Rusted Silk Carrier Rods

I know I know I promised pictures and trust me I wish I had taken some because the bulk of the rods now lie in ruin on my drying screen! I put them in the washer, with a bit of soap, to neutralize them and clean the tree guck off of them and forgot to turn the washer off after it filled. Well lets just say that the agitation cycle is NOT a good for the rods. So I'm thinking that while I can make some constructed cloth with the remaining rods, and there are some that are wonderful, the rest I will make paper *think silk fusion* with this week.

So here's a picture of some silk paper, or silk fusion, seeds that I made circa 1995. And a few silk fusion bowls I also made. I should really find the box these are in and bring them up to the studio for the Silk Fusion class I'm teaching this fall. In the meantime I will try taking a picture of the rods, damage and all, with my cell phone camera - need to find the digicam again - but can't promise a quality image.

New rusted rods

I rust dyed about a pound, or more, of silk carrier rods, they are currently sitting out on my skirting frame oxidizing. After the last piece of constructed cloth I've decided to overdye some rusted rods to achieve an even greater depth of color and texture. I so love rust dyeing it's easy and convient, and by convient I mean I can leave it for awhile unattended, I don't have to brood over it like an immersion dye vat.

I'm still recovering from surgery this past Friday, and now have a cold. I think I may have broken my fever, still feeling dizzy though. It's the constant coughing I can live without, no it's not a bloodclot. I thought of that but I had a bit of a sinus drip before I went into surgery but everyone was "it's ok" well... it's not so ok now. I'm treating it, I found a tried and true anti viral product that really is helping with the symptoms, save the fever, and I'm feeling much better today. Sleep and rest will help with the fever, so I'm sitting here anwsering emails as I can only sleep so much and I get really stiff from lying down.

Rusted Carrier Rods

Here I'm making constructed cloth with the silk carrier rods. I've plans to rutst more rods this evening and do some further experimentation with them. I have more rusted rods that I'm making a evening bag out of, will post pictures later.

Working on this small project has helped me to resolve a quilt I've had on hold for a very long time. I will be overdyeing some rusted rods with cutch and adding them as embellishment to the quilt surface. The top photo is a detail shot of the constructed cloth.

Plains Art Museum

Sandstone 2 is leaving here tomorrow for the Plains Art Museum
in Fargo, North Dakota. I was asked to participate in a group show with other quilt artists who live in this part of the country. I wish I lived closer to the Museum as it looks like it's going to be a stellar show with many very talented quilt artists.

More Osage

Here's a top view of the Osage Orange slab. The smaller logs will be debarked and chipped for dyestuffs. I'm back in the game for yellow dyebaths some of this will be for sale.

Fresh Chips

Osage Orange chips, very freshly cut as in this afternoon! The smell is out of this world the color unbelieveable~!

I'm going to cover these, about five pounds worth, in everclear to extract the best yellows and they will then be soaked in water for several weeks to extract the remaining yellows. This method produces a yellowish orange color.

Pet Cemetary Update

Here's better view, I'm going with the milkweed pods, haven't decided what I will fill them with yet.

Rusted Rods

I have enough of these rods that I'm making them available to others! You can purchase a bag at my etsy.com store, just click on the store to the left of this box.

One bag contains six rods, the rusting intensity varies and, isn't overly rusted making them easy to stitch.

Pet Cemetary

In Progress: I'm still looking for a bone, sticks or something to top the piece off with, I'll get there eventually. So do ignore the white stick in the middle at the top of the piece I've since elimnated it from the design simply because it was too white.

What I've decided to do instead is wrap the copper nails with copper wire and horse hair and see where this takes me, I've plans to put a few beads on the copper wire to carry that from the quilted piece in the middle. My employee doesn't like the pine cone but I do so I guess it doesn't really matter now does it! Why do I like it? I like it's singularity. I like the fact that the pine cone, often thought of as dead by many is actually a seed, or many seeds to be correct.

The watches, don't know about the cemetaries in your area but clock faces seem to be quite popular in cemetaries around here.

And I should note that the blueish sticks on the inside of the piece are a very dark blue green, bordering on becoming black, now

Rusted Carrier Rods

Here are the carrier rods, rusted, washed, and then dried. Now I've plans to make them into something lovely.

Silk Rods

I'll take a picture a bit later this afternoon but I have to tell you the cocoons are incredible! They have rusted to a level I did not expect, I've plans to put more on to rust this evening.

Annual Wool Sale

Come join us at The Prairie Fibers Company, in Ames Iowa, for our Annual Wool Sale.

