Back of Purse
Musings about what I do with my natural, compost, and rust dyed fabrics, ribbons, and fibers.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Composting Fabric
This piece has been in the back yard for about 4 weeks now. It started out in the brazilwood bath but I had to toss the dyebath out because it was pretty rank. That and I needed my dyepot back! So it's just been sitting there, the green is a nice contrast to the dirty red color. The fabrics are a combination of cotton and nylons, and I think there might be some alpaca in the mix, the alpaca was in the bottom of the dye pot.
I have way too much stuff to do today, and all I want to do is take a nap. I slept much better last night, one hubby was home, he spent the night in the sleep lab at the hospital the night before, and two we didn't have a major thunderstorm. It rained so hard yesterday morning, ala 4:05 a.m. is when I woke up, that the house was shaking.
Rumor has it that global warming is on the rise due the large number of middle aged women moving to Greenland ;-0 Sounds pretty good to me right now, either we are in a heatwave or someone failed to turn my hot flash o-meter off! I"m a winter person, give me winter or give me winter!
I have way too much stuff to do today, and all I want to do is take a nap. I slept much better last night, one hubby was home, he spent the night in the sleep lab at the hospital the night before, and two we didn't have a major thunderstorm. It rained so hard yesterday morning, ala 4:05 a.m. is when I woke up, that the house was shaking.
Rumor has it that global warming is on the rise due the large number of middle aged women moving to Greenland ;-0 Sounds pretty good to me right now, either we are in a heatwave or someone failed to turn my hot flash o-meter off! I"m a winter person, give me winter or give me winter!
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Surreal Moon Shots
Well in order to get a shot that isn't blurry I'd have to dig out a tripod, and my digital camera doesn't fit to my tripod, it takes a different mount.
So let me tell you it's kinda sorta cloudy out, the kind of clouds that when I see them in the evening I immediately think impending dangerous thunderstorm in on the verge of developing. The fact that it's humid to the point of being tropical outside is not good. It's about 80 degrees outside, and it's almost midnight. I thought they only had weather like this at the equator!
So let me tell you it's kinda sorta cloudy out, the kind of clouds that when I see them in the evening I immediately think impending dangerous thunderstorm in on the verge of developing. The fact that it's humid to the point of being tropical outside is not good. It's about 80 degrees outside, and it's almost midnight. I thought they only had weather like this at the equator!
Friday, July 15, 2005
Blue Hair
So far I think that Quebracho Yellow and Quebracho Red are my "new" favorite colors. I decided I don't like Myrobalan as the color is NOT coming out the way it's supposed to. I keep gettng dirty blond and it's supposed to be butter yellow.
I dyed a bunch of Mohair blue, with indigo, this is a base color for some of the browns and black colors, mainly browns. I'm going to try for Raven Black tomorrow, but I'll need to get more Mohair first.
The Quebracho Red it kind of a champaign pink color, way cool, that was with 1 tps of QR to about one quart of water. No alum here, QR is a substantative dye and doesn't need any alum.
I dyed a bunch of Mohair blue, with indigo, this is a base color for some of the browns and black colors, mainly browns. I'm going to try for Raven Black tomorrow, but I'll need to get more Mohair first.
The Quebracho Red it kind of a champaign pink color, way cool, that was with 1 tps of QR to about one quart of water. No alum here, QR is a substantative dye and doesn't need any alum.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Doll Hair
Due to requests I'm now dyeing mohair, and lincoln wool, in hair colors. I'll post pics tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Pain Pain Go Away
The orthopedic inject some anti-inflamitory stuff into my right knee this morning, now it feels like my entire body is one giant tooth ache! My brain doesn't like it much either, it was some type of steroid, because the bones are swollen at the joint. Anyway, this is really interfering my ability to get anything done at all.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Post Cards Again
There seems to be some confusion over the post cards I made, so I thought I'd post to clear things up a bit. I had only intended to donate one card, Posies, to ACS auction. There was confusion over the way I had posted Bachelor Buttons on my blog, visitors thought it was also part of the auction, when in fact I made it because I was having fun.
That said the remaining post cards I made were for selling. While I admit I'm very torn, guilt (that's Catholic guilt for the uniniated) reigns supreme and tells me I have no right to sell those cards and they should all be donated to some cause, like ACS. The other part of me, that's in debt, says hell no girlfriend sell those babies and make some income to pay our debt down!
So I'm going with common sense, that's the part of me that likes eating food and having a roof over my head, is going with selling the remaining cards.
That said the remaining post cards I made were for selling. While I admit I'm very torn, guilt (that's Catholic guilt for the uniniated) reigns supreme and tells me I have no right to sell those cards and they should all be donated to some cause, like ACS. The other part of me, that's in debt, says hell no girlfriend sell those babies and make some income to pay our debt down!
