Birds in Tree with Madder Lac


Madder lac natural dye extract screen printed, using deconstructed screen printing techniques with my Birds in Tree Inverse Stencil, onto cochineal dyed cotton fabric.


Birds in Tree Inverse Stencil taped to the front of a traditional silk screen for deconstructed screen printing!  Stay tuned for more on this technique!!!

Learn more about these techniques in my eBook and Video series 
Mark Making with Nature!!! 


Garden Plot for 2014


Half scale of what the actual garden will look like, we are moving our raised beds to the back garden this year and the space is 16x29 feet.  If I planned everything correctly I will have enough room for six raised beds and four trellis panels with enough room for a minimum of 16 tomato plants.

The green panel to the left represents the asparagus patch, at the top and the rhubarb bed to the south, yes my rhubarb bed really is that big!  The wedge on the lower right represents lawn, I have to account for the garden shed door so I can get stuff out of the garden shed.

And as I look at this sketch those two herb beds could be one large herb bed instead, lol. I'll probably rework the sketch several times as we start to move the three raised beds we already have, and then start building the other two raised beds.

I'm guessing this was a good  year for us to decide to start over from scratch with our gardening efforts.  Only one of the five blueberry bushes survived the brutal winter, haven't seen any leaf buds on the current bushes yet, and none of the strawberry plants survived.  Yep, a great year to start over!

Solo Show at the Sanford Museum and Planetarium


The wall!!! I have a variety of styles per say in this show, Mixed Media Fiber in the form of the niches, Paint in the form of the acrylic painted panel frames, and Encaustic in the form of the smaller encaustic paintings.  The theme is Queen Anne's Lace and Crows, so there is some consistency.


This is the only close up photo that didn't end up blurry, I will have to take new photos when we go up in a month to take the show down!

Stop by and check out my show, be sure to sign in and let me know you stopped by!!! My show runs the month of May at the Sanford Museum and Planetarium in Cherokee, Iowa!

No. 0 or My Sample Board


I found this 5x7x2 inch raised panel frame whilest looking for something else and decided it would make for an excellent test subject, hence the reason I labeled it No. 0!


Here it is with a iridescent shiva paintstik layer and then a layer of thinned gold metallic paint that I wiped off, after it was half dried, with a diaper wipe.  Now to add more glazes, birds, and frilly stuff, via texture tools.


The crow is from my Three Crows Stencil from StencilGirl Products. Dots were created using sequin waste ribbon, random frilly stencil.

Getting There


It's the journey, not the destination!


In Progress and now with more paint.  I need to make up the glaze for the left hand side of each panel, and then I can start adding the queen anne's lace and crows to the right hand panels.  I may change the color of panel No. 6 add more pinks and yellows.


Bonus I found these six narrow panels while looking for another small sample panel, stay tuned!

A Different Direction


Well sorta, I'll still be incorporating Queen Anne's Lace onto these new panels, that I found earlier today while cleaning my studio, but this time I'm also adding my birds, crows, etc., to the mix.  Yes, I'm much happier about this change in direction, what I will do to resolve the other six panels I haven't decided yet.


I used my Black Birds in Tree Stencil from StencilGirl Products for the left side of each panel, and will be adding other crows, birds, and of course Queen Anne's Lace to the right side of each panel along with some text.

Oliver Files ~ Sick Puppy


He's been one sick puppy today, am not sure what he got into yesterday or last night, whatever it was it seems to be slowly working it's way out of his system.


Mean while... back at the studio... I cleaned an area in my studio so I can pack up my artwork for a solo show I'm hanging this weekend.  You can learn more about this upcoming show at my studio blog.

Queen Anne's Lace Panels in Progress


Not feeling the love!  I'm left wondering how much better these panels would turn out if I wasn't so distracted by a million things that need to be done before my solo show is hung this weekend?


As you can see from the previous photo that each layer of paint is leading towards improvement, and yet I'm just not feeling it.  The good news is I found six gesso'd raised panel frames today that I plan to go full tilt on later this evening! 


Baltic Birch raised panel frames, taped and gesso'd another words ready for paint!

Queen Anne's Lace No 4 & No 8 in Progress


No. 8 on the left and No. 4 on the right, both of which are upside down.  I love the orchid interior that's framed with the gold metallic paint.  I will create a panel for No. 8 this evening.


Also on my desk Queen Anne's Lace No's 4-6 which I'm hating at the moment, but will continue to push until I'm in love with them.  Acrylic paint on baltic birch raised panel frames 8x8x2 inches.

Queen Anne's Lace No. 8 in Progress


John helped me remove the clock face, thought I was going to have to cut the silly thing out but he was finally able to loosen a nut that was holding the arms in place.


The back, which I removed as it wasn't possible to remove the face of the clock body without it falling completely apart.


The clocks innards now live in my mixed media junk box.


First base coat of paint.


Now to take some measurements and stitch up a panel for the interior.

WIP Queen Anne's Crows No0 1


I have to admit while I really like the half and half harlequin coloring of this particular niche it's really rocking in metallic gold paint!  I need to add a second coat of paint and then when it's dry enough buff on some metallic black gold wax.


I will add purple to the back of niche (inside) and I think it's pretty much done.