I've Consolidated!!!

I've consolidated!  I have moved most of the posts from this blog, and the other blogs I was trying to keep up with to one blog only!!!  You can now keep up with me at my main blog, and the only blog I will be posting at over here! 

Paring Down & New Beginnings!!!

Paring down, starting with my websites and blogs, and soon to be my wet studio, and have new goals and an actionable plan for future art and designs. I'd do handsprings from the excitement, but my allergies are preventing me from doing so today, lol.

I have two immediate goal dates, September 6th to get my new designs/collections for licensing up onto my blog (group accountability is great for this!!!) and October 4th for the Open Studio Tour. I need to deep clean for the tour, which means an opportunity to get rid of stuff I haven't used in years and probably won't be using again anytime here in the near future, and get prints made of newly created works of art for the tour!

The next goal after that is the Month of November which is National Writing Month and the goal is to get my last Natural Dye Book finished, and hopefully the app (by the end of December) and then it's on to other activities. I'm culling the Natural Surface Academy, etc., too many things on my plate which prevents me from creating and doing what I really love! Also no more teaching!!!

The 60 Day Crow (Bird) Challenge has been a wonderful experience, I will do the big reveal here in a few days.  I now have plans to run this challenge again, as it was quite popular!

CLOSING The Natural Surface Academy

I will be closing The Natural Surface Academy NING Network on September 30th, 2014.  The Natural Surface Facebook Group will remain open.


The Acadmey is now down to four members making the expense of keeping the NING group open no longer viable.  The Facebook Group is private and can only be seen by members. I will be slowly moving all the information from the NING network to a private blog for the remaining members to access.

Studio Help

Or not so much. Oliver waiting in his kennel, he goes in there when I'm working at my drawing table on projects.  Actually I'm really glad he likes his kennel!

Angel is still with us, I thought for sure she was done for a week ago as I hadn't seen any evidence that she had been eating, etc.  Well it turns out she's been shimming under the gate and has been eating the cats food.  So I raised the gate up a bit so she wouldn't have to shimmy as much.

2014 Goals

I know, I know 2014 is 8 months old now, but up until tonight I was hesitant to share my goals list with the world.

But as I was thinking about my newsletter this evening, the Natural Surface Academy, what was working and what wasn't I decided no guts, no glory!

You can read about the changes I've decided to make on my other blog, which is also another change that is going to happen for 2015, I own seven blogs.  That's right seven blogs!  I let public opinion sway me and my blog activity about seven years or so ago and divided up my posts to different blogs.  I had people bitching because I was posting about my pets too much, or I was talking about gardening too much, or who cares about canning food we're here for the natural dyeing.

Well peeps, that comes to and end tonight!

Courage is my word for 2014, so it's time to step out in courage!!!  No guts, no glory!

Copper Crow

I added a copper crow to a bundle dyed silk crepe de chine scar,f I dyed sometime ago, using my Three Crows Stencil today.

I like the results enough that I plan to try this on some other scarves I've dyed.

Not Your Mascot.

Crow Panel in Progress 
24x32x2 inches ~ I think
Acrylic on Raised Panel Frame.

In Other News:  Working on a new series called "Not Your Mascot".  Since it's such an honor and priviledge, or so us NA's have been told, to be a mascot I've decided to turn this onto it's ear!  More to come!!!

More Crow Panels in Progress

If I counted correctly there will be a total of 26 panels in this new series, and once these are done I'm off to rework some encaustic pieces from a few years ago to include my crows, Queen Anne's Lace, and the marks I've been putting in these pieces.

I wasn't sure how these pieces were going to come out, while they have similar colors they are not exactly the same... but where's the fun in everything being the same, right!

I've allowed the distractions of the past few weeks beat my confidence levels down, it doesn't help that I've had a nasty head cold, or that my dad has had ongoing health problems.

I did get to see my brother last Monday, the first time since my mom died in 2005, they visited for a whole hour and forty five minutes before they had to leave again. 

