Today

I spent the bulk of today in the garden, it's suppose to rain through Tuesday after that I'm' hoping to wash my jacob fleeces.

Thank You

A huge thank you to everyone that participated in today's Fibery Giveaway!!! Your participaton made this a LOT of fun! ~ Kimberly

May's Fibery Giveaway Winner

And the winner is...

Quiltmuse

Congratulations Jacquie!!!

Announcement Time Change

I am changing the announcement time to

1:00 pm Central Time

this will give folks more time to leave a comment

I'm really pushing the clock here and I have one more yard sale to go to - I hear there's tons of fabric and vintage goodies!!! IF you don't see your comment don't fret all comments are moderated and it WILL be posted before the announcement!

Today's Yard Sale Score

There were gobs of bits of vintage lace, doilies, linen fabrics etc., all carefully folded INSIDE of tacky polyester fabrics.

This is just a hint of what I picked up, all at one sale, for fifteen dollars. The only downside is I'm going to have to put this stuff in a closet with my ozone machine - it smells like dryer sheets to which I'm very allergic. Most of the items like the millenary pieces are very fragile, still very usable for collage, and would probably not survive being washed.

This woman was an ace garage sale preparer!!! Very sly if you ask me, as I was taking items out of the bags all sorts of treasures started to appear. It's like she knew that these would be chosen ONLY by the right person. As I was looking around for more goodies, I had just grabbed a bag of millenary supplies, she asked me if I had looked at the other bags of fabric on the far table simply stating that everyone had passed them by. I took one peek and grinned from ear to ear and each bag was a mere 50 cents! Mother Lode!!!

Reminder on Giveaway

Please remember to leave your email addy, or make sure it's in your blogger contacts so I can get ahold of you tomorrow, I'm clicking on some of the names and there's no contact info, I really don't want someone to miss out because I couldn't contact them! ~ Kimberly

May's Fibery Giveaway

May's fibery giveaway (found out it wasn't spelled give away) consists of natural dyed cotton and silk fabrics, acid dyed silk carrier rods, the hot pink carrier rod fibers were dyed with cochineal, and hand dyed yarn bundle and cotton pearl cotton threads. What you don't see are some extra goodies I'm tucking in with this bundle, in the same color palette of course.

What you have to do is post a comment AND you MUST have an email addy so that I can contact you! No I won't use your email addy for anything other than this giveaway! You can sign in as anonymous but please leave your addy in your comment ~

Names will be drawn out of a hat, I'll have John do that part, and tomorrow I will announce the winner and contact the winner via email at Noon Central Time (gives you time to comment and me time to go to garage sales).

Blog Give Away Tonight

I'll be announcing the blog give away tonight

9PM Central Time tonight!!!

More later I have fleeces to wash!

State of Affairs

What my wet studio looks like at the moment! The pile on my screenprinting table is some what reduced now, see previous post. My plan is to work late into the night tonight and get this mess cleaned up for tomorrow's big reveal. It'll happen I'll probably be sore but it'll happen! ;-)

Everything that is stacked on the table WAS stacked against the far wall, BON, or I should say stacked up against the old cabinet and chest of drawers. I'll post improvement photos tomorrow.

Wet Studio Clean Up

In the boxes Printing blocks, old printers letters, inks, stencils, and fabric paints. Sinew and rawhide for basketry and other 3D fiber projects on top of the shelf.

Collage items on the wooden shelf.

Basketry materials, fibers for dyeing and pfd fabrics for dyeing and painting! And the obligatory surface design supplies: rollers, stamps, sponges, squeegies, etc.

Wire cages/boxes I'm not really sure what they are called they are really convient for corralling lots of little things. I'm hoping by tomorrow I'll be able to stand on the far side of my studio and see across the room! Right now it's looking pretty bad.

Wet Studio Clean Up

I've been working on my wet studio this afternoon it's in sorry need of organizing but it's also giving me time to ruminate over the questions in The Creative Entrepreneur and some of what I've just started reading in I'd Rather Be in the Studio. I'll post pictures of my studio later tonight.


John and I took the old dresser and cabinet, that I never used because they were always blocked, out of the studio and put my wire cages (you'll see what I mean later in the pictures) on that wall instead. It's about half full and I admit I'm glad that I have yet to run out of space! I now have space to walk around and have a place for my surface design supplies.

Blog Give Away

I will post the details about the blog give away tomorrow night after 9 pm central time!!!

