still need to go to the store to get a fish tank bubbler for my fermentation vat.

Thoughts on Fermentation: You can do the vat one of two ways, fermentation using a bubbler to introduce oxygen into the vat, or without the bubbler. If you do it without a bubbler you will need to either seal the vat entirely with a tight fitting lid which is similar to solar dyeing and you could even use a one gallon glass jar for this experiment, or you will have to heat it up every couple of days to prevent mold from growing in the vat. Mold will definitely shift the final colors, and quite possibly in a direction that is not desirable.

I realize that using a bubbler is not true fermentation, it is however my method of choice when utilizing a fermentation dye vat. If it were mid summer I would put the vat outside in a sunny area, and let the Sun do its magic, that said, however, it’s late fall here and I really don’t want my house smelling like a swamp right now, because very often that’s what a true fermentation dye vat smells like, swamp water.

After I start my vat I’ll make up an alum mordant bath and mordant the wool loops, rinse them afterward, and add them to my vat.

Where did the time go?

I’m not sure how it happened but tomorrow is December 1st which is the beginning of two separate challenges.

Challenge Number One is two write a post every day for 31 days.

Challenge Number Two is the 31 Day Marigold Fermentation Vat.

Tomorrow, I shall start the vat, I still need to go to the store and purchase a fish tank bubbler for my vat, which will also utilize a fish tank heater. And finally, create little yarn butterflies for each day of the week to be removed from the vat.

The fermentation challenge will end sometime around January 5th.

The wool yarn butterflies will be pre-mordanted with alum.

2017

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my friends, family, and fans!

It's that time of year, and I'm passing the blessings along to you! As a special bonus I'm running this sale through November 30th! Like many of you I get paid twice of month, so I'm running this sale through the 30th so that you don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity!

This sale includes ALL available online classes, ebooks, DVD's, artwork, art cloth, and more!

CLICK HERE TO START SHOPPING!

Save 30% OFF Your Entire Order For Labor Day!!!

Save 30% Store Wide

Includes Online Classes, eBooks, Art work, and More!!!

Now through September 5th!!!

Day One 60 Days of Birds Mixed Media Challenge

Rodney

6x6 inches.

Pastels, graphite, and white Signo gel pen on black scrapbooking paper.

Join Me for 60 Days of Birds Starting May 30th!

60 Days of Birds Mixed Media Challenge

Begins in 5 Days!!!

Learn more here!

It's Back, The 60 Day Bird Challenge!

The 60 Days of Birds Mixed Media Challenge is BACK!!!

I’m excited to offer this new option for 2017!

I’ve had requests for an in-depth version of the challenge for those who want to push their mixed media skills further! I will be sending daily email lessons for the duration of the challenge, you’ll also receive an invite to an exclusive version of our popular Facebook group, The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge. Get more details and sign up here.

Basic Blues: Five Indigo Vats Five Different Ways

Basic Blues

Five Indigo Vats Five Different Ways!

Join Me in March for a Five Week Online Class!

Learn More HERE!

https://vimeo.com/202786778

Field Notes at the Blanden

Field Notes No.'s 1 - 42
On exhibit at the Blanden Memorial Art Museum thru April 15th.

Quilted Expressions at the Blanden

Join me this Saturday

the

Quilted Expressions Opening!!!

Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, Iowa

January 28th from 3pm to 5pm

Artist Talk 3:30pm

Exhibit runs January 28th thru April 15th

Colors of the Earth Self Paced Class!

Learn how to create beautiful fabrics using earth pigments, clays, ochres, charcoal, and much more!

Click here to learn more! 

Fields No. 37
Earth pigments, clay, ochre, charcoal, conte, pastels, and graphite on cotton fabric.
Machine stitched.

All Things End, Eventually!

Field Notes #'s 1-36 ready for their edges to be bound and then mounted to their stretched canvas frames.  Each piece is 6x6 inches.

So why am I having such a hard time getting there? Excellent question. And I finally decided it's because I don't want this particular project to end.

Which is odd because the whole time I've been working on this project I've been chomping at the bit to start the next state of my Fields Series!

Anyway, I'm off to stitch their tiny edges, and get started on attaching the hanging hardware to the frames.

Mixed Media with Pigments Live Stream!

I will be hosting a mixed media with earth pigments live stream tomorrow evening on Facebook!!!

Join me as I experiment with earth pigments, and more.

January 3rd, 7pm CST

Registration NOW OPEN for Earth and Sky From Sketch to Stitch

Earth and Sky: From Sketch to Stitch 

A Mini Master Class

Earth and Sky is an Eight Week Mini Master Class divided into 2 Four Week modules with a One Week break in between the two modules.

Module 1: Sketch, Draw, Paint, Surface Design

Break Week

Module 2: Sketch, Surface Design, Stitch, Embellish

Class begins April 15th! 
Lifetime Access to the Class

NOTE: Because of the intensity of this class I am limiting the number of spaces available to 20!!!

From Sketch to Stitch

My Aurifil thread color palette for my latest series "Field Notes"

Field Notes was born out of several loves, passions of mine:

The love of the prairie.
The love of crops as they rise out of the ground each year.
The love of the symmetry and simplicity of how the fields themselves are arranged in the countryside.

Field Notes in progress on my table.

Some color studies.

Watercolor crayons, water soluble oil pastels, and water soluble graphite on sketchbook paper.

Field Series Update

My thread order came today. If you've been following me on Facebook then you know there's been a lot of drama lately with my trying to obtain a rather allusive Aurifil Thread color #2612 aka arctic ice.
Well that was through Amazon.

Three spools of the wrong color later I put out a plea on Facebook begging to know everyone's favorite place to buy Aurifil Thread.  Follow That Thread came up, repeatedly.  So late Sunday night I put together my order, which included the much desired #2612, and it arrived today.

And the much desired color is quite desirable!!! It IS the perfect sky color!

#2612 is second from the left and it matches my earth pigment painted fabrics and perfectly!

Six pieces almost stitched, thirty left to go.

My color palette for the Fields Series sans one spool that should be here hopefully this weekend, because I of course ordered it from Amazon.  Odd that it'll be the correct color?