I cleared a spot, albeit a small one, on my sewing table for my sewing machine. I have three journal covers that need to be stitched and then assembled. I'll charge the video camera and videotape some of this event for my paid patrons.
First Time
I cut the feather yesterday using my swivel knife, this is my first attempt at using a pear shader. Yes I’m bold enough to try a feather for my first ever project, lol.
Note to Self
Don't take video with the iPhone anymore, it won't transfer to the iMac and then you cannot share with others the progress you're making in your studio!
On the upside on a whim I sent out two emails yesterday to a couple of galleries about solo shows for 2020 and I was accepted by both! I'll post more on that later, in the mean time I need to finish organizing my studio, unburying my painting supplies, etc., as I have eighteen new 11x14 paintings to create for one of those solo shows.
My drawing table is finally cleared off, I can now roll out my leather bellies and start cutting leather for various projects I have planned out.
Finally a Break Through!
Pet Cemetary
To say that my husband was concerned about me when I did a sudden 180 into metal and leather would be an understatement! When I made this announcement in my newsletter I even lost subscribers, lol.
After spending the afternoon yesterday hand-hammering some sheets of copper it finally came to me today.
I want to make more of these pieces: Pet Cemetery, The Deer Slayer. Spring Time.
I was walking past Spring Time yesterday afternoon and stopped to take a long look at the piece, remembering how much fun it was to assemble the piece. The other two pieces were a complete joy to create.
The great part is now I have the tools to not only make my own hand-hammered copper I also have the appropriate torch system to create metal shrine boxes, but I'm also no longer limited to using wood as my armature.
So this is what you'll be seeing in future videos, metal smithing, leatherwork, stitching, beading, painting, natural dyes, rust dyeing, etc. In other words, I'm going full-on mixed media!
It feels great to finally have a new vision, to be out of my slump! Happy creating.
The Deer Slayer
Spring Time
Holiday Sale
30% Off Storewide
Now through December 31st!
Discount automatically applied at check out.
Leather Fun and a Sale
Tomorrow’s plan is to retrieve my glass cutting boards from my wet studio, and my leather burning tools, and I’ll case some leather for Monday. Once the leather is properly wetted through I’ll use my scribing tool to trace this design directly onto the leather for tooling.
You can purchase this stencil, Black Birds in Trees and Black Birds in Trees Inverse at StencilGirl Products, they’re on sale starting tomorrow! The highlighted link will take you directly to my page!
Gratitude!
I have much to be grateful for, first and foremost for a Loving and Merciful God because trust me I need that Grace and typically more than once a day! Secondly for a husband who loves me and supports me in my crazy pursuit of creativity!
This is an early Christmas present, I'll be picking up my regulator, the hose for the torch, and the flashback suppressor tomorrow, now I can anneal copper and silver to my hearts content!
One of the things I put in the Patrons Tier options was for some studio bling... and yeah I mentioned the possibility of a tee shirt, hoodie, or a ball cap, but I got to thinking about what "BLING" really means to me. So in the coming months, if you're a paid patron, you'll get to watch me make some "bling" that involves copper and/or sterling silver. As my skill level progresses I hope to send some of that bling on to my patrons.
I'm also now sketching out designs that will utilize tooled leather, silver/copper, into my earth pigment painted fabric pieces. I've been working with brain tanned deer hides for over a decade now and have wanted to branch out into tooled leather and that is now happening.
Learning new Tricks!
Just popping in to let y'all know what I've been up to recently. I'm still working, intermittently, on my Crazy Quilt block but I've also taken up leatherworking and metalsmithing recently.
I've embellished my fiber pieces with beads, baubles, random bits of metal I've found here and there, but something was always missing. Truth is I love the look of tooled leather but wanted to use my own designs, ditto that on hand-hammered copper and silver.
So I took the plunge and have been teaching myself how to produce the leather, copper, and silver embellishments I want for my fiber pieces. It helps that I inherited my dad's leatherworking tools and some of his smithing tools.
What new skills would you like to learn but haven't taken the plunge yet? Leave a comment below!
Snow!
We got 4.5 inches of the white stuff last night!
Today's agenda is to clear a space in my studio for a new to me book shelf, or as I prefer to see it some much needed storage, that I'm moving out of the kitchen. In the kitchen I'll be putting up two new steel shelves for some much needed storage space! I suspect this project will take me well into Thanksgiving break.