So tomorrow it's back to drawing and painting crows, ravens, and blackbirds and if they are horrible then they are horrible.

But, the secret to mastering anything is to keep at it until... until well you've mastered it!

With that said I've decided to seriously edit the information I've compiled for my Natural Dye App, and just create the app!  A simple app that is accurate and usable is much more enjoyable than one that doesn't exist!!!  Feet of clay, I think that's the name for this syndrome, the whole "what if they hate it???"

There will always be haters, and they are not my audience anyway... so onward I will push this week!

Stitching Again

It feels good to be stitching once again, whilest awaiting layers of drying paint to cure.  This piece is about 8x10 inches in size, machine stitched with green Aurifil thread, wool batting; I also used my Black Birds in Tree Stencil with acrylic paint onto fabric painted cotton cloth.

I shall stitch a few of the birds next, to bring them forward, and add a few beads and then this piece will be done.

WIP Crow Panels

WIPCrow Storm Redux

More layers of paint, texture, pattern, and crows to come!

WIP Crow Series

These are a little on the dark side color wise but I will lighten them up here in a bit.

They 

Acrylic on raised baltic birch raised panel frames.

WIP - Crow Panels

More layers of paint and ink to come, and birds, lots of birds!

60 Day Crow Challenge

It was suggested that I should start a 60 day challenge since I couldn't find one that was theme specific (thank you Jody Lund) I will be drawing Crows and Ravens (Corvus sp.). 

How many of you would like to participate with me in a 60 day bird/crow challenge, this means one bird/crow a day for 60 days.

The birds/crows can be drawn, painted, stitched, sculpted (if you are so inclined), digitally manipulated OR you can write about birds/crows everyday for 60 days.  Interested?

If I get 10 or more peeps interested I will start a facebook group for the challenge.  I will be starting tomorrow as I am getting ready for an Open Studio Tour, October 4th, and want to have some fresh birds to offer up for the tour.

WIP More Black Birds

More crow panels in progress (Black Birds in Tree Stencil), when the paint dries I will be adding more layers and see where this leads.

I'm currently taking an online course on making my own fonts by hand, this is not like any calligraphy course I've ever taken, and hope that some of these designs make it into my artwork and soon.

Estate Sale Find

A bunch of vintage hand made necklaces that will be re-purposed for use in my bead projects.  The big blackish beads are a type of nut native to Hawaii.

The green bits is some sort of Lucite type material

I was thrilled to find these vintage cake decorations for fifty cents!

Black Birds in Trees

Working on some Crow Cards this afternoon using my Black Birds in Tree Stencil.

The orange mat is a non-slip artist map, unfortunately there is no label on the mat so I have no idea where it came from.

I started out with a piece of painted timtex that was painted by Seta Color Fabric Paints.  I will be adding some oil bar, ink, and other yummies next, and then it's time for some stitching.

WIP Dusk at the Marsh

I am working on a stitched story piece about one of my favorite local marshes and my stencil Black Birds in Tree are the main focus in this new series.  The marshes, Cooper's Marsh & Larson's Marsh, which is just a few miles east of Ames, Iowa, are surrounded by farmland.  

Seta Color Fabric paint on cotton fabric, I painted this fabric using a salt technique sometime around 2004/05. The orange piece is a non-slip gripping pad that holds the fabric in place while I surface the fabric.

I should be able to get four smaller pieces out of the larger piece of fabric, the piece directly above this photo.

For the purple stenciled areas I'm using Galleria thick body paint as it is less inclined to bleed. I applied the paint using a stencil brush and very thin layers of paint building the image up onto the fabric, why yes my hand is sore now!

Finished, the stencil did stick to the fabric, where it came into contact with the wet paint that soon dried.

I have to admit this is my all time favorite stencil in my series!  I will probably leave this particular piece of fabric as is for the moment and work on the other three pieces.  I am toying with using my inverse stencil on one of the pieces, more to come!