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!

Circles and Computers

I've been dealing with computer issues the past several days, to the point that when the dsl mysteriously shut off last night at 9pm I started to feel as if I was a dog chasing it's own tail!

So while grousing about all of the computer issues and my dislike of Centurylink, our internet provider, I painted some circles onto painted timtex with acrylic inks and paints.

It took three plus hours on the phone this afternoon, with Centurylink, to get the whole mess sorted out but as you can see we now have internet service again.

And I painted three small panels with circles, and this piece of watercolor paper also saw some circles.

Probably the most interesting accomplishment was the three thousand word short story I wrote up while waiting on the phone with Centurylink!  I'll rewrite it this week, give it a good polishing, and post it to my blog sometime next weekend.  It's a modern take on a mythological story.

Experiments in Malachite

Working on some nummies with watercolors, inks, and golden's fluid acrylic paints.  Crow is from my stencil collection through StencilGirl Products!

As I said earlier I totally forgot that I had the watercolor crayons so I broke them out and started making some color palettes with the various crayons to see what colors will work in an upcoming series of one offs.  I'm loving the blues and greens for sure with malachite being my favorite thus far.

Junkin in June

More washi tape, from my favorite source Pixi's in Gilbert, IA. I have to admit that keeping a personal journal has become a lot more fun now that I've started incorporating all of those elements I've been collecting, but had no place in my regular artwork!  

Picked these up from one of the vendors at JB Knacker in Gilbert, IA this afternoon during their annual Junkin in June event!  

My watercolor issue resolved now that I've been reminded that I own sets of Caran D'Ache's Aquarelle watercolor crayons as I wasn't looking forward to replacing 20 year old dried up tubes of watercolor paints anytime soon!  Now that I'm using my aquarelle's again I can take my time and buy the colors I need preferably on sale as sets or as single tubes.

Patternless Skirt

Almost finished, the waste band and hem are next.

Natural, Indigo, and Rust dyed cotton muslin fabric.

It should have taken 45 minutes to construct from start to finish but since I accidentally sewed it together (wrong sides) twice it took about two hours!  So I decided I'll finish the waste band tomorrow and think about how I want to finish the hem.

Journal Pages and Stencils

From this...

To this...

I played around in a handmade journal this evening with my new paints, oil bars, and inks and my Black Birds in Tree and Three Crows Stencils.  Tomorrow I will finish out these pages after the oil bar dries.

Paints used:
Matisse Flow
Golden Fluid Acrylics

Inks used:
Daler-Rowney FW inks
Liquidtex inks

Oil bars used:
Shiva Paintstiks
Shiva Paintstiks Metallics

Thoughts on Eco-Dyeing

Today I shared some thoughts on my other blog about why I do not consider myself an eco-dyer.  The studio purge continues and I will share photos and updates throughout the month. It's a great feeling to know that the materials I no longer need to create art with are going to studios where they will be utilized!

Done is Betther than Perfect?

Lynn Krawczyk asked this question on her blog this morning and my response was:

"Perfection is an addiction to disappointment"

I used to get myself wound up and pretty tightly over my work an wanting it to be perfect, now not so much.  One of the things I've come to realize is that once a piece is done if I don't like it a year later it's ok to change the work or even destroy it, but by striving for perfection I would never finish the piece. 

We can remain stuck and live with continual disappointment or we can move forward declare it done and create more works of art.

Organize Me!!!

I decided today to drop some coin on some studio organizational tools, I bought the Clip and Spin Organizer at Hobbly Lobby this evening.  I almost didn't make the purchase because I wasn't sure if I could fill it or not, now I see I should have purchased two of them!

Another thirty or so rubbing plates that I will clean up tomorrow, seems a mouse managed to make a nest in my storage tub, and will hang the remainder of these plates on the spinner.

I still have a dozen or so alphabet stencils that need to be hung on the spinner as well, yep it's really starting to look like I should have purchased two of these!  I have to admit it is really nice to have all of my stencils out where I can see them now, I have quite a few I forgot about that I could have used at Easter for cards and such.

