Finished Clutch

Remeber those? This one is comprized of melted tyvek, angelina, felt, couched threads and yarns and was melted with a heat gun. I lined it with a soft copper colored polyester organza.

New Work

Well sorta, I've been fermenting on this idea for some time, in fact these are just the color studies for the actual piece that is hanging on my studio wall - and it's 9 x 10 feet, yep 9 x 10 feet (which translates roughly into king size for the quilters out there).

These pieces, Hot Poppies, are a set, free stitching on painted timtex and they really are this bright! I'm making prints and they will be available on my etsy.com store - see little etsy icon to the left. They look much better in person but I am having a hard time with the bright colors and contrast, I actually tried fixing it in Photoshop to no avail. I even scanned them in, they looked really bad then, even with some adjustments to contrast and the like. Tis the bane of photographing bright,high contrast, art.

Signs Up

The sign is up on the shop that is and I'll take a picture of it tomorrow as I only got a partial picture today. Here's a pic, from inside of the store, of hubby, on the right, and our neighbor, sitting on the scaffolding putting the last of the screws into the sign.

Btw - blogger is having some problems tonight so if you thought it was you it probably isn't!

Prairie Calling

Graze 5 x 7 inches

Youth at Dusk - 5 x 5 inches square

I've been too busy to make it over to Neil Smith Prairie so I decided to take some time and play with some images I took last year during rut season. I photographed approximately 30-40 young male bisons, all competing for the hearts - ahemmmm - of a few females.

Prints of these images are available on my etsy.com store see little panel to the left to get there. Speaking of Etsy.com I joined the Iowa Street Team - it's a Yahoo list, and Wow there are a lot of Etsy people in my neck of the woods, which is really exciting!

Thomas

Ok ignore the messy bed he was too cute to disturb to clean up for a good shot!

Drawing Etc

I'm on a drawing jag again, you'll probably be able to catch glimpses of this over on my studio blog as this has nothing to do with natural dyeing or surface design which I prefer to keep on this blog.

I'm planning on embroidering my flowers, again catch my other blog for details.

Without cable there's not a whole lot on TV to watch, can't wait until next Friday when Men in Trees and Pushing up Daisies will be on again!

Needle Felted Pumpkins

I'll have to take more photos tomorrow, the class went really well today. I ended up with only one student which was fine as she left with a really lovely pumpkin, I made one with her to show her the techniques. I'm thinking of video taping this and putting it on YouTube.com as there are some important tips to know about needle felting a 3D pumpkin, like keeping your fingers out of the way! Sounds easy enough but in reality it can be really problematic, I'm thinking of getting a bunch of tongue depressors for the next class, amongst other things. Luckily it was me that got stuck with the needle, twice I might add.

Looks like I won't be able to add photos until later the photo launcher is apparently broken!

Well I'm off to make some constructed cloth bags for the next class, later.

Busy Busy

Image of our new sitting area in the shop for people to come Stitch and Knit with us Mon - Fri what can I say I'm here six to seven days a week so "YES" I'm very proud of the place and wanted a place where even I could sit and stitch for awhile.

Today I updated the website and sent out a new newsletter, sounds like a lot but in reality all I did was sit in front of a computer all day. I really have to be in the mood to work on the computer, the code and everything else just seems to consume so much of my time.

I rinsed my dyed wool yarns, and mohair rovings tonight, I still need to dye more colors, deep burgandy, deep forest green, navy blue, black, etc... It's a never ending dye pot is what it seems like, AND I'm running out of roving! What's a woman to do??? I'm hoping what I have hanging on the drying rack will be dry enough to take to the shop in the morning.

Tomorrow I'm teaching a pumpking needle felting class at the shop, it'll be a lot of fun I'm sure, finally I'm doing something creative. Sunday I've plans to work on the back yard, since it finally stopped raining, and maybe even rust some fibers and fabrics.

For Inspiration

Recieved these two books today check them out!

