Finding Oneself

Or maybe this post should be titled giving myself permission to do what I love!  I've started digging my collections out of my office and wet studio and bringing them into my design studio, you know the place were I create!

There's this meme that has been circulating on Facebook that says, essentially, the things you spend the most time doing, that's your passion and that's where we should focus our energies.  Well my passion is nature, gardening, hiking, collecting natural items like shells, bits of bark with lichens on them, rocks, bones, flowers, seed pods, and more.

And art supplies, I love to collect and use art supplies!

And plants!  This spring I will start amassing native prairie plants that love shade and will turn my front and side yards into prairie gardens!

It's been almost three months since I planted the terrariums, and they are thriving! 

Angel Update

She's doing much better, here she is getting ready to take a nap on the nest that Oliver made for her.  I've never seen a dog do this for another dog before, but maybe it's natural? Oliver collected a variety of polar fleece blankets we have in the family room, and most of my dish towels (that he could get to anyway) and some select pieces (who knows what a Doodle is really thinking right) of paper out of the mail pile and the trash can and made a nest for Angel right inside the family room door next to my spot on the sofa

She's gained about a pound or so now that I've convinced her that wet dog food is in fact edible, I found some sensitive stomach lamb and rice wet food and so far she's doing much better.  Tomorrow she gets a bath!

So who knows, her bark is still pretty weak but we think that she may have had a stroke at some point and this is why she no longer twirls or barks like before. She's officially 15/16 years old, she's lived with us for nine years now; we were told when we adopted/rescued her that she was approximately 5-7 years of age.

Why I don't Eco-Dye My Fabric

Why I don’t Eco-Dye Fabric

I do, however, dye, paint, and print, my fabric with natural dyes.

Photo courtesy of the Main Street Cultural District Ames, Iowa.

I participated in a local art walk last Friday and after three hours of questions about my natural dyed scarves, artwork, etc., I am once again reminded as to why I don’t call myself an eco-dyer, for the most part nobody is interested in the craft of eco-dyeing! 

While most people play lip service to protecting the environment, sustainability, fair trade practices, and all things “green” the fact of the matter is when most people found out that I was using tree bark, mushrooms, leaves, bugs, and other stuff to dye my art cloth the response was an overwhelming “that’s nice” or “that’s really cool”.  "That’s nice" is the kiss of death, it's the Mid westerners version of “so what” or “who cares”!

The whole experience solidified in my mind what I already knew, while there are some that are truly concerned about the environment and sustainability, the majority only cares if it saves them a buck or two.  Which leads me back to why I don’t eco-dye my fabric, fibers, and threads, but in fact dye them with Natural Dyes, to me it’s about the process and the relationships I form with other dyer’s, and most importantly with nature that surrounds and inspires me. 

Natural dyed silk scarves.

For me the process is not about immediate gratification, but about discovery, learning, exploring, and most importantly relationships.  Unless a local woodworker gifts me a bag of wood chips from their dust collection system or from their lathe turnings, the wood, barks, and roots I use to create my designs are collected over a period of years, often time’s decades. 

My finished artwork was a hit with everyone with plenty of people telling me they’d love to be able to stitch and sew like I do and do I teach classes?  The evening wasn't a total bust, I got plenty of hits from women of all ages that are interested attending a stitching party; the older women of course were very excited about the wine aspect of said parties. 

Click here to learn more about eClasses, Workshops, and my newest offering Out of the Box Art Parties!

Pear Tree Dye Project

The wind took out my beloved pear tree last week, so this week we will be cutting it up into managable pieces, the leaves, bark, and smaller limbs will be used for dyeing fabric and yarn.  Am thinking of breaking out the large cast iron cauldron and making up a large dye vat.

Bark

It has some potential!

Three Winters Table Cloth

Three Winters Table Cloth after spending two days in a revived Osage Orange Dye Vat.

Today's Dye Session

Today's dye session consisted of a madder root extract vat and a logwood purple extract vat. The madder root vat contains a combination of cotton and linen vintage trims. The logwood vat contains vintage damask napkins and linen napkins.