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!

Queen Anne's Crows No. 7 in Progress

I ditched the clock body altogether and am so much happier for having done so, now to create a panel (the one in the upper portion of the niche is a sample) for the upper section of the niche and this piece is good to go.  I'm off to stitch up a new panel for this piece!

WIP Queen Anne's Crows No 5

I'm not overly ripped on this shade of red, but for a base coat on the wood this will do, I'm wanting a much deeper shade of red. As for the paint dripping on the stitched panel never fear, that panel has been covered with plastic wrap.

I have to say I had doubts but this was a great idea, I figure if I truly end up hating the color(s) I can always paint the piece black, BUT, the act of painting the wood got me to thinking about the piece, what I want to add and where, what other colors do I want to add, do I want to leave the birds as is?  Btw you can get hose birds from my stencil series over at StencilGirl Products, the birds are a part of my Three Crows Series.  Am off to look at my copper nail and barbed wire collections while this layer of paint dries!

Before the first layer of red paint.

WIP Red Crow

The madder lac dyed silk organza is much darker than these photos depict, the stencil sketch of the crow barely peaking through due to the lighting.  I managed to stitch an outline of the crow in a coordinating reddish heathered wool thread from Aurifil Threads.

I've decided that this smallish piece will now become part of a larger piece I'm working on for my upcoming solo show, as crows and ravens have always been a prominent icon out here on the western prairie and plains.

WIP - Autumn Bird Piece

Alcohol inks, gesso, black birds in tree inverse stencil, crow lino block - so far.  Off to add more layers.

Crow Stamp

Carving stamps again, this one is 4x6 inches, the next one will have feather and wing features.

Black Birds in Tree Now Available!!!

I'm so excited to announce that my stencils are now available through StencilGirl Products!!!
 

The stencil is available as an inverse of the design and also as a traditional cut out.

 

Black Birds in Tree Inverse with Lilac and Ecualyptus Tsukineko Inks.

This page is the result of brayering a sheet of clean paper onto the Inverse stencil while it was wet with alcohol inks.

 

Crow on Yellow 052713

A little bit more of the right side has been beaded, I'm thinking the body should be done by Friday, and then to decide on finishing the border.

In other news... the splint is off, sorta.  I had it off for most of the day but then had to put it back on again. It's amazing how one little itty bitty artery is position in such a place so as to see all sorts of activity during the course of the day. 

Birds on a Wire Collage

Now that I have a few things figured out about Adobes Photoshop CS6 I'm back to working up new digital collage pieces.  Tonight I will be building some new works up for my newest niches, tomorrow I'll print them off onto fabric, stitch the collages up and then add them to the niches. 

WIP - Corn No. 52

Corn No. 52 (Eclipse) - Getting closer to done!

WIP - Deer Slayer

The copper nest is installed, now I'm having problems with the abalone egg, I've tried several wrapping techniques but nothing worked in a way that was visually appealing.  Will experiment further tomorrow, will also paint the tips of the antlers.

The Watcher

Because everyone should have a bird sitting on their monitor!

Ravens

Cotton painted with Seta Color Paints.

Natural Colored Muslin Cotton natural dyed with Osage Orange and Tannin.

River Valleys and Cliffs

Canyons of sorts - swallow nests high up on the canyon wall at Ledges State Park.

Birds

More Bird Paintings -- WIP - watercolor and gouache on acrylic paint.

Birds on a Wire

Junco's sitting on a power line of some sort - Rural Iowa.

Birds on a Wire - Sketches

I've been practicing my bird sketches.

Bird Harvest No. 2 WIP

In Progress 6x6 inches

My Bird Sketches Suck!!!

I had a sketch of a bird, and it's foot pattern, set off to the side and still managed to muck it up!!! I drew this with a sharpie on water color paper. I think I need to go back and study those Robin and Crow pics I took a few weeks ago!

Untitled Bird 5 x 5 inches

It needs something, aside from a better looking bird!!! I'm not putting another bird to the large panels until I get them where I want on smaller pieces.

Bird Nest

John and I picked pears yesterday, I was able to find a tree via freecycle that needed picking. I found this beauty on a lower branch as I reached down to pick a cluster of fruit.