The Uncommon Quilter: Small Art Quilts with Paper, Plastic, Fiber, and Surface Design by Jeanne Williamson

The Painted Quilt: Paint and Print Techniques for Color on Quilts by Linda & Laura Kemshall

I need to get out and get some air, at the prairie preferably, but it's been raining and a lot so I think that may be out of the question, plus I have to work tomorrow anyway, maybe on Sunday.

Extreme Embroidery 2

Tonights class went really well, it was the last night for this particular class and the students were either finished with their pieces or were nearing being finished.

They are continuing on to Extreme Embroidery 3, which I'm doing completely differently. Every 15 minutes we will do a different technique, for two hours - three Tuesdays. During the first class we will do silk fusion so we can make them into bags or wall hangings in class two. I'll try to remember to post photos tomorrow of the piece I made for EE2.

Now I"m on to making constructed cloth bags, for an upcoming class, and wine bottle gift bags, again for another upcoming class. Oh and then there's the constructed cloth scarves, and the painted scarf class.

I'm going to be busy making holiday samples for the shop windows as well so if you don't hear from me I'm probably asleep in front of my sewing machine, or my Janome Expression.

New Lovelies in My Shop

I relisted some of my silk carrier rods, dyed in oranges and blacks, in my etsy.com store (http://www.kbaxterpackwood.etsy.com) These have been dyed with acid dyes as are the rest of the fibers I will be listing later today, degummed silk throwster's waste, silk throwster's waste, and silk cocoons. Some of the silk cocoons and silk carrier rods HAVE been dyed with natural dyes, and because of the work/time involved they are a bit more in price.

Today

Well I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, once again the printer proved to be a major PITA!!! I was finally able to print off the book covers, after having Brenda and Loretta look at the silly printer for me, they were able to find "section D" that was supposedly jammed, but wasn't.

I named the printer Simon because it's a whiney know it all! It "thinks" it has jams when in reality it does NOT! It's also insistant on printing it's own way, you tell it landscape and it's very insistant you meant portrait. I love the print quality, when it actually prints, in case you were wondering it's a Savin CLP240D that I'm leasing. The clarity of the images is out of this world, again when the machine doesn't have it's own agenda. I wish I could say it's operator error but I'm finding out that it's not "just me".

Blood River Canyon 2 & 3

These three pieces, Blood River Canyon 1, 2 & 3, are available for sale on my Etsy.com store. http://www.kbaxterpackwood.etsy.com

Storque Showcase & Rust Dyeing Workshop

Duh, is all I can say I couldn't figure out why I'm in the Storque Showcase already, however, it just occurred to me that it's midnight already on the east coast!

http://www.etsy.com/showcase.php?showcase_id=5&show_panel=true&show_panel=true

My piece Blood River Canyon is on the showcase tonight. I definately need to get better pictures of these quilts. I found my digital camera, need to find the extra batteries, and it's charging so I can do so tomorrow.

I plan to get my Rust Dyeing Workshop listed on my etsy.com store either tomorrow or on Tuesday. It all depends on how many times I'm interrupted, the workshop is on DVD.

Scarf for quilt

Here's one of the scarves for my next quilt project, this photograph does NOT do the scarf justice at all!

Studio time

I wish I could spend more time in my studio this week, right now it boils down to making samples for classes. I'm not sure why but it seems that one can never make enough samples!

I have a new quilt in mind, it's been fermenting for awhile, I had hoped to get it done for my Etsy.com showcase day, that's today btw, but alas it never happened. Tis ok I have a showcase day, in the Storque, on the 15th, maybe I'll get it done then! Meanwhile I have some scarves I plan to cut up and use in the piece, I'll have to check my files to see if I have a photo of said scarves on hand or not, otherwise I'll have to take their pictures first. It's fabric I compost dyed sometime back, very beautiful stuff, looks like the sunset on water on a clear spring day when everything is crisp and clear.

