Spring has Sprung!

And it’s time to start rust dyeing fabrics!

Yesterday I shared in my newsletter that for the most part I had pretty much lost my love of rust dyeing, and surface design. And then I purchased these cabochons, Outback Jasper, and suddenly my mojo had returned!

I love these stones, to t he point that I’ve purchased more of them to add to my growing collection.

Philips Dream Station Issues

So sometime in the past month the humidifier door/latch on my apap machine decided it would no longer stay shut. I looked on the internet for solutions and found nothing.

I’ve been in contact with the medical appliance dealer twice and yesterday they suggested putting a quarter into the slot behind the humidifier door latch. Well that lasted all of five seconds and the door sprung open again.

I tried duct tape, etc., nothing worked. Last night John decided to mess with the unit and he came up with this solution, a key chain fob. Yep, a key chain fob. It’s one of those rubbery ones, the kind you’d get when you buy a new car at the dealership, well at least back in the old days.

Regardless it worked and I’m a happy camper once again. I actually got a full nights sleep last night. I’ll have to come up with another work around since I have three cats who are fascinated with the metal ring on the fob. Until then… happy dreams.

Huberts

I haven't been able to do much since I injured my left thumb, so I've been painting and writing which I can do quite well with my right hand. Yep, I’m working on a new birdmaking class, the bird I’m working on for the class will be 3D.

I took yesterday off from all electronics and my thumb felt much better this morning. I see a hand specialist on the 9th.

Purple Coneflower

I took a little me time a week or so ago and decided to paint some timtex with watercolors and watercolor pencils, and then machine stitch the piece, and a purple coneflower was born.

4x6 inches.

I started out using watercolor pencils to draw out and color the flower, it was surprisingly easy so long as the tip of the pencil wasn’t sharp. I allowed the colors to dry between applications so that I would have crisper edges.

I then filled in the background using regular watercolors and a brush creating a mottled effect. I let the timtex dry over night.

I then machine stitched the details of the flower using Aurifil Thread. I dropped the feed dogs and used an embroidery foot to free style stitch the details.

Bring on the Birds

I'm back to making birds, and I am videotaping as I create, birds really are my happy place. 

I will be posting a workshop and soon. What to expect? Birds, lots of mixed media 3D birds! I was even contemplating how I could incorporate my birds with my Santos dolls. 

I will be sharing videos, and photos, with my paid patrons, so if you'd like to see more please consider becoming a patron today!  More to come

I made Time to Paint!

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I found a copy of Mindy Lacefield's book Wild Surrender while cleaning my studio and decided to do a couple of the exercises in her book. It felt pretty good to be painting again.

I still have a lot of cleaning to do in my studio, and I also have about a hundred pounds of tomatoes to process, getting the mess under control has been quite freeing. I've been throwing out lots of stuff that no longer serves me, and as I grow older as an artist I doubt will ever serve me again. I mean really who needs a hundred thread/spool labels.

Could someone else have used them, sure, and then I have to deal with packing stuff up, going to the post office, etc., nope into the trash they went! Don't worry I probably have another five hundred plus spool labels still attached to spools of thread.

Kitten Madness

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A week ago today I picked up these precious fluff balls, though their fascination with their litter box isn’t so precious. Their temporary names are Jack and Diane.

In the past week we’ve dealt with an upper respiratory infection, an eye infection, and learning to explore the family room.

Yes, that’s a large dog kennel, we have an Oliver that weighs 89 pounds, he is still learning how to be gentle with the babies. So for now this is their safe zone and I let them out several times a day to play in the family room.

Cleaning my Studio Space

rainbow fluorite

rainbow fluorite

I feel like I must be the most boring person on the face of the planet right now, simply because all I’ve been doing is deep cleaning and organizing my studio and it is going very slowly at the moment.

More later when I have some good stuff to share, like this gorgeous piece of rainbow fluorite I found hiding in my stash of pretty things.

Video Style

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So I really struggle with video taping stuff, especially if it involves my being in the actual video. So for the past six weeks I've been watching a bunch of different types of videos on YouTube, and Vimeo and have been taking notes.

Turns out I just need to relax and be myself, I've been over thinking things and way too much. John could have told y'all that! The end result is I end up stuck, so this week I'm going to start shooting random videos just for the heck of it, post them to YouTube with little to no editing, editing is the part I dislike the most, and we'll see what happens... or sticks as they like to say