So I'm going with common sense, that's the part of me that likes eating food and having a roof over my head, is going with selling the remaining cards.
Post Cards
Both of the post cards have sold at the ACS auction! I'm very pleased that people liked them. This is really exciting for me, these are the first pieces I've made for an auction, and that I made just for the purpose of selling. And people actually like them, my hubby really likes them as well.
I will be making some more postcards for personal sale and placing them on my art website later today, and tonight. I have a couple about half done, but alas I have orders and office work to take care of first.
I will be making some more postcards for personal sale and placing them on my art website later today, and tonight. I have a couple about half done, but alas I have orders and office work to take care of first.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Bachelor Buttons
Ok this is way too much fun, what else can I make in less than 30 minutes? Dinner? Ahemmm well that's work!
Bachelor Buttons consists of compost dyed fabrics, dyed silk cocoons (with natural dyes) and hand dyed threads. All machine stitched. 4 x 6 inches, and has a timtex core.
Bachelor Buttons consists of compost dyed fabrics, dyed silk cocoons (with natural dyes) and hand dyed threads. All machine stitched. 4 x 6 inches, and has a timtex core.
Posies Post Card
I made this post card for Virgina Spiegels Cancer auction. The cards are $30.00 each and the auction is open through the 25th of July.
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html
She is still accepting post cards from artists if anyone is interested.
The post card I made, 4 x 6 inches, consists of compost dyed and hand dyed (with natural dyes) fabrics. The flowers are silk cocoons I cut and manipulated to look like flowers. It is machine stitched entirely of hand dyed threads from Weeks Dyeworks, which I sell on my webstore, see link in the sidebar to the right. I will iron a false back onto the card so it can be mailed to its new owner. The card has a timtex core.
I am pumped at how easy it was to make the card, I'm planning on making more and offering them for sale on my webstore/art website. My husband liked the card, which, btw, really feels good. I made the card in about an hour, while I was talking to my dad on the phone which may explain it's irregular shape. Oh well I had fun and that's all that counts.
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html
She is still accepting post cards from artists if anyone is interested.
The post card I made, 4 x 6 inches, consists of compost dyed and hand dyed (with natural dyes) fabrics. The flowers are silk cocoons I cut and manipulated to look like flowers. It is machine stitched entirely of hand dyed threads from Weeks Dyeworks, which I sell on my webstore, see link in the sidebar to the right. I will iron a false back onto the card so it can be mailed to its new owner. The card has a timtex core.
I am pumped at how easy it was to make the card, I'm planning on making more and offering them for sale on my webstore/art website. My husband liked the card, which, btw, really feels good. I made the card in about an hour, while I was talking to my dad on the phone which may explain it's irregular shape. Oh well I had fun and that's all that counts.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
New Work
I made this piece this spring for the Surface Design Member show, the show title was Constants and Variables. After writing down a slug of words, using my handy trusty thesaurus I came up with the idea of my skin.
My skin is constant, it's always with me, but it's also a variable as it changes with the seasons and it ages with me.
The quilt consists of silk dupioni and wool, the backing is pinkish wool, and wool yarns and cotton threads. The fabric was dyed using cochineal (natural dyes) and composting technqiues. It is entirely machine stitched. I will have to photograph the back since I made the piece so it could be double sided. The quilt is 18 x 52. I need to take the quilt sleeve off now and place it at the top where I wanted it originally, but it needed to fit the size constraints of the show. I don't know I may leave it, and just embellish the sleeve to look more like skin.
My skin is constant, it's always with me, but it's also a variable as it changes with the seasons and it ages with me.
The quilt consists of silk dupioni and wool, the backing is pinkish wool, and wool yarns and cotton threads. The fabric was dyed using cochineal (natural dyes) and composting technqiues. It is entirely machine stitched. I will have to photograph the back since I made the piece so it could be double sided. The quilt is 18 x 52. I need to take the quilt sleeve off now and place it at the top where I wanted it originally, but it needed to fit the size constraints of the show. I don't know I may leave it, and just embellish the sleeve to look more like skin.
Quilt Shows & Honesty
I went to a quilt show today, in Ankeny Iowa. It's a nice little show, it's small but that's fine I can do the whole show in an afternoon and not be exhausted. There are quite a few vendors there, considering it's size, and there's the usual variety of items to be had.
At the show portion there was a goodly amount of quilts, mostly of the traditional vein. There were a couple of art quilts present, mainly of the pictoral variety, nicely executed. I have to admit I'm sick and tired of the same old machine quilting pattern that I'm seeing everywhere. I swear 9 out of 10 quilts had the same squirrely quilted pattern, whether it fit the style of the quilt or not. How about some originality here, I mean talk about following the pack.