Blog Change

I'm debating on how to change my blog, I see several I like on the net but am not sure I'm that I want to move over to typepad, so for now I'll just play around with this blogs format and maybe go with some fall like colors, or not. What I'd really like is to have some of my fabric as the background for my blog, behind the blog boxes, but have no clue how to do this.

Dye Day

I'm getting caught up, finally, except now I'm so tired I don't care! I feel like I've dyed a mountain of wool and all I dyed is two pounds of roving - immersion style easy enough - and 8 skeins of wool yarn - dye painted again easy enough. I also painted 4 pieces of fabric, but again these were small and it was the quick and dirty squirt bottle paint job.

So the only reason I should be so tired is the hour I spent fighting the lawn mower - I think it's wanting to be replaced, with one that'll actually start on the first try.

I'll post pictures tomorrow on the dyed wool, oh I slipped some silk carrier rods into the brown dye vat they came out this really cool coffee color, all mottled, these should be a lot of fun to play with, I"m off to bed early!!!

What I want

1956 Chevy Nomad Station Wagon it has lots of cargo space and can actually tow a wagon. Here the guys are looking in the engine box, where one can actually stand inside of the compartment with the engine!

My Loom

Here's are some pictures of my loom, not as nice as the other one as it's warped up and all. John moved it into the office so it's now off limits to the pets, which means I can warp my loom up and it'll be safe, mostly from the cats. I need to add more lighting to the office so I can actually see to weave, I wish it could live in my studio but the reality is the pets have full reign in here, simply because the door won't stay shut!

Projects

While cleaning today I managed to find all sorts of wonderful yarns I dyed with natural dyes a long time ago, this was rather exciting as I thought they were permantly lost.

I also unearthed my floor loom, Leclerc you can see them here http://www.leclerclooms.com/ I'm thinking a tapestry might be in order, I have plenty of bindweed to pick and dry, hadn't gotten to the lawn work yet so am thinking it's an excellent candidate for my newest project.

It'll take awhile to get this project off the ground, first the bindweed has to be picked and dried properly, and I need to dye up some warp thread.

And now to find furniture!

Well my day didn't go anything like I had planned or had imagined, typical maybe I don't know. I went to a yard sale to see about purchasing some stools for my classroom area, I have a seated working area and a standing at tables area, and that last area is in sorry need of some seating. Well I didn't find any stools got to the one sale too late, probably just by seconds knowing my luck. I did, however, find the cutest little chest of drawers for ten dollars and promptly put it in the display window with skeins of undyed yarn spilling out of.

While out and about I had an epiphany, or simply came to a conclusion, regardless I've decided to stop fighting popular demand and go with the flow, so I'm filling the store with yarns for knitting. Lucky me I have many many pounds of undyed yarns on hand to fill the store with, so the three of us spent the better part of the day working on yarns for dyeing - well I spent most of the day finding the yarns as they are still on cones and have been stored away, Wendy and Loretta skeined and plied yarns for dyeing. Kim, Loretta's daughter, is my new mentee and she's in charge of this dyeing project, I can't wait to see what she comes up with, now to just find some sock yarns for the store.

Part two to my epiphany was to put a seating area in the front of the store for customers to come in and stitch, that'd be knitting, crocheting (hey it's really big here so don't laugh) and embroidery. Now I just need to find some comfy chairs for people to sit in, we moved the table and three nice chairs that go with it to the front of teh store and moved the display cabinet, and wow what can I say it immediately changed the feeling of the space - like it suddenly became more welcoming.

I did get some of the junk out of my living and dining rooms today, didn't make near the progress I had hoped but there's always tomorrow and what can I say this is what happens when I go back to the shop in the middle of a house cleaning project - the shop ends up getting all of the attention!

I'm Off I'm Off

I'm taking the day off, so to speak! I've iris' to plant and bindweed to conquer AND fibers and fabrics to dye and paint. I have a full docet we'll see how far I get as it's supposed to be scorchinling hot today 89F. I"m a cold weather person so these temps are not my friends.

