Name those plants

Name those plants and their uses if you know of any. I'm not sure if I have the correct names or not, I"m going on what my husband calls them, he is usually correct about their common local names, (Iowa).

I"m interested in making cordage with these plants or spinning them into threads, after I break them down into usable fibers. I also have Milkweed and Jerusalem Artichokes to work with, and a ton of Tiger Lilies. I'm sure none of the neighbors will mind my picking weeds in the alley after all they are constantly spraying them anyway!

I'm ready to get busy with my collaboration project, I've been collecting the parts to construct my 7 vessels, and have been journaling. And now that my wet studio table is cleaned off...

Good ole Virginia Creeper, or at least that what everyone around here calls it, and it's everywhere this year. 

Horseweed? People around here call this horseweed. I'm not sure, this stand is short because it's already been cut down once this year, it reaches about 6-10 feet in height depending on the year. 

The grape vine, or at least it looks like one, that grows on my fence each year. It never produces grapes but I like the way it looks. 

I'm not sure what it is. 

Blue Speckled Moon. Copyright 2001. 

Blue Moon Copyright 2001. Natural Dye Extracts and Earth Pigments on Silk Crepe de Chine, sized with soy milk. 

Sandstone 3 Copyright 2001 k. baxter packwood Compost dyed and earth pigment painted silk dupoioni. 

Body Perfect g

I need to find those three pieces and finish them asap, theres a show I want to enter them into that I think they would be definate qualifiers for.

Body Perfect 5. Copyright 2003 k. baxter packwood. The backing fabric was dyed with indigo. Top fabric painted with Earth Pigments and soy milk sizing. It is machine stitched. 

Body Perfect G - in progress. Copyright 2003 k. baxter packwood. Cotton fabric painted with Natural Dye Extracts and Earth Pigments. The fabric was treated with a soy milk sizing first. 

Play Time is Over

The water heater sprung a leak, it's 15 years old, so playtime for today is definately over. Oh well I got my 15 minutes in the sun!

The Old Man of the Woods is taking a well deserved nap. 

Images applied with Unison Soft Pastels onto a soy milk wetted background. The background was fairly saturated so the lines bled quite a bit. I will apply more of the pastels later when the fabric has dried some. 

Vine Charcoal in a soy milk suspension. This image was finger painted onto the fabric. Copyright 2005 k .baxter packwood 

Some Unison Soft Pastels, in earth tone colors. The hand print is French Red Ocher suspended in a soy milk suspension. Copyright 2005 k. baxter packwood 

French Red Ocher in a soy milk suspension on Pimatex Cotton. Copyright 2005 k. baxter packwood 

Caran D' Ache Neocolor II Black on Compost Dyed Fabric. Copyright 2005 k. baxter packwood. 

Pigment Painted Cloth

Here's some pics of pigment painted cloth, one piece has been Compost Dyed before hand, the other is white Pimatex cotton.

I'm using a combination of lose earth pigments and Unison soft Pastels with soy milk. Yes the soy milk is archival. After the pigmetns have been applied to the fabric you need to let it cure. Once the curing period is over you can then machine wash and dry the fabric. There are those out there that will tell you not to do that but I have had no problems to date. No the soy milk treated fabric doesn't attract bugs.

Soy milk has been used as a sizing for several thousand years, primarily in Japan and China. Artist John Marshall, author of Salvation by Soy, is what I would call an expert on soy milk and it's uses. I carry his book on my webstore http://www.prairiefibers.com You can also buy earth pigments and organic soy beans for making soy milk from my store as well.

You can also use acorn milk, but you have to beat the squirrels to the acorns first. You remove the meats from the acorn, grind them up in water and let them soak overnight. Strain the milk from the chunks the next day and your good to go.

Compost Dyed Cloth 

Studio Time

My husband John, that would be the faithful assistant pictured below, says that the reason I've taken on painting our bedroom is because I really want to be in my studio creating cloth. He's right. I finally managed to clean off my work table, so after I get all of my orders filled and out the door it's party time!

First up is a solar coreopsis dye bath. Second up is some art cloth for an article that is due very soon. Third up is some fabric surfaced with various dry and oil pastels. The oil pastes are a combination of Shiva Paintstiks and Cray Pas and Rembrants. The soft pastels are Unisons and various eart pigments I have up in my studio.

I'm going to try porky quills with part of the coreopsis dye bath, hopefully they will take the dye color.

--Pictures will be coming soon.

The color Palette for our bedroom, pretty isn't it?  

Color Pallette for Bedroom

You would be right if you said that those were Martha Stewart Color Swatches, thats Martha Stewart for Sherwin Williams. The only color not present is the ceiling color which was a mistint I picked up at Wal Mart, called alcove ivory, and it looks suspeciously like gold to me.

All of the colors I chose are in a painting we own by R. Atkinson Fox. Shell Pink is the main color wall, the woodwork is painted Country White.

I Remember Mama

Here are two of the quilts I made for the show I Remember Mama. The final quilt did not make it into the show, which I was really grateful for. One the quilt wasn't finished in my mind, and two I wasn't ready for my quilt to leave and be gone for almost a year.

The first quilt in the series, What Mama Loves is three layers of fabric stitched in the Kantha Quilting style. Kantha Stitching has it's origins in India.

The second quilt is a combination of machine and hand stitching. It is also three layers of fabric, no batting. I also put some found objects on the piece starting with the patch of fabric in the middle of the quilt.

What Mama Loves, from Round 1 of I Remember Mama. This piece will be in a book commerating the show. 

Detail of I Remember Mama 3. The piece is titled Wild Flowers Don't Grow in Pots - Mama 1947-2005. I'm glad it wasn't accepted into round 3 of I Remember Mama, I keep wanting to pick it up and work on it some more. 

I Remember Mama Quilt 3 

Primer Beige against a Gold Ceiling 

Perwinkle Blue 

My Faithful Assistant 

Bye Bye Blue

Out with the old, the periwinkle blue, and in with the new - well temporarily new anyway - beige. I'm planning to paint our bedroom Shell Pink, it's a Sherwin Williams Color, this weekend. They, Sherwin Williams, are having a huge paint sale this weekend so I'm going shopping! The beige is my primer coat over the perwinkle blue. The room looked too much like a cave, even hubby thinks the color is still too cold. Even with a gold ceiling, which we are keeping, it never really warmed up in there. My linens are whites, pale greens, and pale blues, they do not work well with perwinkle blue! So now I'm priming everything in anticipation of the color I really want.

Venus Calling

Check out this link of Venus! http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050625.html Funny I've always thought that it was more red but I guess that's Mars.

Current Volcanic Activity

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/current.html

I've been trying to put this in my links section, but for some reason it doesn't show up??? Any ideas?

Boundary Outflow 2 

Boundary Outflow 1