What I really longed to see was a hand quilted traditional quilt. I know these are a lot of work as I've done one or two in my short life. But couldn't they even rustle up an antique one???
Honesty... Honesty is not walking into a vendors booth and copying down the saying on a pattern they are selling (and telling your girlfriend your going to put it on tee shirts), even if you think it's too expensive for the pattern. Talk about a total disregard for copyright law! If the vendor of the booth hadn't been such a self absorbed pig I would have told him what was going on, but he kept brushing me off like I didn't matter. Needless to say I didn't buy much from him. I'm thinking the woman who was stealing his designs should have been working with him seems like they are a match made in heaven.
At the show portion there was a goodly amount of quilts, mostly of the traditional vein. There were a couple of art quilts present, mainly of the pictoral variety, nicely executed. I have to admit I'm sick and tired of the same old machine quilting pattern that I'm seeing everywhere. I swear 9 out of 10 quilts had the same squirrely quilted pattern, whether it fit the style of the quilt or not. How about some originality here, I mean talk about following the pack.
What I really longed to see was a hand quilted traditional quilt. I know these are a lot of work as I've done one or two in my short life. But couldn't they even rustle up an antique one???
Honesty... Honesty is not walking into a vendors booth and copying down the saying on a pattern they are selling (and telling your girlfriend your going to put it on tee shirts), even if you think it's too expensive for the pattern. Talk about a total disregard for copyright law! If the vendor of the booth hadn't been such a self absorbed pig I would have told him what was going on, but he kept brushing me off like I didn't matter. Needless to say I didn't buy much from him. I'm thinking the woman who was stealing his designs should have been working with him seems like they are a match made in heaven.
Friday, July 08, 2005
White Buffalo Calf
I found this link on a forum I visited today. I'm wondering how long she will stay white, I know other buffalos have been born white but haven't followed up on color changes. There's a story about the white buffalo woman linked on this page as well, and is well worth reading.
http://www.buffalocrossing.com/index.php3?pageid=20
http://www.buffalocrossing.com/index.php3?pageid=20
Updates
I updated my art website last night http://www.kbaxterpackwood.com I will be doing a major update on this website early next week. I have a lot of artwork to photograph and priced this weekend, I actually have a large body of work - hidden here and there- I just need to photograph the pieces.
I've decided to liquidate a bunch of art work, not because I want to but I need to. I still have my spring 2005 tuition to pay for, and my fall 2005 tuition is coming up due as well. I spent my spring money on my mothers funeral, part of the funeral money was going for the new store front for the business. Needless to say I've been playing catch up ever since. I have also given up on having a storefront, for now anwyay.
Unfortunately as a graudate student in Textile Science there is no money, if I had chosen to study a "real science" such as computer science I'm sure there'd be tons of money. But alas fibers and textiles have been relegated odd and peculiar persons such as myself, and has been doomed to fossildom!
My brain is still foggy, from my monthly visitor - getting older is such a riot! Therefore, I've decided that there was no sense in forcing myself to do things that I would only have to redo or undo in a week. I'm creating artwork instead, since there's no real way I can screw that up. I did manage to get a bunch of orders packed and ready to go to the shipper. But no invoices, trust me on this one - you really don't want me writing one up and ivoice today - I'm doing really good getting my email read.
I have to ask what is it about hormones that turns my brain into a pot of mush once a month? What am I missing in my diet? Is it a lack of water? I'll go drink more I'm thirsty anyway. My mother is dead so I can't ask her and she had ovarian cancer at age 23, so she wouldn't have been much help anyway.
If you think I can screw my artwork up, well maybe I can... but I reserve the right to stick it back into my compost pile if I don't like it!
I've decided to liquidate a bunch of art work, not because I want to but I need to. I still have my spring 2005 tuition to pay for, and my fall 2005 tuition is coming up due as well. I spent my spring money on my mothers funeral, part of the funeral money was going for the new store front for the business. Needless to say I've been playing catch up ever since. I have also given up on having a storefront, for now anwyay.
Unfortunately as a graudate student in Textile Science there is no money, if I had chosen to study a "real science" such as computer science I'm sure there'd be tons of money. But alas fibers and textiles have been relegated odd and peculiar persons such as myself, and has been doomed to fossildom!
My brain is still foggy, from my monthly visitor - getting older is such a riot! Therefore, I've decided that there was no sense in forcing myself to do things that I would only have to redo or undo in a week. I'm creating artwork instead, since there's no real way I can screw that up. I did manage to get a bunch of orders packed and ready to go to the shipper. But no invoices, trust me on this one - you really don't want me writing one up and ivoice today - I'm doing really good getting my email read.