More later with pictures.

Rabbitbrush

Chris C. brought me some rabbitbrush from western Nebraska, to Beaver Creek VII, for the dyeing demonstration. I simmered it in my rusty iron pot for several hours and acquired this really gorgeous apple green color on wool roving.

Ok it's not letting me post pics, more tomorrow.

I'm back

Beaver Creek was a blast! As usual our trip there (actually the trip back) wasn't without event, seems I have a couple of spark plug wires that have the need to wiggle loose every so many miles. It's been awhile since they have been changed so I think that's what hubby is going to do tomorrow.

More later with photos.

Compost Dyed Scarves

"Wild Iris"

"Slurry #1" This scarf is crepe de chine and was dyed in my rusty wheel barrow, there are six total that went through a slurry vat, I put all of my left over dyestuffs into the barrow and poof I came out with a gorgeous steel grey with blue flecks.

"Oak" I think I might have put some oak leaves in this bundle as there is the faint impression of leaves on the fabric.

" Madder" because it's the color of my madder root dye pot when it's not the color I am wanting!

"Fire Devil" when stretched out it looks like a firey cyclone! I have a chiffon scarf that I dyed in the same bundle that has very similar markings.

"Auroura" - I was really pleased with these purples which can be very difficult to achieve.

Scarves: I've been working on getting these scarves photographed for quite some time now. They are available at my etsy.com store. These are all compost dyed using natural materials and eco friendly techniques - which means very little water, and no heat other than my compost pile!!!

Music and Teaching

First off I have no sound coming out of my computer, have no idea what's wrong with it, I check all of the wires and even restarted the computer and still no sound.

I will be leaving tomorrow, I'm doing the natural dyeing and pigment painting portion of this weekends primitive skills meet. I'll be in Nebraska, and it's great no one can get ahold of me there which means three days of peace and quite, no trains, no sirens from fire trucks screaming down the street in the middle of the night. It's as close to heaven as you can get this side of heaven! Well for me it is anyway.

I'll take plenty of pictures, mainly plants and fungi, and give an update on Monday when we get back!

Tree Bark

Here's some tree bark to tide you over until I can get some studio pics taken. I'm thinking that the leaf colors won't be that great this year, good thing I've taken hundreds of them to tide me over until next year!

Creativity Start:

• For fall inspiration I love go stand next a tree, looking up, then photograph what I see!
• Do this in the early morning, midday and in the evening - use the same tree and same spot if at all possible, in your notebook write down what you see, how are the views different?
• Note if some or even all of the leaves have fallen off of the tree since the last time you looked.
• How are the colors differnt?
• How are the lines, space, voids different?
• Was it cloudy or was the sky a bright clear blue?
• This exercise helps me to get unstuck, I do it throughout the year, usually I am standing under the crab apple trees as they have really nice branches and the blossoms in the spring just can't be beat.
• If your standing under a maple or an aspen/birch note the color of the leaves and whether they are becoming more translucent,
• How does the light reflect off the the leaves?
• How does the light reflecting from the leaves affect your impression of the branches?

More later

Extreme Embroidery 1

Don't you just love it when you think you have tabbed down into the box and your typing away only to look up and realize you never made it to the box! that's the kind of day I'm having.

Actually I'm off to take a nap here in a few minutes. My extreme embroidery class begins tonight, I'm ready, as ready as I'll ever be, and I'm sure it'll be fine, I have my syllabus done but not my zine, considering how much pain I've been in, it hurts really bad to sit, it's not suprising, what is suprising is that I have gotten anything done at all.

Anyway... Wendy, my employee and assistant, painted some fabrics for me to use as my base for the class, she's a real sweetien and has been a major help to me th is summer ;-) Loretta has been coming in and doing some extra work that has also helped me out and in a big way, their being there at the shop allows me to come home and sleep off the muscle relaxer before class starts.

