Music and Teaching

First off I have no sound coming out of my computer, have no idea what's wrong with it, I check all of the wires and even restarted the computer and still no sound.

I will be leaving tomorrow, I'm doing the natural dyeing and pigment painting portion of this weekends primitive skills meet. I'll be in Nebraska, and it's great no one can get ahold of me there which means three days of peace and quite, no trains, no sirens from fire trucks screaming down the street in the middle of the night. It's as close to heaven as you can get this side of heaven! Well for me it is anyway.

I'll take plenty of pictures, mainly plants and fungi, and give an update on Monday when we get back!

Tree Bark


Here's some tree bark to tide you over until I can get some studio pics taken. I'm thinking that the leaf colors won't be that great this year, good thing I've taken hundreds of them to tide me over until next year!


Creativity Start:

  • For fall inspiration I love go stand next a tree, looking up, then photograph what I see!
  • Do this in the early morning, midday and in the evening - use the same tree and same spot if at all possible, in your notebook write down what you see, how are the views different?
  • Note if some or even all of the leaves have fallen off of the tree since the last time you looked.
  • How are the colors differnt?
  • How are the lines, space, voids different?
  • Was it cloudy or was the sky a bright clear blue?
  • This exercise helps me to get unstuck, I do it throughout the year, usually I am standing under the crab apple trees as they have really nice branches and the blossoms in the spring just can't be beat.
  • If your standing under a maple or an aspen/birch note the color of the leaves and whether they are becoming more translucent,
  • How does the light reflect off the the leaves?
  • How does the light reflecting from the leaves affect your impression of the branches?

More later

Extreme Embroidery 1

Don't you just love it when you think you have tabbed down into the box and your typing away only to look up and realize you never made it to the box! that's the kind of day I'm having.

Actually I'm off to take a nap here in a few minutes. My extreme embroidery class begins tonight, I'm ready, as ready as I'll ever be, and I'm sure it'll be fine, I have my syllabus done but not my zine, considering how much pain I've been in, it hurts really bad to sit, it's not suprising, what is suprising is that I have gotten anything done at all.

Anyway... Wendy, my employee and assistant, painted some fabrics for me to use as my base for the class, she's a real sweetien and has been a major help to me th is summer ;-) Loretta has been coming in and doing some extra work that has also helped me out and in a big way, their being there at the shop allows me to come home and sleep off the muscle relaxer before class starts.

Anyway... The piece I'm going to work on tonight, that I am demoing on, will hopefully start to resemeble tree bark after awhile, I do love tree bark and all if it's intrcasies (sp?) and it's endless possiblities. So in thinking about tree bark I realize I need to dye some carrier rods in browns, and maybe some bluish and or greenish browns. After all tree bark isn't exactly brown.
This reminds me of the story I was told about a little boy that was given detention by his school teacher for refusing to color the tree brown, he protested stating that trees are not brown. I'm sure it's happening in schools everywhere. That was one smart, observant, little boy!

Hip Update

Well I'm lucky that nothing is fractured, I'm not so lucky because at 40 years of age my right hip is falling apart, as is some of my vertebrate (the last thorasic and the first lumbar). I attribute this to the hardware in my right leg and my really odd gait from said hardware - 12.5 inch plate with 7 pins that's what holds my right leg together! Anyway, I'm also starting to wonder if this is where the eyesight problems are originating from as I guess my vertebrate are in really bad condition.

The doc says there's nothing they can do until it's bad enough for surgery - well I refulse to take that diagnosis lying down. I've decided it's time to bone up on the yoga - building muscle helps to strenghten the frame and reduce arthritis symtoms and I may also start swimming again - that's if they ever got the pool fixed and opened to the public again. I'll be writing more about this over on my personal blog Survival Kitchen when I get a chance.

