Good Bye Barley

The Old Man of the Woods

1994-2007

Barley

R.I.P. Sweet Heart

Barley aka The Old Man of the Woods 1994-2007. He fell off of the chair trying to get to my bowl of cereal the only thing I can think of is he must have fallen on his tail and broken his back when he fell. It was quick that's all I could ever ask for.

SetaSilk Woes

Does anyone know why it's foxing? It would appear that the pigment and the binder are seperating. I've shaken the bottle, and shake it periodically while using but it's still doing creating this fox or ghost like image that I don't want. The fabric is silk charmuse and is stretched on a frame. The part that really bites is this is on my final fabric piece, the paint didn't do this on any of the test fabrics.

New Work and Life Goes On

I will have to take some pictures later of my newer pieces. After much deliberation I have decided to take the webstore down for a space of time, probably until early summer. In the meantime I'm concentrating more on my career as an artist and am working on a commercial studio space. Printing fabric is my passion, printing with natural dyes now that I'm even more passionate about.

In the past year it has become exceedingly impossible to work with a shopping cart that would function only part of the time, seems that no matter how much money I spend on modules and IT work it still did not function correctly. Couple that with a thousand plus other retailers that are selling the same products as I was, their retail prices very often were what I was paying for the same products wholesale and it doesn't take long to do the math.

So now I'm at a point where I am evaluating things, getting a grip on where to go next.

The online classes will resume later this spring. I am currently photographing, video taping, and am rewriting all of the documentation (workbooks) for the classes. I have found that a 40 page workbook format is working well for me. I have learned a lot in the past year and will learn even more this coming year.

Stay tuned and meanwhile back at the prairie...
-Kimberly

Video Clip - Finally

Scouring Overview

I'm not sure why I am unable to load the video here at this point. Here's the link to the video:

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

YouTube.com

Now if I can just figure out how to make the box smaller and put it in the right hand side bar I'll be a happy camper! Until then I will be uploading more shorts, and working on the compression quality.

Video Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQsYVdJ5tIE

This is a video clip from my Mark Making with Nature DVD, I'm not sure but Youtube.com may ask you to register to view the video. I'm hoping to have the bugs worked out later today. The video can be purchased from my Etsy.com store at:

http://www.kbaxterpackwood.etsy.com

The New Blogger

I really hate the new blogger, I have less control over my own blog now. I don't know whoever thought this up but... We'll start with the two sets of login user names and login passwords and end with my being able to publish my blog when I want to, not when someone else thinks it's good for me.

So in a few weeks, when the dust settles down over here I will be moving my blogs to the land of oh yeah Hey I get to control the content and style!

Where Am I???

Yep the websites are down, as is the email. if you need to contact me you can do so at:

prairiefibers@hotmail.com

Yellow Bird

It's not done yet, but here is my WIP. I've spent this week with hardware issues again, my neighbor lent me his laptop tonight so I could burn DVD's and CDROMS, I"m hoping my new DVD burner will be here come Friday Morning.

More Samples

I've been painting more fabric with pigments, here's a detail of a piece I was working on tonight. I'm building a body of "primitive images" for lack of a better word, they are spontaneous and a lot of fun to do. I"m not sure what smells like burning vanilla in the house John noticed it earlier, it's even stronger now. I've looked a bout the place and didn't find anything, and since I don't burn candles, let alone scented ones, I'm starting to think it's coming from the neighbors place.

WIP2

I haven't decided if I just want to bind this piece off and leave it as is or not.

What I'm Up To

Or where is my order??? Hopefully I will have the email bugs worked out tomorrow, for some odd reason I can receive email, but am unable to send, and apparently this has been going on for two weeks. Oddly enough I thought my mail was getting sent, but then out of the blue I clicked on a folder and what do you know all of the mail I've sent out has ended up in this folder. At least I know who hasn't received an email, but it's still frustrating none the less.

I'm spending the month of January and February doing taxes, inventory, catching up up on back orders, and getting ready for classes. Getting ready for classes entails shooting new video, I've discovered that all of the video I took with my webcam cannot be edited with video editing programs - or at least the ones I own anyway (Pinnacle, and Adobe Premier)

This means everything has to be reshot, which means prepping all over again. The upside to this is I am creating new samples, which means I have more to choose from, and I'm taking some of the older ones and am creating a finished piece - which allows me to create projects for my classes - one of the biggest requests I've had.

I'm also hoping to have a few vidcasts and podcasts up soon, it's hard getting everything done when it's only you that's doing the work. My husband is willing to keep me in equipment though.

I've finished updating the Rust and Clay Dyeing book, putting the video clips in another location as this proved to be too confusing. This book is on CDROM.

Rusted Sheer

I discuss how to make this fabric, and the WIP below this post in my newly updated Rust and Clay Dyeing book - available on CDROM.

WIP

Indigo dyed, Rust and Tannin dyed cotton fabric.

Found

I found these while cleaning today, I'll be posting them on my etsy.com site later, there are 20 one yard pieces in each bundle. Each bundle is a combination of silk and rayon ribbons and yarns varying from silks to cotton and or wool that have been dyed with natural dyes, they are $28.00 each. I have some more I need to wash that are incredibly beautiful reds and burgandies, just in time for V-Day.

Rust Sample

I've been working on an update for my Rust and Clay Dyeing book, and have been making more samples. It'll be shipping the end of next week, if all goes well, yes it's still on CD-ROM but I"ve moved the video clips so that they are seperate now, making them easier to find and use.

I took this image three hours after I started the fabric. The fabric was dyed in indigo first, then washed, probably three dips, three very blotchy dips. I used some tannin based natural dyes to create the pinkish areas.