Hosta's 053011

This hosta is my favorite, love the white edges on the leaves.

Peonies 053011

Opening up, can't wait to see the burgandy ones open up.

The white peony blossoms are all open, and will most probably be done tomorrow.

WIP - Barn

Now with pigments applied to the bottom section, it will dry lighter than what's in the image.  Pigment painting is all about layering and patience.

WIP - Barn

From the Barn Series - I dug this piece out of a box in my design studio tonight, for some reason the indigo dyed bottom two thirds faded and horribly so I plan to pigment paint this section.  I'll start with Mayan Blue and take it from there once it dries.

Lambs Ear

A member of the mint family, it is setting on blossoms, I have four huge stands of the lambs ear now I think my favorite part about this herb are the fuzzy leavs.

Hosta

I suspect that I'm the only one here that likes Hosta's this much.

Peonies

I admit the white blossoms with the red edges are my favorite but just had to share this near perfectly white blossom.

Peonies in Bloom

The white ones opened up about two hours ago and I suspect that they are going to bolt overnight so am trying to get as many pictures before the sun goes down as a possible.

I have one pink blossom that is fully opened the others are only half opened.

Unfortunately none of the burgandy blossoms are open yet and are looking a little ratty around the edges.

Pigment Painting

Today's live stream went well, here is one of the samples.

Corn Cobs

From the Road 052711

Corn Cobs and Palettes

Pigment Painting on Silk Fabric - Live Stream

If you've ever wanted to know how to paint fabrics with raw pigments, I will be streaming live from my studio tomorrow afternoon at 3pm CST.  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mark-making-with-nature

From the Road

I'm starting a new pictoral series based on places I visit here in Iowa called From the Road.  The goal is to post at least one picture a month, if not more frequently, of interesting views seen from my truck while out running errands.

From the Road

Mad about Madder Root e-Class

Available June 1st, 2011 a self directed e-Class dedicated to dyeing with Madder Root. Cost $30 USD

In this class students will learn how to use a traditional madder root vat to create a range of colors on silk and wool fabrics, ranging from deep scarlet to brilliant orange and everything in between. This class is self directed which allows students to work at their own pace.

Membership at the Natural Surface "IS" required and pre-payment is required before accessing class information.

Class will formally open June 1st, 2011 (12:00am CST that's Iowa)

Mad About Madder Root e-Class

Available June 1st, 2011 a self directed e-Class dedicated to dyeing with Madder Root. Cost $30 USD

In this class students will learn how to use a traditional madder root vat to create a range of colors on silk and wool fabrics, ranging from deep scarlet to brilliant orange and everything in between. This class is self directed which allows students to work at their own pace.

Membership at the Natural Surface "IS" required and pre-payment is required before accessing class information.  Class will formally open June 1st, 2011 (12:00am CST that's Iowa)



Eucalytus Branches

Working on two self directed online classes, available June 1st through my network The Natural Surface

Organic Soy Beans

Organic Soy Beans, I'll be demoing how to make soy milk in an upcoming online class via The Natural Surface Network  More information later this evening.

Front Porch

All I have to do now is wash the porch and the furniture later this evening, sometime this summer the ceiling will be scraped, sanded, and then painted sky blue.  Then I'll paint the south facing wall, the wall with the oval window, Copper Pot (Sherwin Williams) and then finally the porch floor. I'll paint the columns a ruby red color and the porch rails, after they are repaired, will be various shades of sage green.

It all sounds weird I know but when all is said and done the house will be about 16 different colors, it already has 12 colors on it, and will look like classic Painted Lady.

Porch Clean Up

We spent some time cleaning the front porch this afternoon and now it looks pretty nice, well as nice as a 105 year old porch can look.  John hung my cupboard out there, an old primitive I've had hanging out, and then we put a table under it so now I have a potting table and a place to put pots.  I planted some smaller pots with marigolds, will have to purchase more marigold seeds, and will plant some petunia's tomorrow.  Pictures coming soon.