All Wool Fibers 30% Off

Rusting Carrier Rods

Didn't think I'd ever get the images off of my camera but here they are in progress, they should be done enough tomorrow.

Rusting Carrier Rods

I put a bunch of carrier rods on to rust tonight, they are currently buried under black plastic on my work table (the table that lives in my driveway). I'll try to post pictures tomorrow, I expect they will be plenty rusted enough tomorrow evening as it is really hot and REALLY humid here right now.

I have plans to make a few samples out of them for my extreme embroidery class I'm teaching, in studio, this fall. I like working with the carrier rods, they can be manipulated in so many ways creating really wild surfaces. They don't handle a lot of aggitaton well so if you are wanting them to remain intact (keep their shape and form) don't overwork them. I found that when dyeing them with natural dyes the excess rinsing took it's toll on the rods, I could still use them for my purposes but others may find this to be quite frustrating.

Rusting Before and After

Fabric that has been dyed with cochineal, light pink coloring, rust dyed, and then compost dyed.

Rusting Notes

I've been reading on several lists about some not so happy experiences with rusting fabrics, get my book read it and you will be much happier with the results!!! From what I"ve been reading, on various blogs, is the fabric is not staying wet enough long enough for the rust particles to transfer in large amounts. The end result is the fabric has very little to no markings on it, note: cover the fabric and rusty objects in plastic wrap, after soaking with vinegar, to ensure a humid enough environment for the fabric and rusted objects.

Yes you can overdye the rusted objects, I do this all of the time with natural dyes and using my composting techniques, I'll search my files for a some good examples and post them later. If you are using acid or MX dyes don't expect much in the way of color shifts, natural dyes are more prone to shifting colors when in the presence of iron.

You can also using paint, Shiva's, inks, and more over the rusted areas, rusting is just one of many steps towards complex cloth.

How do you know if you went too far??? Well when holes develope in your fabric, you can work this to your advantage though, use the piece for layering.

Oh and don't forget to neutralize your fabric in a baking soda and water solution, this stops the rusting process, albeit only for a little while. This procedure depends on how humid it is in your area.

Fermentation

Yes it's true the longer you soak your fibers in the mordanting baths the better the colors, especially with dyestuffs that are prone to fading or being difficult. Madder Root is one such difficult dye material, always wanting to go towards orange with strong hints of yellow.

Rinse your madder root first, I soak overnight and throw that water out, 0r use it for my indigo vat,yep you can do that too.

Then soak your madder root for 30 days for the best colors.

Wool

Well I spent about 4 hours tonight washing fleeces, all cold soak. Now I have about 4 pounds of white lincoln that is a lovely cherry color and 4 pounds that is a lovely blueberry! In the washer is about a half pound of lemon yellow Lincoln that is kind of varigation of sorts as the fleece itself was white and oatmeal colored.

I'm still not sure why blogger is having problems it's still creating weird break lines.

Well

I tried to change the header image... but it's not working. I saved the image as a draft and pasted the code hopefully it'll show up later.

It's Green!!!

After battling the patina's the piece is finally turning green! Now I just need to get the copper sheeting shined up and nailed inside of the piece, then I can start adding the remaining elements to the surface and to the niche.

Btw this is a headlong shot in the studio looking towards the store front.

Pet Cemetary

Still in progress here the patina is fighting me it won't turn green. Tis ok because I went and bought a new bottle of both the patina and the antiquing solution , hopefully it'll turn green now.

Posts

I'm not sure why blogger is condensing my posts but it is, maybe it'll all work out later on, just know that yes I do have a sense of paragraphs and the like.

In Progress

I've been working on this piece for about a month now, it's been slow going since I've been really ill - btw I have poison ivy in my lungs in addition to having strep and pneumonia. Anyway for the first time in two weeks I've felt creative and started on this piece.

It was supposed to be a part of a book but it kind of grew beyond that and has now become a sculptural piece. You can see the multiple pages for the book in the third picture down. The book was based on the one in the latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors (Summer 2007), well it's my varioation on the theme that is, and as you can see I moved beyond the book. The book in the magazine is really nice btw, I just ended up doing my own thing as usual.

Anyway, I found this clock body this afternoon and just had to put the piece inside of it, first I have to paint the interior, I'm planning on rubbing metallic waxes over the surface to spark it up a bit. It reminds me of a copper moseleum (sp?) that resides close to my husbands first wife's grave.

