Barley

Yes I pushed Barely further down the blog, if you wish to read about him. My blog is my homepage and it was just too painful to see his picture there everytime I pulled up the internet.

Tags and Sequin Stuff

Sequin Tape, now what to do with this glorious stuff! Brenda has some copper stuff that she's going to share with me, seems I remember seeing some purple stuff - oh yeah it was sent to me for my pieces I'm making on my mother... what a good place to use this glorious material. I think Beaney and Littlejohn laid it down and stitched threads through the holes, I could be wrong though.

Some tags I'm working on, they are very large and I'm putting them in a book that I'm making about Barley.

In Progress

Ok I meant to make a book in rememberance of Barley, I ended up making a clock instead!!! I'm calling my piece "Keeping Spring Time"! Barley loved having the windows opened in the spring, he'd run from window to window howling like a goon. Here's a picture of it in progress, I love the bright orange feet, it just gives the whole piece spunk.

Check out my best friend, Brenda K. Backman's, blog :

http://www.brendabackman.blogspot.com she has posted a new encaustic piece, now if she'll only post more pictures of her gorgeous, if not a bit dark and thought provoking, art work for the world to see! Leave a post when you get there maybe she'll post more pics if you do!

She lent me this really cool book called Crafting Personal Shrines by Carol Owen.

Barley Update and Well...

My friend Brenda's mom thinks Barley had a heart attack. Which actually is making some sense since he did make a weird grunting noise as he jumped up onto the chair, before slumping to the floor, where he proceeded to make even more moans. I tried CPR, but I have to tell you it's really hard on a cat. The fact that pretty much all of the vets in this town are closed on Wednesdays didn't help matters any either.

And if life weren't currently bad enough... The sewer has started backing up into the house, so I have to clear out my wet studio to higher ground - it lives in the basement. I'm figuring it's because the pipes are freezing at the end of the driveway. J- says that the storm drains are full and frozen so this could be a contributing factor, I don't know what I do know is I have a long night ahead of me.

Forward

I spent the better part of the afternoon in my wet studio creating. I can't wait to get into the new space, so that everything is on the same floor. Right now I'm waiting for the glue (E6000) to dry on my piece I"m making, you'll have to wait for more details. I'm hoping to have it mostly done tonight though. Whence I get this piece done I have plans to make a second one and video tape the process.

I'm also making a book piece in memory of Barley, it's the best way to work past all of this, I have found that creating is the best way to work through pain and loss. I have some bright yellow cast paper I made years ago that he was insistant on walking on while it dried. As a result his paw prints are embedded in the paper. First I have to find that piece of paper, then I can do something with it.

I'm hoping that the clay mold the vet makes of his foot is clear so I can make a reverse cast/stamp of it, I'll know more about that in a couple of weeks.

Pepper

Angel

Silky

Silky, along with the others, is a bona fide couch potato, so please don't email me for abusing my dog!!! She was attached to the clothesline pole while I weeding the garden, enjoying a bit of fresh air and sun. If she had her way she'd do nothing but chase rabbits, birds, and squirrels. She's a blue weimeraner.

So Life Goes On???

I was able to find a vet that did pet cremations, in town no less. So Barley will be returning home in about two weeks in a little tin (or velvet bag) I've been told. The vet will make a clay cast of his foot, I wasn't able to get a clear print using a stamp pad and paper.

Silky has figured out what's going on and is moping, Pepper is scared out of his gourd as he doesn't know where his buddy has disappeared too, and Angel is absolutely clueless, though she got the closest too him when I showed him to them, though Silky did try to lick/bite (?) his ear. I"m not really sure what Silky was trying to do.

We figure Silky is next as she's not doing well at all, and she's going on 10 which is old for a large dog, especially for one that's been fighting cancer for the past six years. This is of course if Angel doesn't do herself in by doing twirls on the staircase, I haven't figure out how to break her of this, she's quite the whirliing durbish when excited and stopping her is next to impossible.

John and I discussed Barley's accident last night, he's been falling a lot lately, I'm not sure why, except that he was just old. He also had intermittent eyesight, which the vet was unable to explain but he might have had a neurlogical problem it's hard telling. You try to do your best and yet they still end up dying, yes life sucks.

Good Bye Barley

The Old Man of the Woods

1994-2007

Barley

R.I.P. Sweet Heart

Barley aka The Old Man of the Woods 1994-2007. He fell off of the chair trying to get to my bowl of cereal the only thing I can think of is he must have fallen on his tail and broken his back when he fell. It was quick that's all I could ever ask for.

SetaSilk Woes

Does anyone know why it's foxing? It would appear that the pigment and the binder are seperating. I've shaken the bottle, and shake it periodically while using but it's still doing creating this fox or ghost like image that I don't want. The fabric is silk charmuse and is stretched on a frame. The part that really bites is this is on my final fabric piece, the paint didn't do this on any of the test fabrics.

New Work and Life Goes On

I will have to take some pictures later of my newer pieces. After much deliberation I have decided to take the webstore down for a space of time, probably until early summer. In the meantime I'm concentrating more on my career as an artist and am working on a commercial studio space. Printing fabric is my passion, printing with natural dyes now that I'm even more passionate about.

In the past year it has become exceedingly impossible to work with a shopping cart that would function only part of the time, seems that no matter how much money I spend on modules and IT work it still did not function correctly. Couple that with a thousand plus other retailers that are selling the same products as I was, their retail prices very often were what I was paying for the same products wholesale and it doesn't take long to do the math.

So now I'm at a point where I am evaluating things, getting a grip on where to go next.

The online classes will resume later this spring. I am currently photographing, video taping, and am rewriting all of the documentation (workbooks) for the classes. I have found that a 40 page workbook format is working well for me. I have learned a lot in the past year and will learn even more this coming year.

Stay tuned and meanwhile back at the prairie...
-Kimberly

Video Clip - Finally

Scouring Overview

I'm not sure why I am unable to load the video here at this point. Here's the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GAhHjOFLzM

YouTube.com

Now if I can just figure out how to make the box smaller and put it in the right hand side bar I'll be a happy camper! Until then I will be uploading more shorts, and working on the compression quality.

Video Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQsYVdJ5tIE

This is a video clip from my Mark Making with Nature DVD, I'm not sure but Youtube.com may ask you to register to view the video. I'm hoping to have the bugs worked out later today. The video can be purchased from my Etsy.com store at:

http://www.kbaxterpackwood.etsy.com

The New Blogger

I really hate the new blogger, I have less control over my own blog now. I don't know whoever thought this up but... We'll start with the two sets of login user names and login passwords and end with my being able to publish my blog when I want to, not when someone else thinks it's good for me.

So in a few weeks, when the dust settles down over here I will be moving my blogs to the land of oh yeah Hey I get to control the content and style!