Banner No. 4

I was told by a lot of folks that the really liked banner no. 3 but that the background was too blurry. So I've changed it back to the orignal fabric background, let me know what you think.

Friday's Blog Give Away

I'm working on my "new" newsletter!

Viva La Verde Treasury

My Green Sleeves Bead Soup mix made it into this lucious green treasury by jewelsbydesigns

Blog Give Away

I'm working on my first ever blog give away - check back on Friday for details ;-)

Avatar No. 1

Avatar No. 1 - I've been told that this pic is too dark.

Avatar No. 2

Avatar No. 2 for shop I like the first one better but I've been told it's not bright enough.

Shop Banner No. 3

Choice number 3!

Shop Banner Number 2

Choice number 2 for my shop!

New Harvest Banner

New banner for my etsy shop kbaxterpackwood

Paragraph Structure

After all these years I'm still not sure why I'm not able to have seperated paragraphs on blogger!

Heart and Meaning Exercise

I've started some of the exercises in The Creative Entrepereneur by Lisa Sonora Beam. While coloring in my journal is a no brainer the questions are a lot harder to anwser than I anticipated. It's going to take some time to anwser them all -hmm maybe that's why it's called an impass in life?

The paint was still wet when I took this picture. Eventually I'll finish the writing, maybe in another journal the one I'm writing my business plan in, and will attach things to the pages in this one. Unlined Journal by Paper Chase.

Bird Harvest No. 2 WIP

In Progress 6x6 inches

Natural Dye Video Uploads

I'm uploading more Mark Making with Nature out takes to my YouTube check it out!

Yellow me Mellow Treasury

My natural dyed trim was included in this rather mellow yellow treasury by jewelsbydesign

Balloons from Paris Treasury

My red violets merino wool was included in this gorgeous purple treasury by mistflowerphoto

Relax and Enjoy Treasury

My lavender lincoln locks were included in this lovely treasury by kingsQueens

Etsy Treasuries

I've actually missed capturing a few treasuries, I was show cased in, because thumbalizer wasn't working for a few days and it didn't occur to me to zoom out to capture the image .

Rose Garden Reverie Treasury

thank you to Faries Nest for including my silk carrier rods in this lovely treasury

For Those Who Whine about no sales on Etsy!

I'm going to be brutally honest here folks because quite frankly I'm tired of the whining!

First of y'all need to learn how to cull works that are dragging you down like or not, while it MAY be your favorite piece, it does not do you, the artist, justice. And PHOTOGRAPHY speaks volumes about you, the artist, as well as your work.

Most folks are using all sorts of "props" when photographing small items and it IS the undoing of those works! Get rid of the props!!! Take good clear photos and if need be crop it in a photo editing program and get rid of the white areas! You DON"T need rulers in your picture, period! Get rid of theruler and put the measurements in your description! Take an inviting enticing photo of your work from various angles an, angles that tell us a story about the color, texture, shape, and form of the piece.

Go look at any number of shops on etsy that have sold hundreds or thousands of items ALL similar to yours, and ask yourself WHY are their works selling and why aren't my works selling??? I'll give you the anwser

Photography!

Third - descriptions some of you need to work on your descriptions, most are very lacking. Again go look at those shops that are selling hundreds and thousands of items WHY are their items selling and yours are not? I'll give you the anwser

Descriptions!

Fill out your policies, I do NOT buy from anyone who does NOT have their policies filled out, period!

Use some caption breaks in your descriptions so it does not become monotonous**************** and `````````````````` and ~~~~~~~~~ etc.,

Fourth - Tags and Materials Some of you are NOT tagging properly or listing your materials in such a way that puts you at the top of the food chain.

Fifth - Blog, website, FaceBook (create a Fans Page on FB) Twitter, Flickr, etc., are all places where you can CULTIVATE a following. DO NOT SPAM folks with your listings WE SIMPLY DO NOT CARE! What we want to know is YOU!!! It's all about you baby and YOU are your artwork! Put the purchase info in your profile links we'll look for it or ask if we want it bad enough! And if you cultivate your following in the correct way you will have thousands of folks wanting it and badly check out TheBlackApple to get a feel for what I am talking about.

Sixth - local art fares, business cards with images of your works on them, postcards, with images of your works on them. Make them enticiing, subtract EVERYTHING that detracts from the item you sell.