Anyway... The piece I'm going to work on tonight, that I am demoing on, will hopefully start to resemeble tree bark after awhile, I do love tree bark and all if it's intrcasies (sp?) and it's endless possiblities. So in thinking about tree bark I realize I need to dye some carrier rods in browns, and maybe some bluish and or greenish browns. After all tree bark isn't exactly brown.
This reminds me of the story I was told about a little boy that was given detention by his school teacher for refusing to color the tree brown, he protested stating that trees are not brown. I'm sure it's happening in schools everywhere. That was one smart, observant, little boy!

Mystery Batts

I recieved these mystery batts today from http://www.mountain-shadow-ranch.net/ Mountain Shadow Ranch in Creswell, OR. I plan to stock my store with these beauties! They are so beautiful I'm not sure which one I want to felt with first! They would also spin beautifully if a person were so inclined, right now I'm on a felting jag with my Janome Expression.

Hip Update

Well I'm lucky that nothing is fractured, I'm not so lucky because at 40 years of age my right hip is falling apart, as is some of my vertebrate (the last thorasic and the first lumbar). I attribute this to the hardware in my right leg and my really odd gait from said hardware - 12.5 inch plate with 7 pins that's what holds my right leg together! Anyway, I'm also starting to wonder if this is where the eyesight problems are originating from as I guess my vertebrate are in really bad condition.

The doc says there's nothing they can do until it's bad enough for surgery - well I refulse to take that diagnosis lying down. I've decided it's time to bone up on the yoga - building muscle helps to strenghten the frame and reduce arthritis symtoms and I may also start swimming again - that's if they ever got the pool fixed and opened to the public again. I'll be writing more about this over on my personal blog Survival Kitchen when I get a chance.

Scarves

Here's a compost dyed scarf, it will be available on my Etsy.com store tomorrow. I love

the markings in this piece and it has been very hard for me to not cut it up and put it into one my art quilts!

Felted Bag

Here's the felted bag I mentioned, I need to sew the sides together and make the strap yet, it was needlefelted using the Janome Expression. The dealer down the street, from my shop, lent me the machine and if I wasn't in so much pain I'd make samples for them as well. Maybe next week sometime??? I have another bag done already and it's at the shop in the window display with a bunch of other felted items that is announcing our needlefelting workshop the end of October.

Bottom to Top: Front view with the flap open, the back and the front views, and the front view with flap closed. The views are clipped a little bit but that's because I'm in so much pain I'm not able to stretch up enough to get a better view. I'm taking muscle relaxers and pain pills but it doesn't even tough the pain - which tells me it's in the bone not the muscles cause those muscle relaxers they gave me can drop a horse and I'm not whinnining yet!

The background fabric is wool that has been dyed with natural dyes, and the wool on top is a combination of natural dyed and synthetically dyed fibers. Note that it is nigh impossible to match natural dyed fibers to synthetically dyed ones.

What I've been working on

Well if I wasn't in so much pain I'd be working on these extreme embroidery pieces! This is where you take traditional embroidery layering, distorting and simply pushing the surface until the desired result is achieved.

Here I'm starting with a piece of muslin (calico) that I've painted with Tsukineko inks and then with light gold Shiva Paintstiks for my base layer. The piece is 9" square and is now ready to be partied on!!! Now to just get my body to cooperate with my plans.

Posts

Can someone tell me why the posts are smooshed together making them look crazy?

Wholesale & Educational DVD's

Yes you heard right we are wholesaling natural dyes, I'm hoping to have everything ready to go at the end of the month. Mainly it's getting my husband up to speed as he has the biggest hand in this venture.

Our listing will be small at first, growing as time goes on, but we DO have Osage Orange, Black Walnut Hulls, a lot of native dyes, and most of the mordants in stock. The biggest hurdle is getting everything packagaed and ready to be shipped. Patience is what I recommend as we get this venture off the ground it'll be well worth the wait, the quality, is excellent which as a natural dyer for the past 15 years, is of upmost importance to us.