I have to ask what is it about hormones that turns my brain into a pot of mush once a month? What am I missing in my diet? Is it a lack of water? I'll go drink more I'm thirsty anyway. My mother is dead so I can't ask her and she had ovarian cancer at age 23, so she wouldn't have been much help anyway.
If you think I can screw my artwork up, well maybe I can... but I reserve the right to stick it back into my compost pile if I don't like it!
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Silk Velvet
As you can see in the one pic I posted, "what I started with", the velvet is very lumpy and thin looking. It was some work to get it to lay flat onto the aquabond.
Gotta run now, time to get gas it's going through the roof again, eeeee gads!
Gotta run now, time to get gas it's going through the roof again, eeeee gads!
Today
Today is one of those days, and if you were expecting anything out of me today... its not gonna happen. If your a female you'll understand and I need not say more, sorry guys but this is one thing you get to miss out on in life and be glad you do.
So since my brain ceased functioning at about seven this morning I decided not to fight it anymore and just become the human vegetable I really am today.
This afternoon I got a big burst of creativity, the technical usually goes out the door when I'm a vegeatable and creativeness comes to reside in it's place. I got a wild hair to work on a new piece and it's coming along jolly fine, if I really like it I may even sell the little bugger. I'm still in my rock phase so it's looking a bit like a rock face. See in progress pics, somewhere on my blog.
I used a piece of hand dyed silk velvet, the fabric was dyed using natural dyes, all of my own creations I might add. The threads are a combo of hand dyed threads from Weeks Dyeworks and Aurifil Wool threadds. The fabric is for sale on my webstore, see link on the sidebar. I really should get the rest of the colors posted onto my webstore!
I had to put the velvet onto a piece of aquabond, it's too squirrely to slap onto a piece of fabric and just stitch away. The aquabond gives the fabric a stiffer hand, but washes out nicely. I'm using a plain piece of black cotton backing fabric as my base, not quilt batting. I had a piece in there but decided it was too thick.
I may spin up a tad bit of that goregeous wool silk noil I have and couch it to the surface, if I can get furball off my wool stash!
So since my brain ceased functioning at about seven this morning I decided not to fight it anymore and just become the human vegetable I really am today.
This afternoon I got a big burst of creativity, the technical usually goes out the door when I'm a vegeatable and creativeness comes to reside in it's place. I got a wild hair to work on a new piece and it's coming along jolly fine, if I really like it I may even sell the little bugger. I'm still in my rock phase so it's looking a bit like a rock face. See in progress pics, somewhere on my blog.
I used a piece of hand dyed silk velvet, the fabric was dyed using natural dyes, all of my own creations I might add. The threads are a combo of hand dyed threads from Weeks Dyeworks and Aurifil Wool threadds. The fabric is for sale on my webstore, see link on the sidebar. I really should get the rest of the colors posted onto my webstore!
I had to put the velvet onto a piece of aquabond, it's too squirrely to slap onto a piece of fabric and just stitch away. The aquabond gives the fabric a stiffer hand, but washes out nicely. I'm using a plain piece of black cotton backing fabric as my base, not quilt batting. I had a piece in there but decided it was too thick.
I may spin up a tad bit of that goregeous wool silk noil I have and couch it to the surface, if I can get furball off my wool stash!
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Monday, July 04, 2005
Neil Smith Prairie
If you get a chance to go, go! It's not the big wild prairie like the ones in South Dakota or in Kansas, but considering they established this place to long ago it's wonderful.
I only saw two buffalo today, they were not together, if you want to see a lot of them I've been told you need to show up very early in the morning. I have pics of the heard from about three years ago, the lighting wasn't too good that day either. It was kinda dreary today as it rained this morning, it rained pretty heavily actually.
I'm going back to the prairie next week, or after knee surgery, whichever happens first. I'm hoping I'll see more buffalo then.
I only saw two buffalo today, they were not together, if you want to see a lot of them I've been told you need to show up very early in the morning. I have pics of the heard from about three years ago, the lighting wasn't too good that day either. It was kinda dreary today as it rained this morning, it rained pretty heavily actually.
I'm going back to the prairie next week, or after knee surgery, whichever happens first. I'm hoping I'll see more buffalo then.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
It Takes Talent
It takes talent you know, to play one of these gizmos! This is my husband John playing my mothers accordion, one of many she had. What I'd really like to know is what happened to her harmonica??? My favorite accordion was a smaller black one she had many moons ago, I could play it, not this one it's too awkward.
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