Art Batt

Wool batt, silk carrier rods, silk sliver, flax, mohair roving, and thrums are available in my shop.

Normally I don't post here but wanted to share what I was up too tonight, I'm experimenting with some new art yarns. Right now I'm tired and am hurting a lot from doing yard work today, so I cheated and instead of making up a new batt I pulled a half used one out of my stash. The silk carrier rods to the right are rust dyed the others were dyed using acid dyes.

Flees!

Well tonight ensued an emergency trip to the pet departmeent of my local super megalomart! I found not one but three flees on Angel, our sheltie, this meant bath time again (the poor dogs just had a bath last weekend), for all of them and then application of the anti-flee medication. Tomorrow I will commence cleaning the whole house, using the cleaner on the sofa and easy chair, and clean the carpets, I will then go to the big box megalomart super hardware store and buy flee and tick killer for the lawn!

Paranoid? Maybe. But experience has taught me that I'm VERY allergic to flee bites and this is something I'm just not willing to mess around with. It's been in the back of my mind as it's been really wet here, and a wet spring equals lots of flees, and now I have proof. Back in the 90's I had about a dozen bites on my legs they both swelled up to about twice their normal size and turned a purplish black color, I looked like I had been half beaten! Two trips to the doctor later and it was discovered that I had been bitten by a flee or two and had had a nasty reaction.

Oh and cats really don't like taking a bath!

Visual Library Part 2

I will set up a still life in my studio from time to time, I spend a lot of time studying the pieces, and rearranging them. Do I draw them? No, I just enjoy them but there is a lot to be learned from them by simply having them around.

Organize your collections, I picked up inexpensive trays (2.99 each) at my Salvation Army.

I picked these up at a yard sale, they reminded me of my trip to California.

A walk in the woods and I found these lovely gandodermas!

Found along the road in California.

And then theres the collections and I don't mean wealthy millionare collections I mean crazy like a fox collections! I collect bark, pinecones, lichens, fungi, rocks, fabric bits and some vintage items, but it's always about texture and form.

Art Notebooks

Color decks, this one came from the local paint store, help in ways that are beyond measure in my studio. Finding that "right color" can be a daunting task at times, even for a color hound such as myself.
Some ways of storing visual inspiration, I collect images and take thousands of photos which comprises about half of my visual library. I do have a couple of clip art books but interestingly enough I bought these for the fonts they contained! Having studied calligraphy I've always had a penchant for script!!!

Where do I get my Inspiration?

From time to time this question comes up on the quiltart list, new art quilters want to know how or where us old timers get our images and our inspiration for creating a work from, below is my response.

I have 10 ring binders filled now with images and the like I've been collecting since I was in high school. I didn't realize what I was doing until I made it to art school in the 90's and my professor required that they be put into plastic sleeves and categorized. (this was a requirement for all of us)

What I learned about myself is I collect color and texture. I love macro shots and have lots of them. The more expensive decorating/home magazines are lush with color, if this is what trips your trigger that is.

Since the advent of the digital camera, and SLR cameras, in my life I've basically quit collecting images from other sources and now take thousands of my own. I've had a new digital camera since February and I've already taken 20,000+ images with it. I've been building my "own" visual library since 2001.

A suggestion I have for those collecting imagery is to make a 1 inch square view finder, we used an old manila folder, and place it down onto an image you like and then start moving it around. What do you see? Do you like it or not? What is it that speaks to you? IS it the texture, shape, voids, movement, etc.?

Most importantly get a digital camera and get out there and take your OWN photos, and do your OWN sketches. I don't want to hear that you can't draw, everyone can draw writing is drawing! Some just draw better than others.

More later from the studio - where I'm debating driving many miles to pick cherries today!!!

Kimberly
http://www.prairiefibers.blogspot.com/