series

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.

Things Happen!


Things happen. A few weeks back I blogged that I was cancelling my Vimeo account and taking my videos elsewhere.  Well that didn't happen because I was unable to figure out how to cancel my account, before it auto renewed and to make matters worse it auto renewed two days before the expiration date, which created a TON of headaches on my end.

So, I have lowered the price of my video series, and will leave it at this price until the end of November at which time I plan to take it out of circulation and will replace it with a new video series.

Surface Design with Natural Dyes Series 
RENT $9.95 or BUY $34.95 it today!!!  


http://vimeo.com/ondemand/9277 

Mark Making with Nature Video Series

Mark Making with Nature Video Series
Beyond the Ordinary in Surface Design


Digital Video Series 

This video series is available as a digital download from Vimeo.com!

Part One:
  • Getting Started
  • Painting with Natural Dyes & Gutta Resists
  • Creating a mono chromatic painting with Natural Dyes
  • Bound Resist

Part Two:
  • Other Resists, using tape as a resist, etc.
  • Monoprinting with objects.
  • Screen printing with Natural Dyes
  • Stamping and More with Natural Dyes

Part Three:
  • Bundle and/or Compost Dyeing
  • Other Bundle Dyeing techniques
  • Mixing Surface Design Techniques (painting, resists, etc.,) to achieve gorgeous cloth!

Part Four:
  • Making the Gum Tragacanth Binder
  • Using textured brayers to make marks on the cloth
  • Screen Printing using resists and non traditional techniques (a variation on deconstructed screen printing)

  • Monoprinting with found vegetation such as grasses and leaves.

WIP - Niche's


Niches for an upcoming solo show, am still playing off the theme of Queen Anne's Crows from last year.


The door on this piece, and another similar piece, were confounding me.  This issue has now been resolved... the big reveal will be this coming Sunday at Cafe Diem, stay tuned. 

She was Third Class to the right of these two pieces.


WIP's - Sandstone Series

 
This Sandstone piece has been in a bucket for the past decade, every once in awhile I dig it out and stare it it on my design wall (in my case my design wall is a bookshelf).  Today's it's day, I've decided to seperate the two pieces of fabric and overdye the top piece with kutch, and maybe some kamala.
 

Detail, the reddish fabric is cochineal and rust dyed silk fabric.


Another Sandstone WIP that has been languishing in the storage bucket for the past 10+ years.  It's mostly hand stitching on the surface, tonight I have plans to add some machine stitching and possibly a few layers of constructed cloth.  This piece is small enough to experiment with pushing the surface.

WIP - Bjorkboda 090412

 
 

Now with more hand stitching, and still plugging along!  I've missed several deadlines but at this point I don't care anymore, I have a vision for this piece and I want that vision to come to life but not in some half hearted fashion. 


In the mean time I'm contemplating dyeing some threads, for hand stitching, for this piece.  I still have the silk layer and the pieces of scrim that were dyed along with these layers and am thinking of starting a second piece for a new series.
 

My Creative Process Part 1 of 4

I recieved an email from a follower earlier in the week asking me about my creative process, how do I get started, etc.  The email contained all sorts of questions, images of her very lovely work, etc., but the gist of the story is how to start the creative process for a piece.  The more I thought about it, and wrote to her, the more I realized that I there was a blog post(s) in the anwser.

For my latest series of stitched stories, Corn, I started out by looking at images in my photo library.


And I start thinking about the theme, what in the photos captures my eye design wise?


I also spend thousands of hours staring at fields, ditches, corn plants, grain bins, silos, etc., in varying light and seasons studying how the light moves and bounces across the objects, studying how they change shape and form in different lighting.

The next thing I do, and this can be days, weeks, months, or even years later, is decide if I want to work in fabric/fiber, encaustic, or with paint.  I admit sometimes I work in all of those mediums just to see how it'll turn out in the end, what I thought might be a great idea for fabric bombs and turns out to be exquisite when worked up in wax!

 More tomorrow!






Redid the studio last night, we moved my sewing table to the west side of the studio space where there was better lighting especially during the daytime, the east side of the studio has a cave like feeling.


Lots of lovely natural light!

Some natural dyed WIP's on my sewing table.