I love cemetaries they are incredibly peaceful, and there's no end to the designs that exist on the stones, the oldest stones that have been in the weather for decades hold the greatest fascination for me. More later I have a class to prep for on Saturady, I'm teaching an altered book class and it is going to be a lot of fun.

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

I'll post pictures of the parade later as it's going to be right outside my door! It's a scorcher here today but I'm inside (the shop/studio) where I can enjoy the festivities with air conditioning.

My new tote bag

I rust dyed this canvas tote for myself, it's pretty cool as it has pockets on the front of the tote bag, great place for my scissors to live! I have more rust and indigo dyed books on my etsy.com store.

I've been contemplating taking this bag and over dyeing it with quebracho red and some madder root, this would give me really nice purples and greys.

What I'm working on, sorta

I'm in progress on this piece right here, I'm not sure why the printer cut the sky off, yes that's a bunch of 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper taped together, it's my cartoon. My wide format printers are not here yet, did you guess that one??? Oh well I'm not sewing onto printed fabrics anyway, I'm stitching and needle felting onto canvas and silk.

The bags are made of canvas and have either been rust dyed and/or indigo dyed with natural indigo. If your interested they are listed on my etsy.com store.

Fleeces Ahoy Matie

Well what can I say but here's one postive vote for cold soaking and rinsing! What it does is remove the barnyard from the fleece before you do the hot wash so the hot washing will remove the lanolin and other ickies that cold soaking does not get rid of!

I have about three pounds in the washer right now, it'll be rinsed in about 30 minutes and if it's satisfactory will go straight into a pine green dye vat. I'm cheating I'm using acid dyes, country classics to be exact, no one around here wants to pay for fibers dyed with natural dyes, though they all claim to be Eco-Friendly and fight to have the most carbonless footprint in existance. I will be dyeing about half of this fleece with natural dyes - indigo and osage orange.

Silver Romney lends itself quite well to becoming green ;-) I have a lovely poundish amount of terra cotta as well. I got that by mixing half a container of Butterscotch with a heaping teaspoon of Turkey Red, very lovely. My next batches will be blues, teals, and purples as silver romney doesn't do yellow very well, it looks odd.

Altered Book Making Anyone???

I'll be teaching Altered Book Making level 2 class in July here in studio. I made this sign up after being asked what an Altered Book was.

Little bit of color

This pile of fibers here would be hand-dyed silk fibers, throwster's waste and degummed waste to be exact.

Washing Wool

I've been washing a fleece, I'd love nothing more than to say fleeces but alas it's a single fleece at the moment. It's a romney fleece that was incredibly big, and heavy. It is currently cold soaking in 8 five gallon buckets, it'll get rinsed tomorrow and then will be washed in hot water in the washing machine.

I have two pounds of said silver fleece currently dyeing, on color is butterscotch with a bit of turkey red added to the pot and the other pound is pine green, and I might add the pine green is stunning on this silver fleece. I can't wait to see what it looks like tomorrow when I remove it from the vat.

I know I know pictures please! I'll have to bring the digital camera from teh studio as I am no longer able to find my other card for the video camera - thank you John for rearranging my desk!

I'm feeling somewhat better, I knew the smell of a dirty fleece would be just the ticket to perk me up, only felt like hacking a lung up twice today. I'm really tired of being sick, I can only imagine what it's like for people who are chronic.

What's Up

Well after a trip to the ER tonight my antibiotic "is" working, even if I feel as if it isn't, on day five. Apparently I'm making great progress, even if I feel I'm not. My left ear is screaming at me and I'm still coughing like crazy, but apparently this is all par for the course, even if I feel I should be a lot better by now. Oh did I mention I can still bearly talk and doing so makes me cough so badly that I feel like I've inhaled my last breath.

Anyway... I'm going to go back to bed and hopefully will wake up feeling better tomorrow.

Interesting Week

Well this has been an interesting week for events, right now I'm battling walking pneumonia and a nasty ear infection - all set off by an allergy attack.

Today we had a pretty wild storm that ended with a tornado that set down on the south side of town, near the airport. Luckliy no one was hurt and there was very little damage. The boundary outflow was incredible, I watched my husband drive home in it from the storefront window, within 4 minutes the tornado sirens were going off.

More later with pictures.

Whole Sale

I've been getting inquiries about wholesaling my books and dvd's and the anwser is yes I do sell whole sale. Minimum is 5 of each title, you only have to buy one title, and you pay shipping. The discound is 40% off of the retail price. NOTE that at the end of June the Mark Making with Nature DVD will be undergoing a new format and packaging and price change. I have a few copies left of MMWN and whence it's gone it's gone.

