It's Been Awhile

So begins a new series I've titled "Fields". So far the goal is 18 large pieces and 12 small pieces. I'm using earth pigments, charcoal, conte, and mixed media pm cotton and silk fabrics this time around with machine stitching as the finishing touch.

I've been dragging my feet to start on this series, as it is the first series where I won't be using natural dyes. Fabric painting begins tonight. Photos coming soon.

60 Bird Challenge Journal No. 1

The cover is a reclaimed manila envelope I monoprinted.

I filled with a variety of toned artist drawing papers, composition papers, mixed media paper, and the like.

Some more toned artists papers, Canson and Stratford, I also added a healthy dose of old maps, scrapbooking papers, to add additional variety.

Paring Down & New Beginnings!!!

Paring down, starting with my websites and blogs, and soon to be my wet studio, and have new goals and an actionable plan for future art and designs. I'd do handsprings from the excitement, but my allergies are preventing me from doing so today, lol.

I have two immediate goal dates, September 6th to get my new designs/collections for licensing up onto my blog (group accountability is great for this!!!) and October 4th for the Open Studio Tour. I need to deep clean for the tour, which means an opportunity to get rid of stuff I haven't used in years and probably won't be using again anytime here in the near future, and get prints made of newly created works of art for the tour!

The next goal after that is the Month of November which is National Writing Month and the goal is to get my last Natural Dye Book finished, and hopefully the app (by the end of December) and then it's on to other activities. I'm culling the Natural Surface Academy, etc., too many things on my plate which prevents me from creating and doing what I really love! Also no more teaching!!!

The 60 Day Crow (Bird) Challenge has been a wonderful experience, I will do the big reveal here in a few days.  I now have plans to run this challenge again, as it was quite popular!

A Different Direction

Well sorta, I'll still be incorporating Queen Anne's Lace onto these new panels, that I found earlier today while cleaning my studio, but this time I'm also adding my birds, crows, etc., to the mix.  Yes, I'm much happier about this change in direction, what I will do to resolve the other six panels I haven't decided yet.

I used my Black Birds in Tree Stencil from StencilGirl Products for the left side of each panel, and will be adding other crows, birds, and of course Queen Anne's Lace to the right side of each panel along with some text.

The New Book and an eBook Sale!!!

The cat is out of the bag and yes I really am working on a new Natural Dyeing eBook!  I've been asked what to expect, well I won't say what the topic is exactly there will be, however, plenty of bells and whistles for those of you using smart tablets!  Interactive video, apps, and the like, see I've been a busy gal the past few months and I've got to say it's very hard keeping what I've been doing secret!!!

I'm hoping the big reveal will be sometime around Valentines Day 2013 so until then here's a Christmas Holiday sale for my existing eBooks!

All eBooks $3.99

 

 

Click here for the eBooks!

Gearing Up for New Work

Bjorkboda hanging on the shelf on the far wall.

I compost dyed these about seven years or so ago, it's been so long now I don't remember when exactly.

 

Black gutta on compost dyed silk chiffon fabric.

Look familiar???  Yes I'm finally going to work with this piece, note it's in the header of this blog and one of the main photos in my books.

New Work Coming Soon!

Digitally printed silk organza overlaying a piece of logwood purple dyed silk organza, the small red strip of fabric on top is madder lac dyed silk organza net.

The Cloud

Decided to make some program upgrades this past week, and finally decided to subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud, instead of buying the CS6 outright.  Am currently downloading the programs of my choice, yeah, and am hoping to roll out the newest book, with imbedded video no less, sometime next month!

The Wall

As an artist have you and your artwork hit "the wall" yet?  More thoughts on this one tomorrow.

New Bits and Pieces in Progress

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!  This year is promising to be an exciting year already. 

New Fall Colors

New Fall Colors - Silk Cocoons

Extreme Embroidery

Extreme Embroidery
January 14th February 16th
4:30-6:30 pm
Fisher Art Center, Marshalltown IA.

New Year House Cleaning

I decided, after I rebuilt my computer last night, that it was time for a little streamlining. I've returned to a simple template in hopes that my blogs will load more quickly.  Enjoy.

New Vinyl

There's nothing like new vinyl on my table to make me realize just how beat up the old piece was, it was 5-6 years old I think... it might have been older I'm losing track of things as I get older.  Anyway, our local WM still sells fabric so I was able to get a replacement vinyl for not too much money, which says a lot when you need 4 continious yards of the stuff!

Today's Painting Session

Part of my oil pastel collection, the fat ones in the round tub are cattle, or sheep, markers.

I pulled out my ThreeFold magazines the other night and was reviewing some of their techniques. I was monoprinting with acetate sheets back in 1995 when I couldn't afford a really nice large glass plate to print with - the zines are very well written.

I've had this set of pastels since 1995 my classmate gave me his set of deluxe rembrant oil pastels - a wonderful gift for a starving artist at that time!

Today's painting session included a little bit of everything on paper, I was working with some of my older paints and pastels testing their viability.

New Garden Space

South looking north, about 45 feet, maybe more, for veggies, herbs, and flowers.

I grew rather tired of the rabbits destroying my grapevines, like the local thief wasn't bad enough, so the grape arbor is now inside of the fenced area.

The fence runs along the sidewalk which will soon have thyme and other herbs growing to fill in the space.

Above - looking north towards the garden shed. Below - looking south towards the front porch and the street.

We enlarged the east garden combining it with the south garden beside the front porch. Dh will build a raised bed, octagon shaped, to go around the crab apple tree under which we will plant currants and goose berries.

No more fence hopping for me, John's also building a gate for the garden as well. One of the blessings of no longer having a large dog means I don't have to have a large yard for the large dog and it also means less mowing!!! Now to finish planning the guilds to go around the trees .