WIP - Greg with Beads

 

Natural dyed silk fabric machine stitched with aurifil thread.  

And now some detail shots, a combination of vintage glass and plastic beads.

WIP - Greg with some Beads

My beading spot on the sewing table.

Greg will be getting mostly purple, green, and some orange, beads.

WIP - Nocturne Series

I like this one way better than the first one to the point that I'm ready to start layering more color, texture, etc., on the first one I started. 

Birds in Tree stencil, watercolor, tsukineko ink, pitt pen, copic marker.

Went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some lino boards to carve, I have several sheets of this in my wet studio that I cannot find for the life of me! 

I have one of these floating around my studio as well, this one is slightly larger text size than the one I have and the price was low enough that I purchased a second font plate...

An Old English font.

Somewhere in my wet studio I have gobs of print blocks I've carved, it's time to go on a treasure hunt!

WIP - Nocturne Series

 



Nocturne Series - Now for some stitching.  

 Birds in Tree Stencil design on kona cotton fabric painted with tsukineko inks, birds outlined with copic pen, timtex batting and aurifil cotton thread.

WIP - Birds in Tree

First design made with the Birds in Tree stencil design.  The stencil to the right is Birds in Tree Inverse - works best as a mask or with a large brayer full of paint!  More photos later...

Stencil Heaven!

 

 

Tsukineko ink on watercolor paper using my two stencil designs.

Birds in Tree Inverse Stencil -  works beautifully as a mask when laying down color!

"Bird in Trees Inverse" Stencil sample.  I'm in love with both of my stencil samples, if you don't hear from me well you know the drill send whoppers and cheesecake cause it means I'm holed up in my studio!

Oooh Stencils

 

Yesterday something absolutely wonderful arrived in the mail for my approval, my sample stencil from one of my own designs "Birds in Tree"!  I've been playing with it ever since it arrived, and of course the inevitable wait time for layers of gesso to dry had to be endured, but over all I'm having a blast this afternoon!

 

More layer as these two layers should be dry and ready for the next several processes, which includes some ink/pen techniques and then more layering.  I see some numbers and text in this piece as well. 

 

Tomorrow I will have some fabric samples to show and tell. 

The Natural Surface Network Down 062413

If you are trying to access the Natural Surface Network it appears to be down this afternoon, showing a 500: Unexpected Error Message.  Am hoping it will be available and very soon, as of yet they haven't sent us creators/owners a message as to what has happened to cause the error message.

Marigold

Common Marigold - Tagetes sp.
Golds to browns using cold water extraction method.

Coreopsis

Dyer's Coreopsis
Oranges to reds
Stable

June Short Story Blog Chain

Starting Date: Saturday June 1, 2013
Open to all forum members, even after it starts!

This month's prompt:
BugsYep. Bugs. Simple and easy. Prose, poetry, play. Fiction, nonfiction. It's all good, all bugs.

Instructions:
Simply post your blog's URL in this thread to join. I'll let you know in this thread when it's your turn. Once your turn comes up, you have two days to complete a blog post using the prompt. When you are finished, please add a link to your post on the thread.

Each post should be less than 1000 words if possible. Read and comment on other participants' posts if you possibly can--they'll be doing the same for you! Please include a list of all participants' blogs (not necessarily their actual posts for the month) in your blog post.

*****************

Bug story located at my Nature/Writing Blog

Ramones Transformation - A Bug Story

Starting Date: Saturday June 1, 2013
Open to all forum members, even after it starts!

This month's prompt:
BugsYep. Bugs. Simple and easy. Prose, poetry, play. Fiction, nonfiction. It's all good, all bugs.

Instructions:
Simply post your blog's URL in this thread to join. I'll let you know in this thread when it's your turn. Once your turn comes up, you have two days to complete a blog post using the prompt. When you are finished, please add a link to your post on the thread.

Each post should be less than 1000 words if possible. Read and comment on other participants' posts if you possibly can--they'll be doing the same for you! Please include a list of all participants' blogs (not necessarily their actual posts for the month) in your blog post.

*****************

Light streamed through the tree canopy onto the woodland floor dancing as the leaves swayed in the gentle breeze, mist still hanging in the morning air.