I haven't posted much about my metal working efforts, however, I've been setting up a silversmithing station in my main studio... turns out I really love manipulating metal into wearable objects
I'm Back!
I made an emergency trip to Illinois to see my dad, as he was very ill. Due to stress nothing creative happened, I didn't even read my book I took along with me on the trip. My sister in law sent me photos and videos today and he's doing so much better, he's dressed, sitting up in a chair and talking.
So back to the regularly scheduled creativity, and I'll charge the camera here in a few minutes after my other devices are done charging.
Busy Practicing
Not a whole lot has been going on of late, I'll be deep cleaning and puppy-proofing the house this week in anticipation of adopting a 12 week old Doodle on Sunday... fingers crossed.
Aside from that, I've been learning how to make my own clasps, jump rings, and the like for making necklaces and bracelets. I'm learning that one really does need the correct tools if one wants to make findings and have them look nice. I'll try to post a video this week of me making some clasps, I'm starting to enjoy the process.
Yo-yo's!!!
I lost my yo-yo makers so a friend of mine, Carol Warner Mesimer, offered to send me a replacement. I was pretty excited when they arrived yesterday. I created a video this afternoon, that as soon as it imports off of the camera card I’ll be uploading to YouTube and to my Patreon accounts.
These yo-yo makers, by Clover, are extra small as this was the size I most commonly worked with in years past. I’ll share more images in a second post, and will provide a link to the videos once they are uploaded to the internet.
I'm Charmed!
I bought some charms from a shop on Amazon this past Monday for my Beyond Crazy Crazy Quilt, there are some of the cuties I’ll turn into drop earrings. The pumpkin coaches are by far my favorite!
What Type of Content would you like to see more of?
What type of content would you like to see more of? This will help me decide where to focus when it comes to videotaping, sharing, and the like.
Thank you for taking the time to take this poll, if you like you can leave a comment if I missed anything that you would like to see more videos of.
Pop on over to my patreon page and take the poll!
Gestating an Idea
I'm working on this necklace until I can find my cartridge of yellow ink for my printer. I bought the necklace at a thrift shop, but it's too short so I plan to lengthen it and add this pendant.
He was all Messed Up!
After twenty-four hours of thunderstorms Oliver has finally calmed down and is happily sleeping in the middle of my studio floor. This photo was taken yesterday during the height of a very loud thunderstorm and my poor baby was shivering and like crazy. No thunder shirts are not an option as I’d never be able to get it on him by myself.
So nothing went as planned yesterday, aside from taking time to have a nice chat with a dear friend! And that’s how it rolls sometimes when you have to put your pets comfort and safety before everything else. Studio can wait, hand stitching can wait, drawing… it can wait.
We had more storms overnight, I closed the bedroom window and turned on the window AC, he was still up and down but not like the night before, lordy was he a mess. And this afternoon, well I slept in and here in a bit I have to take Thomas our Norwegian Forest Cat, to the vet as he’s blown his summer coat so much that he’s nearly naked and this isn’t normal for him.
Meet Zeke
He’s going to be the star of my BCCQ blocks!
Hey, y'all!!! Just popping in to let you know that Brenda and I were chatting about doing a crazy quilt challenge that will be outside of the box! We're thinking skulls, curiosities, vintage dead bird Christmas cards (yes that really was a thing back in the day), and the like on either 9-inch hearts or 9-inch hexies (that's a hexie where each side is 9 inches).
The challenge will take place in my facebook group Almost Stitched!
I plan to start collecting stuff for my 9-inch hexie this afternoon. I'll be using my natural dyed silk velvet fabrics, rust dyed fabrics and trims, resin crow skulls, vintage images of birds, skulls and the like printed onto fabric (or image transfers), found objects, bones, and other curiosities combined with traditional stitches, antique and vintage trims I plan to distress, and more. Once I get my collection gathered for my hexie I'll post a photo here.
The Deadline for one heart or hexie would be December 31st
Studio Tour Prior to Cleaning
Did a brief studio tour prior to cleaning and organizing! I should be done hopefully come Sunday evening. You can view the video here: https://www.patreon.com/kbaxterpackwood I’m jonesing to get some stitching time in now that the temperatures are dropping into a more comfortable zone.
Found!
He found my glasses, these are the ones I wear when I'm working on the computer, etc. They were out on the front porch of all places. Off to get some work done, starting with creating a video for my patrons.