Pulled Pork and Tree Trimming

Today's garden update: tied up 2/3's of the tomatoes before I got so hot I had to quit. I have baby roma's they are the size of golf balls.

We trimmed our trees out front tonight, lots of dead branches, esp. on the redbud and on the red oak tree. I knew the redbud was dyeing, I'd give it two more years tops before we have to take it down, but I was horrified to discover our 10 year old red oak, which is now a magnificent 30 feet in height, has heart rot!!! I'll call the arborist on Monday but there's not a whole lot they can do for the tree I love this tree I get wonderful shade on my house in the summer, esp. my studio, so it's not so hot and I don't have to run the air so often.

Dinner for tomorrow is in the crock pot roasting away it's a boston butt roast, I'll season it before I go to bed tonight and we will have pulled pork tomorrow.

Crashed Computer

Well it's official the RAID system is trashed on my computer. We got it boot up last night, checked the errors and ran a defragmentation scan (31% fragmented files is a lot) it took all night to run that scan and fix the errors. And hope against all hope it started doing it again - the clunking noise in the hard drives. I'll run a diagnostics test on the RAID tomorrow but I already know the results based on it's performace.

The only bright spot in this whole ordeal is the hard drives are half what I paid for them 4 years ago! The down side is I'll have to wait a few weeks to do the repairs as sales have been rather slow of late. I guess this is a sign that I should spend more time dyeing, painting, and stitching fabric! ;-) Now that's a bright spot I can embrace!!!

Today's Painting Session

Part of my oil pastel collection, the fat ones in the round tub are cattle, or sheep, markers.

I pulled out my ThreeFold magazines the other night and was reviewing some of their techniques. I was monoprinting with acetate sheets back in 1995 when I couldn't afford a really nice large glass plate to print with - the zines are very well written.

I've had this set of pastels since 1995 my classmate gave me his set of deluxe rembrant oil pastels - a wonderful gift for a starving artist at that time!


Today's painting session included a little bit of everything on paper, I was working with some of my older paints and pastels testing their viability.

Garden Update

Well as many of you know, who live in the midwest, it has done nothing but rain here. Today the mosoon showers have held off for the most part. I was able to get into the tomato portion of the garden - yeah - I pulled off the suckers and threaded the branches through the cattle panel holes. Many of the plants have blossoms, I am hoping for a good tomato harvest this year as I'd really love to put up some salsa. More later with pictures.

AuriFil Rayon Thread


AuriFil Rayon Thread - Alex sent me twelve spools, I was expecting one or two spools but not twelve, to test. I will put it through all sorts of extremes and let y'all know how it stands up to what's available on the market. And as we all know I can and DO do evil things to thread so if it has limitations I'll know, and probably within the first five minutes of use!

Dyeing with Instant Indigo

There are a mutlitude of ways to set up an indigo vat, my personal preference is for instant indigo ;-) That being said...

CAUTION: Wear Gloves, Dust Mask and/or Respirator, and protective eye wear, when Handling Instant Indigo it is caustic.

To use Instant Indigo, a naturally reduced indigo vat that has been flash frozen, add 1 Tablespoon of Instant Indigo to 4 gallons very hot tap water.

Use a plastic bucket, or a non-food use studio dedicated stainless steel or enamel pot for dyeing.

After placing instant indigo into the hot water do NOT stir as this will introduce air into the vat. Allow to sit for 15 minutes, this allows the crystals enough time to dissolve.

Then add your fabric or fiber to the vat allow to sit 5-15 minutes.

Using tongs, remove your fabric or fiber from the vat very quickly.

Do NOT allow liquid from yarn or fabric to drip back into the vat as this will introduce air into the vat.

Allow fabric to oxidize by hanging it up flat so it will receive air on all sides., your fabric may be greenish when you remove it from the vat. I allow my fabric to hang for 15 minutes or so others state that the fabric must oxidize for 24 hours before going back into the vat!

Rinse fabric thoroughly.

Dip your fabric, into the Instant Indigo vat again, repeating process as above until you acquire the color depth desired.

Indigo yields it’s best colors through multiple dips and appropriate oxidation.

Neutralize your fabric or fibers using vinegar. 1 cup white vinegar to 1 gallon water is sufficient.

Wash fabrics and fibers with a mild soap in the usual manner.

Madder Root

Fresh Madder Root from my best friends green house - picture and roots courtsey of Karen Hartshorn!

Dried Madder Root - picture and roots courtsey of me!
YES there is a discernable difference in the color and the intensity of the colors you get when using fresh or dried madder root! If you can get fresh roots that is the best way to go, much better reds. The lightfastness and washfastness will be the same but the overall intensities will be different.