Felted Bag







Here's the felted bag I mentioned, I need to sew the sides together and make the strap yet, it was needlefelted using the Janome Expression. The dealer down the street, from my shop, lent me the machine and if I wasn't in so much pain I'd make samples for them as well. Maybe next week sometime??? I have another bag done already and it's at the shop in the window display with a bunch of other felted items that is announcing our needlefelting workshop the end of October.


Bottom to Top: Front view with the flap open, the back and the front views, and the front view with flap closed. The views are clipped a little bit but that's because I'm in so much pain I'm not able to stretch up enough to get a better view. I'm taking muscle relaxers and pain pills but it doesn't even tough the pain - which tells me it's in the bone not the muscles cause those muscle relaxers they gave me can drop a horse and I'm not whinnining yet!


The background fabric is wool that has been dyed with natural dyes, and the wool on top is a combination of natural dyed and synthetically dyed fibers. Note that it is nigh impossible to match natural dyed fibers to synthetically dyed ones.

What I've been working on


Well if I wasn't in so much pain I'd be working on these extreme embroidery pieces! This is where you take traditional embroidery layering, distorting and simply pushing the surface until the desired result is achieved.


Here I'm starting with a piece of muslin (calico) that I've painted with Tsukineko inks and then with light gold Shiva Paintstiks for my base layer. The piece is 9" square and is now ready to be partied on!!! Now to just get my body to cooperate with my plans.


Wholesale & Educational DVD's


Yes you heard right we are wholesaling natural dyes, I'm hoping to have everything ready to go at the end of the month. Mainly it's getting my husband up to speed as he has the biggest hand in this venture.
Our listing will be small at first, growing as time goes on, but we DO have Osage Orange, Black Walnut Hulls, a lot of native dyes, and most of the mordants in stock. The biggest hurdle is getting everything packagaed and ready to be shipped. Patience is what I recommend as we get this venture off the ground it'll be well worth the wait, the quality, is excellent which as a natural dyer for the past 15 years, is of upmost importance to us.
Class DVD"s we think we may finally have the DVD burning issue figured out and if so I will be burning DVD's soon, very soon. Apparently it's something in the registry on the computer - have no clue what any of that means, but my computer person does and I hope to have it concqured and soon. These DVD's and the Books will be available wholesale to shops wishing to carry them. I will have a complete listing of that at the end of the month as well.

Saturday Update


Well I'm still waiting ot hear from the doctor, will probably be waiting until Monday sometime actually, to hear if I fractured my hip or my lowest lumbar vertebrate, or both. It's a long story but I'll just say that'll be the last time I EVER dive to save a sewing machine from hitting the floor, even if it IS a $3000.00+ machine!

I've been in pain all week, and like the eyesight problems aren't bad enough now I'm in so much pain it's beyond belief. I finally got in to see a doctor this morning, I had been treating it like I just wrenched muscles, or disturbed sciatica, up until now, but two mornings in a row of not being able to get myself out of bed and it's time to see a doctor!

What sucks the most about this is it hurts like heck to sit down, or get up from a sitting position so sewing, reading, and the like are virtually out of the question. Even the happy pills the doctor gave me is NOT taking the edge off of the pain, which makes me not want to take them, I figures a muscle relaxer should help somewhat but no it doesn't, sometimes I think the pills are only making matters worse. I will say that that product that is advertised on TV, called Activon, does help a little bit, even more so when I apply some arnica creme after applying the Activon, which makes me really think it is bone related and not muscular.

Above is a piece I rust dyed and then painted with Setacolor Opaque Moss Green fabric paint. Now back to the prairie!

New works


I'll have to post some pictures later on but I'm on the verge of a new body of work. I've decided to take the plunge and cut up a bunch of silk scarves I compost and rust dyed and turn them into textile works - translation art quilts!

I'm still having problems with my eyes, I've been told that it's an occular migraine, but the episodes last 4-6 days, not 20-45 minutes like a true occular migraine. So I'm going to ask for a second opinion on Tuesday as I really don't trust the doctors.