Class DVD"s we think we may finally have the DVD burning issue figured out and if so I will be burning DVD's soon, very soon. Apparently it's something in the registry on the computer - have no clue what any of that means, but my computer person does and I hope to have it concqured and soon. These DVD's and the Books will be available wholesale to shops wishing to carry them. I will have a complete listing of that at the end of the month as well.

Saturday Update

Well I'm still waiting ot hear from the doctor, will probably be waiting until Monday sometime actually, to hear if I fractured my hip or my lowest lumbar vertebrate, or both. It's a long story but I'll just say that'll be the last time I EVER dive to save a sewing machine from hitting the floor, even if it IS a $3000.00+ machine!

I've been in pain all week, and like the eyesight problems aren't bad enough now I'm in so much pain it's beyond belief. I finally got in to see a doctor this morning, I had been treating it like I just wrenched muscles, or disturbed sciatica, up until now, but two mornings in a row of not being able to get myself out of bed and it's time to see a doctor!

What sucks the most about this is it hurts like heck to sit down, or get up from a sitting position so sewing, reading, and the like are virtually out of the question. Even the happy pills the doctor gave me is NOT taking the edge off of the pain, which makes me not want to take them, I figures a muscle relaxer should help somewhat but no it doesn't, sometimes I think the pills are only making matters worse. I will say that that product that is advertised on TV, called Activon, does help a little bit, even more so when I apply some arnica creme after applying the Activon, which makes me really think it is bone related and not muscular.

Above is a piece I rust dyed and then painted with Setacolor Opaque Moss Green fabric paint. Now back to the prairie!

New works

I'll have to post some pictures later on but I'm on the verge of a new body of work. I've decided to take the plunge and cut up a bunch of silk scarves I compost and rust dyed and turn them into textile works - translation art quilts!

I'm still having problems with my eyes, I've been told that it's an occular migraine, but the episodes last 4-6 days, not 20-45 minutes like a true occular migraine. So I'm going to ask for a second opinion on Tuesday as I really don't trust the doctors.

More later from my other studio, meanwhile enjoy the extreme embroidery piece.

Today

It was gorgeous out today, the humidity finally fell off and there was a very nice breeze. Right now I'm exhausted, which I guess I should be since it's after 11 pm. My eyes have been bothering me for two days now, i'm going to see the doc tomorrow. I keep seeing a shiny whirlygig in my left eye, it's bad enough I can't drive. I'll post an update, dh thinks it's floaters, I don't.

Green rusted silk

This piece of silk crepe de chine was rusted first and then dyed with acid dyes to achieve a wonderful sage to avocado coloring. I'm using it in my extreme embroidery samples.

Green Ribbons

Here's a half pound of wool boucle as well as a half pound of 7 mm silk ribbon. The top picture is a bias woven sheer silk ribbon, which I really wish I could get more of as I absolutely love this stuff for embroidery - but alas it was an italian knitting yarn, not a true ribbon, for knitting sweaters, scarves and the like.

Rust Dye Ribbons

Here's a before and after rinsing shot of the silk ribbons and silk fabrics. Then a post dyeing shot, I'm using an acid dye, that for once doesn't make me sick, to get the green and no I know don't the formula as this was in the pot post dyepainting some rovings and I just had to use the color for something! I'm finding it difficult to photograph the ribbons while they are in the dye pot so bear with me, I have a skein that is in the exhausted vat that should come out lighter.

I'm using these pieces in an extreme embroidery class I'm teaching this fall which I'm making into a zine with DVD. I am looking at duplicators, my computer will NOT burn a DVD to save it's life for some odd reason (and it's on it's second DVD burner but just doesn't like them for some odd reason). I'm hoping to get all of my previous DVD's burned and shipped out to former students and soon. Until now I've been using the neighbors laptop to burn DVD's.