You can contact me directly to purchase wholesale or purchase over on my Etsy.com store. I do need proof that you are a business though, I accept PayPal, MC & V.

Online Classes

Online classes, with The Prairie Fibers Company, will resume in July.

Altered Clock Class

Altered Clock Class, being taught by Kimberly Baxter Packwood, in July at the Prairie Fibers Company in Ames, Iowa. This class will be a LOT of fun! Create your own personal time piece using found objects, ephemra and more.

Altered Book Class

This class is being offered at The Prairie Fibers Company in Ames, Iowa.

Wallow

Buffalo wallow at the prairie, this one is a new one, must have smelled extra nice as it's much larger than the others.

Thistle ID

Not sure which type of thistle this is, it's in the prairie plant re-intro program at the prairie so it's hard telling. The education center was closed so there was no one to ask. I think it's Nodding Thistle, but am not a hundred percent sure.

The Thistle that Saved My Hide!

I figured God was really looking out for my sorry hide today, as I ended up with a REALLY flat tire! And not one of those slow leakers but one of those I barely made it to the service station.

I stopped to photograph a huge purple thistle, the size of which I haven't seen in eons and overshot my stopping point. As a result I had to walk the lenght of my truck and about 50 feet to get the thistle, what can I say yes I could have backed up but it was a really lovely day to be out on the prairie. Needless to say I noticed my truck was hissing. Not a good sign. I went and took my pictures and sure enough it was still hissing, so I know it's not the air conditioning. Well I went to the education center but it closes at 4pm, who knew, my cell phone won't call out but I can get calls in, go figure. Sooooo I made my way slowly over to Prairie City, where I spent three dollars making phone calls on the pay phone - remember those? - and finally was able to get ahold of my husband.

First the spare wouldn't drop from the truck - so bring me another spare tire please. Good thing he showed up with a star wrench as my piddley little jack bar would have never gotten the lug nuts off the truck. Wanting to know why I didn't do this myself I was vindicated when HEEEEEEE couldn't even get the lug nuts off, using a star wrench and a cheater bar - with ME standing on the cheater bar!!! (Oh and I"m not exactly light of foot if you know what I mean in a rather rotund way). Finally he set my flat tire free, turns out it has about a three inch screw with sheet metal lodged into it's rubbery flesh. I've been informed that my tire is ruined, hubby pronounced it so.

So that's how I spent my day off, I did get some footage of the prairie though, never really got to see any buffalo though, maybe I'll go back later in the week, if he'll let me leave town by myself ever again.

I'm not sure which type of thistle this is, any ideas???

New Techniques

Regina Rooks demo'ing the Tsukineko inks in aloe vera gel at my open house - Regina is a super talented artist who makes exquisit jewelry! Here she's painting some flowers on fabric using the inks and the aloe vera.

I've been working with the Tsukineko inks all day and wanted to share some new techniques I've picked up along the way. Regina, you can see her on my blog, found a link for mixing aloe vera gel with the tsukineko inks to created a controlled effect, it worked so well that I decided to try my hand at screen printing with the inks today, in the aloe vera gel, and it works very very well! I'll post a video on my blog/youtube.com later this weekend so you can see the results. Anyway, heat set with an iron as ususal. This works really well with the Setacolor paints and natural dye extracts also.

More later from the studio front - I'm having an open house today.

Open House Invite

If you are in Central Iowa this weekend I'm having an open house for my new commericial studio. It is located on Main Street in the back half of the Prairie Fibers Company (Main and Burnett). I will be here Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Grand Opening

We are celebrating our grand opening this weekend so if your in Ames Iowa check us out we are on Main Street (Corner of Burnett and Main)!

We will be demoing all weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I will be doing some rust dyeing, painting with pigments, and much more. Lorretta will be demo'ing needle felting, drop spindling on Friday and Sunday, Brenda will be demo'ing Shiva Paintstiks, Regina will be demoing Tsuineko inks (I'm doing the inks with Shaving Cream) and Water Color Crayons on Fabric and Wendy will show you how to distress papers and more for ATC"S.

I think the space will look much better whence the sign and the awnings arrive, don't you???

I'm off to ship some books and then hang more artwork.

Grand Opening/Open House for Studio

The weekend of June 9th is Wild Woman Weekend here so we have decided to make that weekend the one to host our Grand Opening/Open House. I have sooooooo much work that needs to be done, it didn't help that I was locked out of my office for several hours this afternoon ;-) My friend Regina was able to get ahold of my husband, who has the only other key to my office, and he came and unlocked my door! Lets just say I was a little bit frustrated with this experience.