Lost deep in thought a loud growl disturbed Abigail’s dinner.  A quick look around the woods, revealed a wolf greedily eating a monarch butterfly, its golden yellow wings protruding from the wolf’s mouth.

“Stop” she yelled,

“Sezs who?” He asked.

“Look at the wings!” She yelled.

“Why?” He asked.

“Just spit it out!”

Obligingly he spit the butterfly from his mouth, a glittering stream of nanobots made their way up the saliva dribbling from his mouth and raced down his throat causing him to gag.

“What the hell was that?” Asking as he recoiled in horror.

“Nanobots” she replied using a leg from her male lover to clean her mandibles.

Gasping Ramone began puking his vertebrae into a bloodied pool upon the woodland floor.

“What is happening to me?” he asked weakly.

“You ate the golden monarch” she replied.  Still fixated on her lover’s leg she debated if she should take it home with her or not?

“Help me” he gasped

“It’s too late now” she retorted.

Ramone lay on the woodland floor twitching as the bones and muscles in his body turned to mush; a deep sleep fell over him.  Life carried on in the woods as if nothing unusual had happened, the only true witnesses to the event was Abigail and the now deceased golden monarch.

His once long sleek tail and thick fur had sloughed off onto the ground beneath him; while he slept the nanobots converted his former wolf body into the chrysalis of a monarch butterfly.  Barely aware of his surroundings Ramone realized that he was hanging upside down from somewhere up high. 

“HELP!!!” Ramone screamed for what felt like an eternity, screams went unnoticed by the other occupants of the woods.  This had to be a trap of some sort, the beta males hated him, or so he believed but who would do this to him?

Exhausted from screaming Ramone slipped back into a deep sleep. The nanobots continued their work as he slept hanging from an oak branch.

“Ramone, Is that you?” Abigail asked creeping closer to the strange blob.

The creature did not respond; it hung there lifeless emitting a soft pinging sound.  Abigail turned back to the remains of her latest lover, kicking his head aside as she made her way towards the top of the tree. 

There she sat waiting, for what she didn’t know but the horror show that was occurring in the lower recesses of the oak tree was mesmerizing.  She wondered if this was how her lovers felt, right before she snapped off their heads.

In his dream state thoughts went through his mind.  He was proud of his status as a wolf in the woodland kingdom.  He would watch Abigail be pursued by lovers, courting day and night, then the mating, a heated fury that ended with the poor son of a bitch losing his head!  That wasn’t Ramones style. No, he preferred to court the ladies, woo them with fresh kill, defending them from the other less scrupulous wolves.  He was a veritable ladies man, protecting them at all costs from the dangers of the woods. 

And now this… what did he do to deserve this?

Nausea set in as he swung in the breeze, he hated heights they always made him dizzy though he never let on about this with the ladies, and worse than hating heights he hated being upside down!

The soft pinging sound continued inside of his head as he fell into a deep sleep.

As he slept the nanobots continued to transform Ramone from his former wolf glory into a monarch butterfly. 

The transformation from wolf to chrysalis took two weeks to complete; if all went according to plan he would be a force to be reckoned with in the woodland.  

The hum of the woodland increased as the blue green chrysalis began changing color.  At first it started to turn brown, rumors abounded that the creature within the chrysalis had died. 

Abigail grew tired of the rumors and retreated to her spot high up in the oak tree, a spot that allowed her to blend in with the surrounding foliage, out of harm’s way.  The last thing she wanted was to end up as dinner, especially a grackles dinner.  She hated grackle’s they were loud, dirty, and unpredictable.

Her greatest joy was watching the squirrel kill the grackles.  She would never have believed it had she not seen it with her own eyes. 

She had to admit she got an immense satisfaction from the squirrel’s killing efficiency.  Her mates knew that the end was near, but the grackle, no the grackle never once suspected its own demise.  She wiped the drool from her mandible.  The very thought of the squirrel killing a grackle caused a desire deep within herself to find a mate and quick, before the desire passed.

Her trance was broken by the noise coming from the branches below her, the woodland suddenly sprung to life as the creatures gathered at the bottom of the oak tree. 

Movement within the chrysalis was causing a loud ruckus.

“It’s alive!” someone shrieked.

The once blue green color had changed to orange and black.  The nanobots shimmered as they moved even faster over Ramones newly transformed body.

