New Easel

Really pleased with my new Soho H Frame Mahogany Easel.  It took us over two hours to assemble the silly thing, now to start painting again!

Why I don't Eco-Dye My Fabric

Why I don’t Eco-Dye Fabric

I do, however, dye, paint, and print, my fabric with natural dyes.

Photo courtesy of the Main Street Cultural District Ames, Iowa.

I participated in a local art walk last Friday and after three hours of questions about my natural dyed scarves, artwork, etc., I am once again reminded as to why I don’t call myself an eco-dyer, for the most part nobody is interested in the craft of eco-dyeing! 

While most people play lip service to protecting the environment, sustainability, fair trade practices, and all things “green” the fact of the matter is when most people found out that I was using tree bark, mushrooms, leaves, bugs, and other stuff to dye my art cloth the response was an overwhelming “that’s nice” or “that’s really cool”.  "That’s nice" is the kiss of death, it's the Mid westerners version of “so what” or “who cares”!

The whole experience solidified in my mind what I already knew, while there are some that are truly concerned about the environment and sustainability, the majority only cares if it saves them a buck or two.  Which leads me back to why I don’t eco-dye my fabric, fibers, and threads, but in fact dye them with Natural Dyes, to me it’s about the process and the relationships I form with other dyer’s, and most importantly with nature that surrounds and inspires me. 

Natural dyed silk scarves.

For me the process is not about immediate gratification, but about discovery, learning, exploring, and most importantly relationships.  Unless a local woodworker gifts me a bag of wood chips from their dust collection system or from their lathe turnings, the wood, barks, and roots I use to create my designs are collected over a period of years, often time’s decades. 

My finished artwork was a hit with everyone with plenty of people telling me they’d love to be able to stitch and sew like I do and do I teach classes?  The evening wasn't a total bust, I got plenty of hits from women of all ages that are interested attending a stitching party; the older women of course were very excited about the wine aspect of said parties. 

Click here to learn more about eClasses, Workshops, and my newest offering Out of the Box Art Parties!

New Project in Progress

Black Birds in Tree Stencil and craft paints on baltic birch panel board... more later after I add more layers.

Antique Inspiration

Art Crawl Iowa Virutal Studio Tour Update!

What you will need to participate in this years

Art Crawl Iowa Virtual Studio Tour:

1. Currently live in Iowa
2. A blog and/or a website where you will post creative photos of your studio(s)
3. Brief artist statement and bio about yourself and your work.
4. A couple of images of your artwork.
5. List of galleries, etc., where we can see and/or purchase your artwork.
6. Contact email
7. Send me a link to your website/blog/page and I will add it to the list of participating artists here on this blog next Friday at  prairiefibers@hotmail.com

If you would like to participate in Art Crawl Iowa 2013 email me at prairiefibers@hotmail.com

House Painting 072112

John - painting the trim over the upstairs window.  We're back to working on the east side of the house, up until today he's been working on the soffit and the trims way up there where you see the pale blue.  This afternoon we took the storm windows out and now the task of repairing the wood, priming it, and the painting it and all of the window trim colors and then onto fixing the storm windows themselves. 

Pear Tree Dye Project

The wind took out my beloved pear tree last week, so this week we will be cutting it up into managable pieces, the leaves, bark, and smaller limbs will be used for dyeing fabric and yarn.  Am thinking of breaking out the large cast iron cauldron and making up a large dye vat.

New Frames - In Progress

John set up some stations for me, with lots of clamps, so that I could sand the frames and quickly.  Tomorrow they will be painted, right now he's sanding them with 220 grit paper for the final finish, I sanded them earlier with 120 grit.

11x14x2.75 inches each
Poplar

Getting Plastered!

Am streaming live tonight at 9pm Central - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/plastered-and-waxed  Plaster, Earth Pigments, and if I have some time will add some wax to some of the pieces.  Come on by and chat a bit while I experiment in my studio!

Studio Redux - 062511

Cubbies!  John and Keith moved these down from the second story into the new space.  Floor has been washed and now the cubbies are almost full with fabrics, etc.

Now to start moving my threads etc., into the space.  Eventually, maybe by this time tomorrow, all of the boxes, etc., to the left will be gone.  I'm pacing myself so as to not re-injure my rotar cuff.

Bloodroot

My bloodroot patch has started to spread, finally.  I don't actually use the roots for dyeing with, I planted them because I have a small prairie woodland garden.

New Camera Mount

Adjusting the webcam.

John installing the new camera mount

John made me a new camera mount for my webcam tonight!  It's adjustable and swivels 360 degrees.

WIP - Niche (Untitled) No. 3

Solo Exhibition Set Up

Hail Protection

Impromptu hail protection devices for my tomatoes! This was taken last week right before the hail came through. I always knew Johns wood pile would come in handy for something one day just never figured it would be for hail protection.

Our Last

The last of the Junk Pile! And Lord Willing and the River Don't Rise it won't rain tonight and it'll be gone tomorrow as well. It's mostly leaves and vines that will be run through the wood chipper and then put into the compost bin, which I have YET to turn this year because it's been too wet all season.

Backyard Rehab!

Our backyard went from this to this! We think it looks so much better now, most of the wood etc,. went to a friends burn pile and the rest of the "stuff" went to the junk yard Now we have a neat construction pile against the shed and my old garden space is now planted with three types of bush beans, two green bean varieties, and one yellow wax bean. NOTE that pile of boxes by the trailer is NOT there as of an hour ago! It's gone I tell you it's ALL GONE!!!