Silk Carrier Rods & More

Finally the twelve colors I dye over the weekend have been rinsed and are now drying - on drying racks I made using wooden stretchers and some fiberglass screen mesh. This method works really well btw. I need to make some more frames this week. I dyed the carrier rods using Country Classic Dyes, this seems to be a less harsh method of dyeing the rods, when I used natural dyes they basically desintigrated in the dye pots. I'll try to post pictures this week.

It's hot and humid here, really humid! I think we are getting Florida's weather but am not a hundred percent sure.

My neck is still bothering me, I'm seeing the doctor for my kidneys' tomorrow but I think I will have my neck looked at as well. I was getting into hubbies truck on Sunday, his is shorter than mine and I forgot this, anyway I cracked my head really good on the door frame. I just had my eyes checked but I'm really starting to think I'm losing my peripheal (sp?) vision as I really should have seen the truck frame moving towards my head.

One Smart Dog!

Check out the video of this dog trying to get the ball that's fallen into a swimming pool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnMRVsLAxg8

Prairie Potholes

Prairie Potholes III

Prairie Potholes II

Prairie Potholes I

I put these up for sale over at my etsy.com store: http://www.kbaxterpackwood.etsy.com I will be posting more artwork over there this week. They can be purchased framed or unframed.

Need a dose of Reality?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH-Z0l24h88&mode=related&search=

Tickled Pink

I'm so tickled my Gelatin Plate Printing with Natural Dyes ranked with Honors as one of the most watched DIY video clips over at YouTube.com!!! Can you believe it! Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5h7Bw8Fh2Q

Here's Something Pretty

Life necessitates beauty from time to time, they are blooming here but are quite paltry this year so here's some from last year.

Videos & Life

Ok I'm majorly frustrated as I uploaded six videos to YouTube.com and it's only showing five of them! Well the last one is on making up the gum tragacanth binder hopefully it'll show up soon.

I have a really bad kidney infection, that refuses to go away, I'm having some tests on Thursday to make sure it's not something that worse. Having kidney disease sucks.

Gelatin Plate PDF Coming Soon

Ok I'm trying to figure out how to put a link to the PDF that accompanies the Gelatin Plate Printing video clips. Btw someone was kind enough to tell me which programs to use for editing "still" camera (read web cam or cell phone footage). It's a microsoft product which I have on my computer no less.

Gelatin Plate Printing with Natural Dyes

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=kbaxterpackwood I posted for webcasts to Youtube.com I'm too tired, it's almost midnight, to try and figure out how to get them onto the blog right now. It took almost a half hour for each video clip to load to youtube.com (eeegads).

Here's what happens to the plate as it dries out, it developes pits and cracks. These can be quite useful.

Gelatin Plate Printing with Natural Dyes

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=kbaxterpackwood I posted for webcasts to Youtube.com I'm too tired, it's almost midnight, to try and figure out how to get them onto the blog right now. It took almost a half hour for each video clip to load to youtube.com (eeegads).

Gelatin Plate Video Clips

Ok I'll try this again!

I'm loading video clips to You Tube I'll post a link later, it's taking awhile to load to youtube. There are five clips in all. Please be patient as I shot these using my webcam and have no way of editing them. The programs I use, Ulead, Pinnacle Studio and Adobe Premiere are all too advanced to edit webcam images; who knew. I have since procured a real video camera that can actually keep up with the digital technology, now to get back into the studio and do some video taping.

And Another Thing

I like, no color that LOVE, Sun Bonnet Sue, and I like Log Cabin Quilts ~

Background Colors and Permission

I'm still working on the background colors. I've finally given myself permisson to come out of the closet on something .... I like pink! However, I'm not ripped with all pinks. I'm tired of feeling like I have to deny which colors I like simply because the social majority has declared it so! Who are these people and why the hell should we care anyway??? So if you like pink, or any other color that is not in favor then come on out of the color closet and enjoy life, after all we only get one life to enjoy and it's a really short one at that.

So in the meantime I'm trying to find a good pink for my blog background, I think I'll end up making something in the studio and then scan it into blogger and go from there. The pinks I really like are the vintage pinks from the 30's to the 50's. We bought a cabinet, for $5.00, for my new studio space and it's interior is painted in a pink like none other I've ever seen before. It's old very old, both the cabinet and the paint.

Video Clip

I'm not sure how to move the video clip box over to the left side of the screen, it just doesn't want to cooperate! Once it's moved the right column will be smaller.

