Earth

All Things End, Eventually!



Field Notes #'s 1-36 ready for their edges to be bound and then mounted to their stretched canvas frames.  Each piece is 6x6 inches.

So why am I having such a hard time getting there? Excellent question. And I finally decided it's because I don't want this particular project to end.

Which is odd because the whole time I've been working on this project I've been chomping at the bit to start the next state of my Fields Series!

Anyway, I'm off to stitch their tiny edges, and get started on attaching the hanging hardware to the frames.

Registration NOW OPEN for Earth and Sky From Sketch to Stitch

Earth and Sky: From Sketch to Stitch

A Mini Master Class click here to learn more!

Earth and Sky is an Eight Week Mini Master Class divided into 2 Four Week modules with a One Week break in between the two modules.

Module 1: Sketch, Draw, Paint, Surface Design

Break Week

Module 2: Sketch, Surface Design, Stitch, Embellish

Class begins April 15th! 

Lifetime Access to the Clas

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NOTE: Because of the intensity of this class I am limiting the number of spaces available to 20!!!

From Sketch to Stitch



My Aurifil thread color palette for my latest series "Field Notes"


Field Notes was born out of several loves, passions of mine:

The love of the prairie.
The love of crops as they rise out of the ground each year.
The love of the symmetry and simplicity of how the fields themselves are arranged in the countryside.


Field Notes in progress on my table.


Some color studies.



Watercolor crayons, water soluble oil pastels, and water soluble graphite on sketchbook paper.

Field Series Update


My thread order came today. If you've been following me on Facebook then you know there's been a lot of drama lately with my trying to obtain a rather allusive Aurifil Thread color #2612 aka arctic ice.
Well that was through Amazon.

Three spools of the wrong color later I put out a plea on Facebook begging to know everyone's favorite place to buy Aurifil Thread.  Follow That Thread came up, repeatedly.  So late Sunday night I put together my order, which included the much desired #2612, and it arrived today.

And the much desired color is quite desirable!!! It IS the perfect sky color!


#2612 is second from the left and it matches my earth pigment painted fabrics and perfectly!


Six pieces almost stitched, thirty left to go.


My color palette for the Fields Series sans one spool that should be here hopefully this weekend, because I of course ordered it from Amazon.  Odd that it'll be the correct color?

It's Been Awhile


So begins a new series I've titled "Fields". So far the goal is 18 large pieces and 12 small pieces. I'm using earth pigments, charcoal, conte, and mixed media pm cotton and silk fabrics this time around with machine stitching as the finishing touch.

I've been dragging my feet to start on this series, as it is the first series where I won't be using natural dyes. Fabric painting begins tonight. Photos coming soon.

Autumn is Finally Here!


I love Autumn, I truly do. The lack of humidity, the cool crisp air, fresh apples, and pumpkins everywhere, and most importantly my allergies are starting to calm down.

The part I love the most,  however, is the colors of the leaves. Reds, golds, oranges, and brilliant yellows, and everywhere!

So it's no surprise that I created art cloth show casing these colors in my Colors of the Earth and Pretty Pigments online classes.

If you'd like to capture the beauty of nature's natural palette using natural earth pigments then join me in my newest class Colors of the Earth.  Class starts on October 17th!


Tonight's Live Stream


Earth pigments mixed with soy milk binder.

Live Stream Event I will be painting fabrics using earth pigments this evening, and also demo'ing how to use the earth pigments with stencils.  I will be using my own design Black Birds in Trees as well as several other artists designs.  If all goes well I may add some mica flakes to the fabric as well.


I love this Mayan blue pigment! 

WIP - Sunshine and Roses 061713


It should be finished tomorrow sometime, this piece has been a break through piece for me.  Break through in that while beading and stitching I resolved some issues I had with another piece I constructed way back around 2001, Big Blue Stem.


Big Blue Stem - Earth Pigments, Natural Dyes, Cotton, Cheesecloth, Stitch. 

This piece has been languishing in my studio for about twelve years.  From time to time I trot it out, hang it on my wall and alas nothing, nada, zilch, zip!  And then late Saturday night, whilest I was stitching on Sunshine and Roses it occurred to me to experiment with overlaying digitally printed silk organza fabrics onto the right hand panel.  More coming soon...


Raw Sienna and Raw Umber


I streamed tonight, such as it was... I say that because the audio kept dropping.  I will be streaming tomorrow evening from another site and hopefully that will work out.  Until then I posted in the Natural Surface Forum on the fruit fermentation reduction vat and about the earth pigments above.

Curing Pigment Painted Fabrics


Four different earth pigments were used in combination with soy milk to color this piece of cotton cloth.

I'm often asked "how long do I really need to allow for my soy painted fabrics cure before I can wash them"?  The anwser is depending on your climate/humidity a minimum of three to six weeks.


Tape was use to create resist patterns on the fabric. 

The real anwser is how long can you stand to wait?  The longer you wait the greater the permance of the dyes and pigments on the fabric.  Yes the hand of the fabric will change the longer you wait, the piece in the top photo has been curing now for about 10 years, and it's stiff enough after all of this time to almost stand by itself unaided!  I just found it this afternoon while sorting through a pile of fabrics that I had misplaced.