My Black Birds in Tree Stencil looks so good  hanging on the organizer!  For damage control I backed most of the stencils with a sheet of paper to keep them from hooking onto the next stencil.

Yes, I definitely see another spinner in my near future!

Studio Purge and Color Wheels

On Purging and Creating: I decided to take the month of June off from creating, etc., with the exception of the Art Walk here in Ames on June 6th, to focus on paring down my studio.  I've already started lining up local artists that are interested in my excess fabric, wool and silk fibers, oh and the yarn!  I have to say it's exciting, very exciting.

I had hit the wall and that wall was I cannot create anymore until I get rid of the excess in my studio it is weighing me down.  So out it goes so that I can move forward with my new Canyonland Series, and my collections for licensing.

Watercolor on Bristol board with Sumi Brush

On Color Wheels:  I love certain colors, and I tend to work ONLY with those colors in my work.  After twenty years of producing work I've decided that this is ok and these are my signature colors.  So I've been busy making color wheels in watercolor, acrylic paint, and with natural dyes, and how I achieved those colors so that they are repeatable.

On Planning:  Something I got from Lisa Call a couple of weeks ago that has lit a fire under my can is this:  "Planning is Defining the Dream!"  I started working on my business plan again, laying out the road map to where I want to go and have began planning how I want/hope to get there, and doing so has lit a new fire within me.

Selfies

Photoshop generated selfie

WIP Sunflower

Sunflower over Black Birds in Tree Stencil with some sequin waste dots using craft paint on baltic birch panel.  I'll pull the Black Birds in Tree back out after I'm done with the sunflower and other embellishments.

Detail of Sunflower and Black Birds in Tree Stenciled image.

New Project in Progress

Black Birds in Tree Stencil and craft paints on baltic birch panel board... more later after I add more layers.

Yesterday's Find

Orange glass beads, in necklace form, found this at JB Knacker in Gilbert, Iowa.

I plan to take the necklace apart and use the beads in a project, I'm not sure who would wear this necklace anyway as the beads are incredibly rough and scratchy.

Solo Show at the Sanford Museum and Planetarium

The wall!!! I have a variety of styles per say in this show, Mixed Media Fiber in the form of the niches, Paint in the form of the acrylic painted panel frames, and Encaustic in the form of the smaller encaustic paintings.  The theme is Queen Anne's Lace and Crows, so there is some consistency.

This is the only close up photo that didn't end up blurry, I will have to take new photos when we go up in a month to take the show down!

Stop by and check out my show, be sure to sign in and let me know you stopped by!!! My show runs the month of May at the Sanford Museum and Planetarium in Cherokee, Iowa!

Crow Panels

Ok, I'll be upfront I'm not happy with these panels, I mean I like them but I don't love them.  They need more layers, more surfacing, more mystery, but alas I'm out of time!  I'll spend the next two hours attaching the hanging hardware, wrap them up and pack them for tomorrows big day.

No. 0 or My Sample Board

I found this 5x7x2 inch raised panel frame whilest looking for something else and decided it would make for an excellent test subject, hence the reason I labeled it No. 0!

Here it is with a iridescent shiva paintstik layer and then a layer of thinned gold metallic paint that I wiped off, after it was half dried, with a diaper wipe.  Now to add more glazes, birds, and frilly stuff, via texture tools.

The crow is from my Three Crows Stencil from StencilGirl Products. Dots were created using sequin waste ribbon, random frilly stencil.

Mark Making with Nature Series

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Mark Making with Nature!

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Rent or Own it Today!!! 

Getting There

It's the journey, not the destination!

In Progress and now with more paint.  I need to make up the glaze for the left hand side of each panel, and then I can start adding the queen anne's lace and crows to the right hand panels.  I may change the color of panel No. 6 add more pinks and yellows.

Bonus I found these six narrow panels while looking for another small sample panel, stay tuned!