Community of Artists Exhibition Acceptance

Crow Field was accepted into the Octagon Center for the Art's Community of Artists Exhibition!

To Thine Own Self Be True

And I haven't been.  Last year I was approached by a big publishing house to write a book about natural dyeing.  They laid out what they wanted and as much as I try I just cannot produce a book for their formula. 

Don't get me wrong their formula is most excellent, it's just not me and when it comes to dyeing fabric, fibers, and yarns I put a ton of me into the work.  I guess that's the epiphany when writing a book about dyeing with natural dyes I'm writing about me and if you were to ask me what IS wrong with my first three books is they exclude me! 

The end result was I quit producing, I floundered, I quit producing cloth, finished works, and I quite writing about what I was doing.  Why I felt shame and guilt about this is beyond me, it was after all their formula and they didn't want to know about me they wanted me to fit into their forumla.

So with that in mind the books, the DVD's, etc. will soon change and you will be seeing less mind numbing instruction and a whole lot more of "me".  It's the effort of shutting out the other voices that tell you who you are and what you should be, that is the hard part.  I've come to the conclusion that those who insist, no demand, on telling you who you are and what you should be really don't care two whits about who/what you are or will be.

Coming soon, "the real me", get ready world because here I come!

WIP - Hot Flash - Detail

Hot Flash in what I like to call the ugly duckling stage, but soon to become a swan!

Studio Window

My studio has a greenish cast to it these days as the light bounces off of the red oak leaves.

WIP - Detail

Detail

WIP

Now with a little machine stitching, I still have a long way to go before this piece is finished.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm Lost and Found???

Or simply neglected?  I found this piece hiding in a corner, I started it back around 2004ish and it went AWOL.  This is what happens when you dig into the deep recesses of your studio closet, goodies are to be had back there, oh and spiders.

Silk crinkle crepe top fabric, wool batting, cotton backing.
Natural Dyed with Cochineal and then compost dyed as an overdye.
36 x 60 inches, an approximation.
Soon to be machine stitched.

Neglected Herb Garden

My poor neglected herb garden will be recieving a make over tomorrow.  Will be doing lots of cleaning and pruning and then a few new plants, first up is some sweet mint.

Dyer's Garden

Am planting a dyer's garden this year.

So far I've planted coreopsis, will plant more coreopsis seed tomorrow, goldenrod, and marigolds.

Garden Update 0515

Some new hens and chicks, something killed off the ones we had before, not sure what it was but hopefully these will survive.  I also planted some sedum, it was a trio mix that for some reason I wasn't able to seperate, maybe next year when they are larger.

Sedum, coreopsis, petite goldenrod, and a mum.

Clematis with a tomato plant on each side, one isa cherry tomato the other a Black Krim. Will plant nastursium seeds in front of the clematis tomorrow.

My poor salad garden is over run with lambs quarter, which is going bye bye tomorrow!

Love Knows No Bounds

Black Gold - Horse Manure

This batch was a little hotter but will be usable come fall, it's heavy with hay and straw which makes me very happy because I don't have to mix leaves into the manure.

Rusty Horse Shoes

Given to me by Norma for rust dyeing, she's my horse manure supplier, I can't wait to see what kinds of patterns I come up with.

Red Hearts

Base heart is started using silk dupioni, dyed with cochineal, wool quilt batting and cochineal dyed cotton backing fabric.  I machine stitched the edging and am now set to start embellishing the heart with natural dyed vintage trims, lace, yoyo's etc.  I enjoy the hand stitching portion of heart making it's a very nice respite between projects.

Natural Dyed Silk Yoyo's

Dutchman's Breeches

For some reason it's a blood red color this year, not sure why either.

Lambs Ear

Cherry tree

The cherry tree was covered in honeybees this afternoon, hopefully this means many cherries later this spring :-)  Am eagerly anticipating my first batch of sour cherry jam.

Details

Color Pencil Redux

I moved my watercolor pencils out of their larger tin and seperated them by color ways into tin mugs, I'm not sure if I like this set up yet or not, well I do for the greens and yellows.