Sandstone No. 3

Rust and Stitching

Earth and Stitching

The details Sandstone No. 3 circa 2000 Compost Dyed, Natural Dye Painted, Rusted, and Pigment Painted Silk Dupioni Fabric.  Machine Stitched.

Removing Excess Rust

Removing Excess Rust now up on

The Natural Surfaces Zine!

How to remove heavy areas of rust from my rusted fabric?

Question of the Day: How to remove heavy areas of rust from my rusted fabric?

You neutralize the rusted fabric with baking soda water first and then if there are chunks left behind, ok I leave mine because I like the look, you can put a baking soda paste on the fabric to help break it down. Keep in mind that sometime...s the rust chunks simply do not go away but it's worth a try.

Rubbing in with a toothbrush also helps, I have done this but gotta admit I have one piece of fabric that was super chunky and decided to work with it instead of trying to get rid of the rusted areas.

Coneflowers No. 2 Small Textile Art - Matted

Coneflower No. 2

Small Textile Art Works 4x6 inches

Available in My Shop

Forest Harvest Box 1

Still working on the whole less is more concept with my boxes ;-)  This box for the most part is done, although I may alter this one when I get it back, I'm not sure how I feel, still, about the silk flowers.

Scorched Wax

Well what can I say at least the wax didn't catch on fire!  Scorched wax is bad enough but yes I'm glad it didn't catch on fire.  Tomorrow is a new day and I'll start over with a fresh batch of encaustic medium.

WIP - Encaustic

A Dab of Gold

WIP - Heart

Adding New Goodies for Christmas

Large assortments of sizes available at Hackberry Studio's

Beaded Bag

White Flower - Encaustic Painting Sample

Sample made during today's encaustic painting workshop.  This piece demonstrates texturizing, cutting away wax to reveal previous layers and using a form for building up select areas for dimension.

Olof - WIP

John has been helping me with the construction of my latest pieces, running the saws and drills for cut outs etc., he cracked a huge grin when he put Olof's eyes in place which he picked, I was going to use gauages for the eyes, but John decided that Olof needed gears for eyes instead.  The gears definately changed the mood from dark to spry, Olof has a joker side, he loves playing practical jokes on people and may even revel in scaring them a wee bit.  I'm currently auditioning mouth pieces and body colors.

Acrylic Peel

It's turning into a mess is what it's doing!!!  I didn't realize my plate had a slight tilt to it, will make sure it's level next time.  Shelley Finch gave me the instructions on how to make these, lets just say it's juicy!

Drying

Painted watercolor paper that has been glued, with gel medium, to a piece of ordinary plywood.  I may come to regret having used ordinary plywood in the future but for today's sample it will be fine.

I'm waiting for the gel medium to dry! Dry times are the hardest part about mixed media and my work shelf is currently unavailable, its one of those black wire shelves, actually dh combined two of them for me, that has 9 shelves that are approximately 7 inches apart.  So now I wait for this piece, and several others I have in progress, to dry.

Wedding Dress

I had been visiting this dress for some time, see pics in previous posts, and it finally came home to live with me a few weeks ago!  John is planning to hang a rod in the stairwell so that I can hang my vintage dress collection, three dress to date, there.

On my desk

Vintage pearl cotton thread I picked up today for a project.

Button Button

Button Button whose got the buttons???

WIPS

Latest bits I'm working on in my wet studio.

500th Sale Etsy Sale!

Woooooooooohoooooooooooo I made my 500th Sale today!

Mixed Media Class begins November 4th

Instructor: Kimberly Baxter Packwood
Days: Wed
Times: 5:30-7:30pm
Begins: November 4, 2009
Ends: December 16, 2009
No Class Nov. 25 (Thanksgiving Holiday)
Cost: Members: $99 Non-Members: $110
Place: Fisher Art Center in Marshalltown, IA

Fall 2009

Fall colors to be inspired by

Burr Oak - taken at Ledges State Park

Prairie Bits and Pieces - Now Available

Bin No. 1

Bin No. 2

Bin No. 3

Silo No. 1

Silo No. 2

1.5x2 inches

Natural and Compost Dyed Fabrics, Timtex, Thread, Machine Embroidered

Now Available in my Shop

Indian Corn Circa 1994/95

Indian Corn - Haboti Silk - Acid Dyes - 1994/95  I made these panels in a beginning dye class I took with Priscilla Sage (I'm thinking around 1994 now will have to check my old class notes).

Detail

Batik Panel - Acid Dyes

Dye Painted Panel - Acid Dyes

I've yet to get around to fninshing these pieces, I've been busy excavating my studio closet and found them a little bit ago. I'm thinking they need to be encrusted with stitching and beading!

Queen Anne's Lace No. 2

Queen Anne's Lace No. 4

4x4 inches

Encaustic Medium, Pigment, Rice Paper, Ink, Found Stamp

Queen Anne's Lace No. 4

I need to reheat the surface, a pint sized customer (5 year old) tried to pick the wax off the surface, she managed to scratch it but other than that the surface was hard enough to twart her endeavors.

Wild Flowers in Wax

The wax is still warm in this shot and the rice paper buckled something fierce!

The wax has cooled buy isn't quite hard yet, the colors are darker and richer, the texture of the buckled paper worked for me this time.

4x4x2.75 inches Cradled Baltic Birch Panel
Encaustic medium, rice paper, ink, found stamp, and oil sticks

New Still Life

As soon as I can figure out a mount for it on my table, I'd like it partially propped up.

New Vinyl

There's nothing like new vinyl on my table to make me realize just how beat up the old piece was, it was 5-6 years old I think... it might have been older I'm losing track of things as I get older.  Anyway, our local WM still sells fabric so I was able to get a replacement vinyl for not too much money, which says a lot when you need 4 continious yards of the stuff!

Apple No. 1 - Blending

Blending with a stencil brush but will the line ever go away???

Apple No. 1 - Let the Mistakes Begin!!!

Line going across the fabric became very pronounced once I started applying the Shiva Paintstiks (oil bars) to the surface.  Click on the pic to see the line better.  Suggestions on getting rid of it???

The culprit that caused the line, masking tape on the vinyl, someday I'll learn to look at my surface and make sure there's no tape attached! You can see the line going directly across the fabric, follows the tape beautifully.

Now the twenty million dollar question, do I incorporate the line some how or start over?  The line travels across the top third of the apple.

Apple No. 1 WIP

Purple number one, I'm thinking of mixing the next batch of purple with some burnt umber and red.  I was hoping to finish this piece tonight, we'll see come 8pm I have some serious relaxation planned, my favorite show Fringe is on tonight.

Apple No. 1 WIP

Apple No. 1 WIP

background color number one down
48x59 inches
cotton fabric, setacolor paints