The oragish fabric is commerical cotton that was rust dyed and then painted with seta color paints. The back side of the fabric is the most interesting part of the fabric

Silk Ribbons

I dyed some 7 mm silk satin ribbon with rust this weekend and then overdyed with acid dyes creating a sage color. Will post pics in a bit.

Silky

I got a fairly good shot of her yesterday, and half of Angel. I don't think Silky is going to be with us much longer, she has cancer and is having difficulties getting around these days. She'll be 10 soon and from what I've been told this is "old" for a large dog, especially one that has had cancer before.

The New Guy

We decided to change the new guy's name from Charlie, since he wasn't anwsering to it, to Thomas! He likes that name and actually comes to it, so Thomas it is. Here he's playing with Peppers tail on my old drafting table. Pepper is in front, Thomas to the back, they look a lot alike in the face, but that's where it ends, Pepper is more Orange than Thomas is, though I suspect he'll get darker as he gets older, just as Pepper has, Thomas also has the typical Maine Coon hair, very hairy and very large paws, and lots of hair on the tail and backs of his legs. Oh and I might add his tummy is deliciously fuzzy, which he absolutely loves being rubbed, he's like a big ole teddy bear.

They both like playing in my studio, so now I have even more company when I'm working there. Yes it's always this messt in my studio! I need to clean it, deep clean that is, seems time always getting away from me, lots of other things demanding my attention these days. Plus the commerical studio still needs a lot of work as does the new classroom space.

Little Studio Horrors

I had the bejeebers scared out of me today when fumes and smoke started billowing up out of the basement today - which is inhabited by other businesses - all is fine and the damage is mostly in the business next to mine. It turns out it was concrete dust and a piece of equipment that was overheating (oh and there was NO one around to oversea the equipment the workers just left it unattended).

I'm not sure what all was going on in the basement as the smoke/fumes was too much to be down there but the fire department was on top of it all. I'm still contemplating, however, calling my insurance agent in the morning though I've never had an experience like this before, and just as I was finally beginning to feel comfortable in my new space! Not so much now. Looking back I should have gotten my digital camera out and took pictures but hey the Fire Department was there so there ARE witnesses to the fact that there was smoke/dust and fumes everywhere.

John and I went back later this evening to get my shoes, I forgot my shoes in the rush to leave the building (ok I take two pairs with me so I can change out during the day and these were my fav's) and the stench of chemicals was overwhelming so I'm glad we left early.

More tomorrow.

Pet Cemetary In Progress

I bet a picture would be nice, right! Here's a shot of the piece with the central plate piece and the pine cone in the interior. They have yet to be glued into the piece.

Pet Cemetary In Progress

The blue pieces, which are holding in the copper backing, need something, what I do not know, or don't have in my stash of ever growing goodies that make the piece look wonderful. I need to get this piece done as it's been promised out to a university gallery for the next year!

The problem with the blue pieces is they were damaged upon nailing them into the clock body, so they have split a bit and are uneven looking. I suppose one option is to take a large nail and pound it into the wood further splitting the wood and creating additional texture - what I like about this idea is I don't have to glue anything else into this piece!

Then there's the copper wire wrapped around the copper nails, that needs to be pushed further, more shells - which are at home in my home studio - more odd bits need to be wired onto the surface. I've plans for the sides, the hidden or suprise element which I love adding to my works.

Last but not least I've yet to come across that special piece that screams finial (sp?) that goes in the center between the two clock faces. Why clock faces??? The cemetaries around here have many tombstones that have clock faces carved into them, so that's the local element I am incorporating. The copper patina is influenced by the copper clad moseleum (sp?) next to the first wifes' grave, it's way cool looking if I get back out there in the next week I'll make sure to take pics and post them to the blog.

