Changes


Fall is a great time for making changes, as is winter, spring, and of course summer!  The biggest changes I'm making right now are: combining my blogs, all seven of them, into one or two blogs, and closing the Natural Surface Academy at the end of this month.  This is a major weight off of my soul, I would say shoulders but this is a soul enriching experience!  My new focus will be my artwork, making meaningful art that makes my soul sing, and licensing my designs.

Stay tuned there's more to come!

Paring Down & New Beginnings!!!

Paring down, starting with my websites and blogs, and soon to be my wet studio, and have new goals and an actionable plan for future art and designs. I'd do handsprings from the excitement, but my allergies are preventing me from doing so today, lol.


I have two immediate goal dates, September 6th to get my new designs/collections for licensing up onto my blog (group accountability is great for this!!!) and October 4th for the Open Studio Tour. I need to deep clean for the tour, which means an opportunity to get rid of stuff I haven't used in years and probably won't be using again anytime here in the near future, and get prints made of newly created works of art for the tour!

The next goal after that is the Month of November which is National Writing Month and the goal is to get my last Natural Dye Book finished, and hopefully the app (by the end of December) and then it's on to other activities. I'm culling the Natural Surface Academy, etc., too many things on my plate which prevents me from creating and doing what I really love! Also no more teaching!!!


The 60 Day Crow (Bird) Challenge has been a wonderful experience, I will do the big reveal here in a few days.  I now have plans to run this challenge again, as it was quite popular!

CLOSING The Natural Surface Academy

I will be closing The Natural Surface Academy NING Network on September 30th, 2014.  The Natural Surface Facebook Group will remain open.


The Acadmey is now down to four members making the expense of keeping the NING group open no longer viable.  The Facebook Group is private and can only be seen by members. I will be slowly moving all the information from the NING network to a private blog for the remaining members to access.

Studio Help


Or not so much. Oliver waiting in his kennel, he goes in there when I'm working at my drawing table on projects.  Actually I'm really glad he likes his kennel!


Angel is still with us, I thought for sure she was done for a week ago as I hadn't seen any evidence that she had been eating, etc.  Well it turns out she's been shimming under the gate and has been eating the cats food.  So I raised the gate up a bit so she wouldn't have to shimmy as much.

2014 Goals


I know, I know 2014 is 8 months old now, but up until tonight I was hesitant to share my goals list with the world.

But as I was thinking about my newsletter this evening, the Natural Surface Academy, what was working and what wasn't I decided no guts, no glory!

You can read about the changes I've decided to make on my other blog, which is also another change that is going to happen for 2015, I own seven blogs.  That's right seven blogs!  I let public opinion sway me and my blog activity about seven years or so ago and divided up my posts to different blogs.  I had people bitching because I was posting about my pets too much, or I was talking about gardening too much, or who cares about canning food we're here for the natural dyeing.

Well peeps, that comes to and end tonight!

Courage is my word for 2014, so it's time to step out in courage!!!  No guts, no glory!

I'm Bored, Therefore it's Time to Change Things!!!

My 'word' for 2014 is Courage, so I'm going to go out on a limb and share where I'm headed for 2015!!!

In the coming weeks I will be making some changes to the Natural Surface Academy and blog.  To be honest, keeping the Natural Surface strictly about natural dyeing is not only boring the hell out of me, but it's also stifling my creativity.

While I do work primarily with natural dyes, I also work with fabric paints, shiva paintstiks, digital printing, discharge dyeing (yes you really can discharge dye natural dyed fabrics), and more. 

Shiva paintstiks and crayon on indigo dyed cotton fabric.

I will be adding video links (YouTube) to some of my adventures that are for Academy Members ONLY! 

My dream is to license my designs, have my own fabric lines, etc., so with this in mind I am changing a few things here at the natural surface and adding in a bit more information, etc., I will be sharing my adventures in creating digital designs, licensing, etc., with Academy Members through our Facebook group. 




My 2014 Goals List that I made to use as my screen saver, I have to admit putting this, my goals list, out there scares the snot out of me but as some of my friends have told me in the past "go big or go home!"  

So here's to going big!


Angel


She's not doing so well now that she's pushing 15 years or so (she was a rescue we're not really sure how old she is other than 14+ years), she's gone from looking at the bridge to now running towards it, I figure we have a few more days left with her tops.  I made her some food from scratch tonight and she gobbled that right up, so at least she has a full tummy.

More Crow Panels in Progress


If I counted correctly there will be a total of 26 panels in this new series, and once these are done I'm off to rework some encaustic pieces from a few years ago to include my crows, Queen Anne's Lace, and the marks I've been putting in these pieces.


I wasn't sure how these pieces were going to come out, while they have similar colors they are not exactly the same... but where's the fun in everything being the same, right!


I've allowed the distractions of the past few weeks beat my confidence levels down, it doesn't help that I've had a nasty head cold, or that my dad has had ongoing health problems.


I did get to see my brother last Monday, the first time since my mom died in 2005, they visited for a whole hour and forty five minutes before they had to leave again. 


So tomorrow it's back to drawing and painting crows, ravens, and blackbirds and if they are horrible then they are horrible.


But, the secret to mastering anything is to keep at it until... until well you've mastered it!


With that said I've decided to seriously edit the information I've compiled for my Natural Dye App, and just create the app!  A simple app that is accurate and usable is much more enjoyable than one that doesn't exist!!!  Feet of clay, I think that's the name for this syndrome, the whole "what if they hate it???"


There will always be haters, and they are not my audience anyway... so onward I will push this week!

Stitching Again


It feels good to be stitching once again, whilest awaiting layers of drying paint to cure.  This piece is about 8x10 inches in size, machine stitched with green Aurifil thread, wool batting; I also used my Black Birds in Tree Stencil with acrylic paint onto fabric painted cotton cloth.


I shall stitch a few of the birds next, to bring them forward, and add a few beads and then this piece will be done.


60 Day Crow Challenge


It was suggested that I should start a 60 day challenge since I couldn't find one that was theme specific (thank you Jody Lund) I will be drawing Crows and Ravens (Corvus sp.). 

How many of you would like to participate with me in a 60 day bird/crow challenge, this means one bird/crow a day for 60 days.

The birds/crows can be drawn, painted, stitched, sculpted (if you are so inclined), digitally manipulated OR you can write about birds/crows everyday for 60 days.  Interested?

If I get 10 or more peeps interested I will start a facebook group for the challenge.  I will be starting tomorrow as I am getting ready for an Open Studio Tour, October 4th, and want to have some fresh birds to offer up for the tour.