Where did all of the family information go??? I moved it over on my other blog: http://www.survivalkitchen.blogspot.com

Old Gelatin Plate

The plate dried out quite quickly in my basement - about two days - as I never store them in the fridge.

I'll try to get a video clip posted to You Tube, later today, of me working with the natural dyes and the gelatin plate. It all depends on if I can get the video to cooperate, it's been a couple of months since I've worked with any of this and am starting to get a bit rusty (Oh I'm doing some rust dyeing on my day off) at video editing.

Gel Plate with Natural Dyes

Final wash out, note that about one third of the color has washed out, it is HOWEVER, typical and very stable at this point.

After the printing has been done and the fabric is curing.

Two prints, I just rollered the dye onto the whole plate to create background.

Rollered dye on the plate, that I then placed silk dupioni (that had been dyed with a weak cochineal bath) and created the print.

Madder lac extract mixed with gum tragacanth on my mixing plate. That is the dye on the roller/brayer. As you can see it is thick, you can vary the thickness for varying results. I find that the thicker it is the better print you get.

Gelatin Plate

Compost Dyeing now in PRINT!!!

Compost Dyeing and Other Fermentation Techniques is now in PRINT and is available through my Etsy.com store http://www.kbaxterpackwood.etsy.com Check it out!!! 44 pages of Step-by-step instruction, packed with color photos and is a major improvement over the CDROM version if you ask me.

If there are no copies left email me and I'll post more to my store it would seem the trick to Etsy.com is to add a few items at a time not have hundreds ones store, which makes sense.

What The???

I had a woman looking at my work this morning, bags that I make with my own fabrics, stitch the begeebers out of and then create lovely handles for, and she proceeds to try and disassemble the bag!

She was shocked that I would be horrified, her comment was "well don't you take things apart to see how they are constructed and to see if the construction is quality or not"? Well actually no I don't, and I informed her as much and since the bags were silk I was a little bit more than put out. She kept claiming that she wasn't doing this to try to copy my bags - yeah whatever get your mitts of my stuff lady.

So the twenty million question is how does one politely tell someone to get their mitts off of your work??? I'm not always known for tact and I know this so I tend to keep my mouth shut so as to not dig myself a grave but come one why would someone do something like this??? Personally I find the behaviour not only odd but inconsiderate - I just don't know how to tell this to people when they behave in such a manner.

Studio Newsletter

I have a new newsletter for the goings on in my studio for those whoare interested in what happens there. You can join here if interested:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kbaxterpackwood/

Coming Along

Things are coming along at the store, next weekend is VEISHIA and John wants me open for that, so open I will. How I'm going to work the training into the schedule is beyond me, I am in need of serious training on the new printer, I can't get it to do half of what it can do, and why a trainer hasn't been sent up yet is beyond me.

Anyway I named the printer, it's a boy btw, Simon. To say that Simon has a colic problem would be an understatement, the thing is royally tempermental and alarms go off just about everytime I touch the crazy thing. I have successfully printed off copies of the book, have yet to figure out how to do saddle stitching yet - hopefully a trainer will be presented and soon - the prints are gorgeous! You haven't lived until you have seen a photo real print.

Now in Print

The Rust and Clay Dyeing Book is now available in Print format!!!

Anyway... The book is 97 pages and almost every page has color photos on them (I think there may be a dozen pages that don't have an image or color of some sort on it!), the book is chock of photos. For a limited time the video clip cd will still be available with the book but once they are gone I have plans for a full out DVD, which will be done soon.

What's Up?

I updated some links on the right side bar, I added a spot for Newfoundland. My mom was from Cape St. George, NFLD, my dad met her at teh NCO club in Stephenville in 1964, pretty wild huh! He has some pics that I'll get scanned in someday they are really wild, the clothes they wore back then were something else.

The studio and store are coming right along, hopefully I'll be up and running next week. I know I swore off retail but with hubbies health issues and the like we decided that it'd be best to do it anyway. The potential for employees to help me is much higher now as I have a place for them to actually work. John will retire or be forced (which is most likely) in less than three years and his retirement is enough to pay the insurance only - that's if our politicians don't get their way and take IPERS and spend it on some idiotic program - which they are wanting to do and in a really bad way. If that happens then all Iowa public employees are screwed, not just us. I'll try to post pictures when the everything looks nice, and there's no scaffolding in the middle of my space.

Oh and there's this really charismatic church in the basement below my store/studio and Woooohooo are they ever a happy bunch!