I've thought about attaching all sorts of things to the blue wooden strips, I lay things up against them and it just doesn't look right. I've even auditioned more copper nails into the strips, again, no go. I'm out of ideas, though I figure I can't do any more damage to the piece by texturizing the wooden strips. They are needed as they hide the really rough edge of the copper sheeting (that's a full 1.5 pounds of copper you see there).

Ideas?

The New Guy

Like I said if I can ever get him to sit still, but here's a picture...

The New Guy

Like I said if I can ever get him to sit still, but here's a picture...

It's late and an announcement

And I really want to go to sleep but can't as I'm waiting on the washing machine. DH put a load of his work clothes in last night, maybe the night before I'm nto sure but they were putrid smelling so I rewashed them. I'll be glad when the washer is done so I can throw them into the dryer.

If he ever sits still!!!! Tada. I will take a picture of the latest member of our family. His name is Charlie, he's 10 months old, orange with a lot of spots and stripes, and is a Maine Coon, we got him from the animal rescue league tonight and he's absolutely beautiful and a true alpha male. I think he will work out just fine, the dogs are already pleased with him and in true beta form Pepper sat in the corner and pouted. After speaking with several animal trainers about our situation, after Barley's unexpected passing last February, it has been decided that he was an alpha male and the rest of our furkids were beta's and were very lost without him. Angel especially has been lost, she seems to have figured out what was going on the quickest and gave me a dirty "you didn't do what I think you did" look tonight. Yep I did it, I went and found them a leader! He's also super affectionate which I really love.

Rusted Silk Carrier Rods

I know I know I promised pictures and trust me I wish I had taken some because the bulk of the rods now lie in ruin on my drying screen! I put them in the washer, with a bit of soap, to neutralize them and clean the tree guck off of them and forgot to turn the washer off after it filled. Well lets just say that the agitation cycle is NOT a good for the rods. So I'm thinking that while I can make some constructed cloth with the remaining rods, and there are some that are wonderful, the rest I will make paper *think silk fusion* with this week.

So here's a picture of some silk paper, or silk fusion, seeds that I made circa 1995. And a few silk fusion bowls I also made. I should really find the box these are in and bring them up to the studio for the Silk Fusion class I'm teaching this fall. In the meantime I will try taking a picture of the rods, damage and all, with my cell phone camera - need to find the digicam again - but can't promise a quality image.

Quilt In Progress

I'll have to find my pics and post them later but I finally decided how I want to finish a quilt I started last spring. There's nothing like going through old photos, even if scanning in the negatives are slower than molassses on a january morning, to get inspiration. I have a lovely scanner but it's sooooo slow it's mind boggling. Some day I'd like to have one of those Nikon scanners where you stick the negative strip in and it reads each image individualy.

New rusted rods

I rust dyed about a pound, or more, of silk carrier rods, they are currently sitting out on my skirting frame oxidizing. After the last piece of constructed cloth I've decided to overdye some rusted rods to achieve an even greater depth of color and texture. I so love rust dyeing it's easy and convient, and by convient I mean I can leave it for awhile unattended, I don't have to brood over it like an immersion dye vat.

I'm still recovering from surgery this past Friday, and now have a cold. I think I may have broken my fever, still feeling dizzy though. It's the constant coughing I can live without, no it's not a bloodclot. I thought of that but I had a bit of a sinus drip before I went into surgery but everyone was "it's ok" well... it's not so ok now. I'm treating it, I found a tried and true anti viral product that really is helping with the symptoms, save the fever, and I'm feeling much better today. Sleep and rest will help with the fever, so I'm sitting here anwsering emails as I can only sleep so much and I get really stiff from lying down.

Rusted Carrier Rods

Here I'm making constructed cloth with the silk carrier rods. I've plans to rutst more rods this evening and do some further experimentation with them. I have more rusted rods that I'm making a evening bag out of, will post pictures later.

Working on this small project has helped me to resolve a quilt I've had on hold for a very long time. I will be overdyeing some rusted rods with cutch and adding them as embellishment to the quilt surface. The top photo is a detail shot of the constructed cloth.