Again there are those on etsy that have had hundreds and thousands of sales to NON-ETSY buyers! WHY??? Because they have created a following!

I don't bother trying to sell in the forums, though I do visit them from time to time. I've created a following through my blogs, websites, facebook, twitter, and group lists I belong to. I sell more work off list, because they saw it on Flickr or on my blog than I do on Etsy. I use Etsy as a place where I can sendthe curious that want to see what I sell, when they are wanting more than what I offer on my website.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Brooch No. 1 Whirlwind Series

Sew the Wind and Reap the Whirlwind!

Damaged Bobbin Race

As you can see the tension arm is bent upwards. I'm not sure if it can be replaced or not there's a little cotter pin on the back side so it should be replaceable, that doesn't mean, however, the sewing machine store will have parts for replacing the tension arm.

Brooch No. 1

Above: front of brooch painted silk dupioni, wool batting Below: painted silk dupioni

And it may well be my last one at that! I've been seeing all of these lovely hand made brooches from assorted scrap fabrics and thought I'd make one for myself, well... Lets just say I need a new bobbin race for my Janome 6500 now! The bobbin thread got tangled somehow with the tension arm on the bobbin race and is now broken! Luckily I had another bobbin race on hand to finish the top stitching but it's my spare for bobbin stitching with chunky threads. I'm hoping the bobbin race can be repaired as these parts are not exactly cheap these days.

Rust Dyed Fabric

Time and time again I'm called out publically on why I advocate using baking soda to neutralize my rust dyed fabrics! Here's my "edited response"

... rinse in baking soda solution once a year [Edited] Synthropol does NOTHING to stop the rusting process! If you'd like to slow it down and I can certainly understand wanting to do so then neutralize it once a year with a baking soda solution! That is why I recommend this step is because you are neutralizing the acids on the fabrics surface.

In conservation if we want to stop or remove "foxing" which most would see as either a rust spot or something akin to a scorch mark then we neutralize the piece or area with a baking soda solution. First the piece is washed in a pH neutral soap and if that doesn't remove the spot and removal is necessary then we use baking soda solution. Foxing is typically caused by linens etc., that come into contact with high acid woods such as cedar, pine, oak, etc., when they are stored in hope chests, dresser drawers, etc.

Some of us, that would be me, are eagerly anticipating the deconstruction of our pieces due to the rusting and composting processes.

If your piece is not too heavily rusted then and you want it on your bed then I say go for it! Just remember that anything it comes into contact with may also start to rust over time.

Yes your rusted piece will continue to rust, and eventually holes may appear in the fabric. NOTE that this all depends on where you live as in how high your relative humidity is etc. Rusted fabric in say Louisana will have a much shorter life, due to the high humidity, than say rusted fabric that lives in Utah or Arizona where the humidity is around 20-30% year round.

You can slow down the rusting process, though you will never stop the process entirely, by neutralizing the fabric with a baking soda solution. You can apply the solution once or twice a year depending on where you live. Those of you living in the desert may never have to do this step.

I recommend 1 tablespoon of baking soda to 1 gallon warm water. Dissolve well and apply by either spritzing the fabric with the solution using a spray bottle or by direct immersion of the piece.

Tangerine Glow Treasury

My silk fiber kit made it into this beautiful treasury by heartsabustin

Narrative Works

I've been struggling with a label to put on my latest pieces, Prairie Potholes Harvest series, and was given a label today... Narrative Work. That's cool, I can live with that and it fits what I'm doing right now.

WIP No. 32

WIP No. 32 Now that my wet studio is cleaned up I can paint fabric once again, I made this piece today in celebration of having a surface to work on!!!
18x22 inches
Setacolor Transparent Paint, Shiva Paintstiks, Natural Muslin 7878

Nothing Rhymes with Orange Treasury

My Wild Punch Silk Kit is in this GORGEOUS Treasury by RozzyToz

Wet Studio

I started cleaning my wet studio last night and by this afternoon had made considerable head way in there! Now I"m organizing supplies, stretching my art papers which were stored rolled tightly for the last two years and finding my dyes.

Goals for this week, aside from continiually working in the gardens, is to start skirting fleeces. Once that's done they will be washed and be sent immediately to the dye kettles - lots of natural dye colors. Photos to come soon.

WIP

I'm thinking of cutting this scarf down the middle and having two pieces, two different stories and am wondering, color wise, how this will work for my harvest series.

Detail of the colors.