The Stash, Dyeing and Teaching.

It pays to look through ones stash once in awhile. I found some rather yummy yarns to work with, I should have taken pics of them as well.

Right now I'm on a knitted felted handbag kick, I'm making one for myself and one for my aunt, who shares my affliction for cute handbags. I told her tonight that the reason I like them so much is that they are easier to wear than jewelry sometimes. Don't get me wrong I have jewelry, and actually wear it, but there are times when I'm not in the mood, when a really nice handbag is all I need.

Anyway I've been doodling with some new ideas, for me anway, I've been stuffing ribbon with yarns, now I will dye them and do other wild things to them. Right after I get all of my office work done of course, there's a pic of some white ribbon with purple yarn strung through it. I used a big blunt needle to pull the yarn through, mind you this really requires patience, which I seem to be short on tonight.

This week promises to be really busy as I am having our annual Surface Design Sale on my webstore, http://www.prairiefibers.com I still have tons of items I need to upload to the store, that I bought in Kansas City at the International Quilt Market. And more will be coming this week.

I also started dyeing fabrics again today, mainly silk cocoons, which I have lots to say about, but I will be teaching in less than two weeks and need to get my act together and quickly. That means lots of samples, dye baths that are ready to go, etc... Oh and did I mention we are vending as well? This is the Iowa Wool Festival, if I find the link I'll post it later.

Yard Sales

There's gold in them thar hills! Or at least at the garage sale there was anyway. Hubby and I went saling tonight, not the kind where you use a boat and there's water involved. I struck gold several times.

At one sale I picked up some rusty old objects, spikes, chisels and the like for my rust dyeing experiments, I also picked up two boxes of fabrics and laces for a total of three dollars at that sale. But the best find at that sale was the handbag, a very old handmade number, probably from the 70's. The bamboo handles are to die for, so I'm thinking i"ll either fix the bag to meet my expectations, there's not much wrong with it, or I'll use the handles for another bag. The bag cost me a dollar fifty total, there's no way I'd get nice bamboo handles like that for that price.

I'm thinking the bag itself, since it'll detach from the handles easily, lends itself to dyeing, painting, and all sorts of surface embellishment. It consists of a hardanger type cloth with stitching on it, white I might add. I think it's cotton and so is the lining. Who knows maybe it'll take a trip through the compost pile first.

American English

I found this link on a blog, I think it was the Crochet Guy, but I'm not sure. If you scroll down on the right side you will see a box asking you what kind of American English do you Speak?

The results sure explain why I got my butt chewed to hell and back over my misspelling of the word Grey! I was informed, both privately and publically that it was Gray and only old Brits spelt it that way! NOT!!! Guess what it's spelled both ways! And who really cares anyway, at least I can spell, and considering the mix of results on my AngloAmericano test it's probably amazing that I can spell, let alone read and write.

Now to go find my teeth, maybe they're in the cellar?

What I'm working on

Here's a scan of what I"m working on. I think it'd look much better if I had taken a digital pic instead, but my camera is downstairs and I didn't feel like going after it.

This is a piece of Kunin felt, charcoal grey, and on top of it I layered melted angelina fibers, painted & stamped wonder under, and a orange chiffon scarf. This was all ironed together. I then couched down some crocheted silk yarn. On top of this I stamped expandable puff medium. After I melted this with the heat gun, notice the lacey holes in the piece, I painted some of the puff squares. I then took my stencil brush and applied metallic waxes to the puffed squares.

I am about half way through painting the puff squares. I decided I needed to add some more stitching and surface embellishment first. I've decided I want it to enhance the lace effect once I'm done, so I will be using the soldering iron for more controlled burning. WARNING: melt this stuff out doors, it is really noxious!

The experiment has been fun and I now have ideas on how to execute a future project through this experiment.

Cochineal and Rust Dyed Doilie

The doilie is part of a collaboration project. The significance of which is noted in my journal I'm keeping for the collaboration. The silk organza pieces that are in the cochineal dye pot are for the same project. I will say that when all is said and done I will have around 6-8 pieces of sculpture.

The only other two people who know what I'm doing are my collaboration partners, we are part of a larger group of 24 international artists.

Life and Haunted Microwaves

I think I know why I've quit creating. I'm constantly being interrupted. I'm interrupted by the phone, the door bell, pets, my husband, strangers wandering into my house. You know, the usual stuff. It's a major deterant to getting anyting done. It's also an excellent training method to keep you from wanting to ever do anything.

I do believe it's called the tyranny of the urgent. I'm just about ready to kennel up the dogs, disconnect the phones and the door bell, send the hubby fishing, and well any and all unwelcomed intruders beware!

The microwave keeps turning itself on. I'm not really sure why either. I think I will look later to see if there are any recalls on microwaves. Sure hubby threw the box away last week, it's a year old now, and now it starts to act up. But the whole turning on by itself thing is not cool.

Spring Cleaning

Well one of the perks of PMS (for me anyway) is an unusally high envergy level. I usually use this excess of enegry for the betterment of mankind. I clean. Today I started in on my wet studio, it was so bad I didn't even have a chair to sit on at my work table!

I'll take pics once it's clean, honestly it's the only way you'd ever be able to see anything. It's stacked pretty high and deep right now.

So I finally rearranged some shelves so my antique Hobart scale would have a place to live, and not on my chair anymore. I also have access to 50+ pounds of beeswax that had been hiding for the better part of year. This mess has impeded my efforts to create beautiful pieces of art, or so I'd like to think. I really need to clean my design studio again, it never ceases to amaze me how fast the clutter builds up.

Well I'd better go close some windows, the radar is telling me a gully washer is approaching, again.

Crazy Bird

This morning there was a really weird bird outside in the tree, and it's pretty annoying at that. Did I mention it was "really" early in the morning! I didn't see what it looked like but when it first started singing it sounded like a bird, then it sounded like power steering unit, on a car, going out. It squawled like you would not believe and then it ended it's song tweeting like a bird again. It did this for the better part of two hours. Really annoying.

There was a Blue Jay outside this morning, in our tree trying to rescue it's nest, but I don't think it was the Jay. Anyway... I could really use some sleep.

Red Quills

Well I have red quills, I have them in the oven, no heat, drying off. They are not as intense as I would like them to be. At this point I'd be glad if I didn't overheat them, I don't think I did but the cochineal pot was near boiling when I came into the house. So I strained the quills and cooled them off with cold tap water. They didn't seem mushy or anything. We'll see later tonight.