Claustrophobia created a strong desire to tear at his body, and tear he did.  Breaking free of the clear chrysalis he inhaled deeply, blood pulsed upwards in his body causing his newly formed wings to unfurl.  The metamorphosis was complete, all he had to do was open his wings and fly.

A gasp rose up from the woodland floor as its residents gazed upon the monarch’s beauty.

The bonds of the chrysalis had broken and the soft pinging giving way to a heartbeat, Ramone stretched his wings and soared upon the wind.

************************

Three modified grackles landed on a branch, not far from Abigail’s hiding place.  They had been modified with a special gene in hopes of eradicating their numbers from the land, but alas all did not go as planned.  Instead super grackles were born with the ability to think for themselves and with control over the very nanobots that were designed to kill them.

 A plan was hatched by the grackles to not only kill the squirrel his cold callous ways disturbed many in the woodland, but to also kill Abigail. 

A victim of her own genetic predisposition she killed her lovers in order to mate.  Many in the woodland found her sexual arousal over the grackle deaths unacceptable.  She had to go.

Ramone was there guy, he would protect them all, but not in his wolf state.  He was changed into a monarch butterfly, a majestic being, his size allowing him to dispatch the squirrel and Abigail.

Peace once again existed in the woodland.

********************

Participants and posts:
orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to post)
Diem_Allen - http://mindovermistakes.blogspot.com (link to post)
Ralph Pines - http://ralfast.wordpress.com (link to post)
articshark - http://www.drslaten.com/blog (link to post)
Lady Cat - http://randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.ca (link to post)
U2Girl - http://ancatdubh.org (link to post)
MsLaylaCakes - http://www.taraquan.com/ (link to post)
SuzanneSeese - http://www.viewofsue.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
robynmackenzie - http://iwanttobeawesomewhenigrowup.com/ (link to post)
Sunwords - http://susannedoering.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
Angyl78 - http://jelyzabeth.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
susanielson - http://somesemblancethereof.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
HistorySleuth - http://historysleuth.blogspot.com (link to post)
SRHowen - http://srhowen1.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
xcomplex - http://arielemerald.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
milkweed - http://www.thistlequill.blogspot.com/ (link to post)

Bumped:

Archive of Past Blog Chains

Mark Making with Nature eBook Combo Sale!!!

Mark Making with Nature eBook Combo 

$29.95!
Own all four eBooks today! 

Getting Started with Natural Dyes

Compost Dyeing and Other Fermentation Dyeing Techniques

Rust and Clay Dyeing

Mark Making with Nature

Praying Mantis

WIP - Sunshine and Roses 061713

It should be finished tomorrow sometime, this piece has been a break through piece for me.  Break through in that while beading and stitching I resolved some issues I had with another piece I constructed way back around 2001, Big Blue Stem.

Big Blue Stem - Earth Pigments, Natural Dyes, Cotton, Cheesecloth, Stitch. 

This piece has been languishing in my studio for about twelve years.  From time to time I trot it out, hang it on my wall and alas nothing, nada, zilch, zip!  And then late Saturday night, whilest I was stitching on Sunshine and Roses it occurred to me to experiment with overlaying digitally printed silk organza fabrics onto the right hand panel.  More coming soon...

WIP - Sunshine and Roses

 

 

 

 

Hmmm it's so bright and cheerful that that's what I went with "Sunshine and Roses".

On My Sewing Table

Finishing of a piece I've been ignoring for several years now, it feels great to finally finish off some of these WIP's.

 

Bjorkboda Marsh 060613

Near Bjorkboda Marsh in Hamilton County.

Native prairie plants at the marsh.

The marsh has water once again, it took a LOT of rain for the water levels to return to normal.

Bjorkboda Progess

I've started stitching on this piece again, this time with a renewed vision.

Natural Dye eBook Give Away!!!

Getting Started with Natural Dyeing

eBook Give Away!!!

 

Hurry, this Offer Ends Soon!

Beadless

I started adding some beads to the Queen Anne's Lace umbrels late last night and then decided I didn't like them.

So I plucked them off and am going beadless, yes I like this piece much better now, will add an edging for a finished look.

Hanging Pots 060213

Four done and eight left to go.

The rest of the mess that will soon become hanging flower pots!