Yellow Bird

It's not done yet, but here is my WIP. I've spent this week with hardware issues again, my neighbor lent me his laptop tonight so I could burn DVD's and CDROMS, I"m hoping my new DVD burner will be here come Friday Morning.

More Samples

I've been painting more fabric with pigments, here's a detail of a piece I was working on tonight. I'm building a body of "primitive images" for lack of a better word, they are spontaneous and a lot of fun to do. I"m not sure what smells like burning vanilla in the house John noticed it earlier, it's even stronger now. I've looked a bout the place and didn't find anything, and since I don't burn candles, let alone scented ones, I'm starting to think it's coming from the neighbors place.

WIP2

I haven't decided if I just want to bind this piece off and leave it as is or not.

What I'm Up To

Or where is my order??? Hopefully I will have the email bugs worked out tomorrow, for some odd reason I can receive email, but am unable to send, and apparently this has been going on for two weeks. Oddly enough I thought my mail was getting sent, but then out of the blue I clicked on a folder and what do you know all of the mail I've sent out has ended up in this folder. At least I know who hasn't received an email, but it's still frustrating none the less.

I'm spending the month of January and February doing taxes, inventory, catching up up on back orders, and getting ready for classes. Getting ready for classes entails shooting new video, I've discovered that all of the video I took with my webcam cannot be edited with video editing programs - or at least the ones I own anyway (Pinnacle, and Adobe Premier)

This means everything has to be reshot, which means prepping all over again. The upside to this is I am creating new samples, which means I have more to choose from, and I'm taking some of the older ones and am creating a finished piece - which allows me to create projects for my classes - one of the biggest requests I've had.

I'm also hoping to have a few vidcasts and podcasts up soon, it's hard getting everything done when it's only you that's doing the work. My husband is willing to keep me in equipment though.

I've finished updating the Rust and Clay Dyeing book, putting the video clips in another location as this proved to be too confusing. This book is on CDROM.

Rusted Sheer

I discuss how to make this fabric, and the WIP below this post in my newly updated Rust and Clay Dyeing book - available on CDROM.

WIP

Indigo dyed, Rust and Tannin dyed cotton fabric.

Found

I found these while cleaning today, I'll be posting them on my etsy.com site later, there are 20 one yard pieces in each bundle. Each bundle is a combination of silk and rayon ribbons and yarns varying from silks to cotton and or wool that have been dyed with natural dyes, they are $28.00 each. I have some more I need to wash that are incredibly beautiful reds and burgandies, just in time for V-Day.

Rust Sample

I've been working on an update for my Rust and Clay Dyeing book, and have been making more samples. It'll be shipping the end of next week, if all goes well, yes it's still on CD-ROM but I"ve moved the video clips so that they are seperate now, making them easier to find and use.

I took this image three hours after I started the fabric. The fabric was dyed in indigo first, then washed, probably three dips, three very blotchy dips. I used some tannin based natural dyes to create the pinkish areas.

Wet Studio Lights

Before and After the new lights, there doesn't appear to be much difference in these photos but trust me when you are in my studio there is a HUGE difference! It'd be nice to have some lights on the design wall, where the fabric is hanging. Btw my design wall is really a canvas tarp that we put grommets into and hung from a galvinized pole using curtain rings.

Snow

We have SNOW!!!

Winter Composting Continued

Winter Composting

Here's a bundle that has been living under the hackberry tree for the past 6 months or so. I think it may be about 3-5 yards in lenght, I've forgotten by now. I was thinking of pulling it out today and seeing what it looked like, this here is a picture of the top of the bundle. The stuff to the left is a pile of soybeans, organic ones that fermented a little bit too long. I threw them on top of the bundle, orignally but the racoons seem to have eaten most of them.

Storage

Storage and More Storage, it's so nice to be able to find things now. Have more organizing to do but it will have to wait until after the lights go in.

Yesterday was a bad day, I managed to kill a computer, well I didn't actually do it myself. When one circiut was being tested for power something fried, and the electricity literally leaped across the circuit breakers in the breaker box, traveling somehow or another to my computer, which was on an entirely seperate GFI circuit breaker and frying it. Lovely, just bloody lovely. The only positive side of this whole matter is this was my personal computer, not my work computer.

Fun Fun Fun

I think my recycling endeavors just reached an all time high over here. Brenda and I got togehter today and exchanged our xmas presents (I was too sick over the holiday, flu, to do so then) She got me two new books:

Plush-O-Rama Curious Creatures for Immature Adults by Linda Kopp and Stupid Sock Creatures: Making Quirky, Lovable Figures from Cast-off Socks by John Murphy

This absolutely feeds that need to make plushies and ugly art dolls. I have quite the collection of plushies I've made already, and a few really ugly art dolls as well (they are so ugly they are adorable) Anyway, don't google the word plushie! A plushie is a stuffed animal but it's not quite animal and it's not quite a doll, kinda like adorable little alien creatures.

The Stupid Sock Book - I have a sheltie that chews holes in socks so now I have all these odd ball socks, perfect for making dolls out of! I'm one of those people who loved the sock monkey, remember those? My grandmother made one for each of us one year (five total) back in the early 70's and somehow or another I ended up with most of them.

Lights Camera

Well the lights are being installed anyway. You can never have enough lighting in the studio. John is working on putting in recessed, but adjustable, 50 watt halogen lamps for me. They will be residing directly over my screenprinting, class demo, table. I need a better pair of speakers for my computer radio - the pair I have have no bass.

More goodies

Here's a pile of wool fabrics I dyed with natural dyes about two years ago. The green piece is about a half yard in length, I can't wait to put it to good use. It makes me think "my what pretty green eyes you have". Whence I get the wet studio cleaned I have plans to clean the closet in my design studio - translation organize all of the fabics on their respective shelves. Most of it will be cut up and used to art dolls, atc's and postcards as I'm really not into the commercial fabrics anymore. I may overdye, paint or rust them but since most of them are dark colors I'm not sure if this is an option without removing the color first. Could be interesting.

Bits of Ribbon

Whilest cleaning I found this lovely silk ribbon I dyed with cochineal sometime ago. I'm finding all sorts of stuff I want to overdye and rust!

Wet Studio

Old photo but not much has changed. This is the island in my wet studio, where I was making some stuff for halloween or something like that, I forget now. The space is just as crowded, only with rusty objects for creating cloth.

Taking Time Off

Note if you placed an order before January 3rd it's getting shipped this week, now that I'm recovered from the flu and feel like standing in public again. If you are waiting for a backordered item it will be shipped as soon as it arrives here.

If you placed an order after January 3rd it'll get filled, eventually, I'm taking the month of January off, so it may come at the end of the month, it may come sooner.

Now on with life...

I've decided to take some time off, the month of January to be precise. And if I don't get everything done then I'll take February off as well. I'm using this time to get caught up on things, like book work, inventory, taxes, and back orders. I'm also refilming - and editing - all of my online classes. And if that wasn't enough I decided to clean my surface design studio this afternoon. That'll take the rest of the week as I want to put things where I can actually get to them so that they are easy to get to, clear as mud??? In a nutshell I'm tired of wading through piles and stacks to get to something.

Normally I'm quite organized but when I'm pushing a deadline I start piling and stacking. So it's time to clean. The upside is I'm finding all sorts of beautiful fabrics, and papers, that I have composted, rusted, or otherwise surfaced.

Anyway, I would have had a headstart on all of this cleaning but I ended up helping hubby organize his studio on Monday. Tis ok I now have more space to put my stuff
;-) He just doesn't know that yet. We cut down the wood for making more encaustic boxes, I just have to find a wall in this house to hang them on now.