More later from my other studio, meanwhile enjoy the extreme embroidery piece.

Today

It was gorgeous out today, the humidity finally fell off and there was a very nice breeze. Right now I'm exhausted, which I guess I should be since it's after 11 pm. My eyes have been bothering me for two days now, i'm going to see the doc tomorrow. I keep seeing a shiny whirlygig in my left eye, it's bad enough I can't drive. I'll post an update, dh thinks it's floaters, I don't.

Green Ribbons




Here's a half pound of wool boucle as well as a half pound of 7 mm silk ribbon. The top picture is a bias woven sheer silk ribbon, which I really wish I could get more of as I absolutely love this stuff for embroidery - but alas it was an italian knitting yarn, not a true ribbon, for knitting sweaters, scarves and the like.

Rust Dye Ribbons






Here's a before and after rinsing shot of the silk ribbons and silk fabrics. Then a post dyeing shot, I'm using an acid dye, that for once doesn't make me sick, to get the green and no I know don't the formula as this was in the pot post dyepainting some rovings and I just had to use the color for something! I'm finding it difficult to photograph the ribbons while they are in the dye pot so bear with me, I have a skein that is in the exhausted vat that should come out lighter.


I'm using these pieces in an extreme embroidery class I'm teaching this fall which I'm making into a zine with DVD. I am looking at duplicators, my computer will NOT burn a DVD to save it's life for some odd reason (and it's on it's second DVD burner but just doesn't like them for some odd reason). I'm hoping to get all of my previous DVD's burned and shipped out to former students and soon. Until now I've been using the neighbors laptop to burn DVD's.


The oragish fabric is commerical cotton that was rust dyed and then painted with seta color paints. The back side of the fabric is the most interesting part of the fabric

Silky


I got a fairly good shot of her yesterday, and half of Angel. I don't think Silky is going to be with us much longer, she has cancer and is having difficulties getting around these days. She'll be 10 soon and from what I've been told this is "old" for a large dog, especially one that has had cancer before.

The New Guy


We decided to change the new guy's name from Charlie, since he wasn't anwsering to it, to Thomas! He likes that name and actually comes to it, so Thomas it is. Here he's playing with Peppers tail on my old drafting table. Pepper is in front, Thomas to the back, they look a lot alike in the face, but that's where it ends, Pepper is more Orange than Thomas is, though I suspect he'll get darker as he gets older, just as Pepper has, Thomas also has the typical Maine Coon hair, very hairy and very large paws, and lots of hair on the tail and backs of his legs. Oh and I might add his tummy is deliciously fuzzy, which he absolutely loves being rubbed, he's like a big ole teddy bear.

They both like playing in my studio, so now I have even more company when I'm working there. Yes it's always this messt in my studio! I need to clean it, deep clean that is, seems time always getting away from me, lots of other things demanding my attention these days. Plus the commerical studio still needs a lot of work as does the new classroom space.

Little Studio Horrors

I had the bejeebers scared out of me today when fumes and smoke started billowing up out of the basement today - which is inhabited by other businesses - all is fine and the damage is mostly in the business next to mine. It turns out it was concrete dust and a piece of equipment that was overheating (oh and there was NO one around to oversea the equipment the workers just left it unattended).

I'm not sure what all was going on in the basement as the smoke/fumes was too much to be down there but the fire department was on top of it all. I'm still contemplating, however, calling my insurance agent in the morning though I've never had an experience like this before, and just as I was finally beginning to feel comfortable in my new space! Not so much now. Looking back I should have gotten my digital camera out and took pictures but hey the Fire Department was there so there ARE witnesses to the fact that there was smoke/dust and fumes everywhere.

John and I went back later this evening to get my shoes, I forgot my shoes in the rush to leave the building (ok I take two pairs with me so I can change out during the day and these were my fav's) and the stench of chemicals was overwhelming so I'm glad we left early.

More tomorrow.