Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Prairie No. 11


Prairie No. 11 - 2010
Natural Dyed, Compost Dyed, and Rust Dyed Cotton Fabric.
Machine Stitched. Mounted to canvas on stretcher bars.
16x24 inches

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Three Winters Table Cloth

Three Winters Table Cloth after spending two days in a revived Osage Orange Dye Vat.

Five Year Silk Fibers

Originally my wool bundles were in the basket atop the silk fibers, sometime last summer I removed the bundes as the silk fibers were still in prestine condition.  Now the fibers have started to decompose and in a really interesting manner.  The silk cocoons have been dyed with natural dyes.

Five Year Bundles


Bundles of wool fabric that have been outside for approximately 5 years now.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Cafe Diem Show

Cafe Diem Show

Three Winters Table Cloth

Three Winters Table Cloth, vintage Damask, after being unwrapped.
After washing
Now in last years Osage Orange Dye Vat.

Moss and Rust


Violets

Spring!

Cafe Diem Show

One of the niches at Cafe Diem, took the show down tonight.

Three Winters Table Cloth

Three Winters Table Cloth

I plan to use this piece in my "She was Third Class" Solo Show coming up in September.  It has been sitting outside for three years/winters with a bunch of other fabrics and found linens that I have been slowly rotting and rusting away.

Three Winters Cloth


Three Winters Cloth sitting atop my indigo vat lid.  These bundles, wads would be a better description, of fabric, table clothes, and linen towels have been here for three winters/years.  I expected way more damage than what occurred.  There was some rusting (yeah) due to the fabric touching the iron grid next to the dye vat.  More pics later.

Five Year Old Cochineal Vat


I found this cochineal vat buried in my wet studio, it's been hiding in a corner for five years now!  I brought it outside thinking it'd have a good coating of mold on it but it didn't, I think I may have modified this one heavily with citric acid.

Revived Cochineal Vat

I scooped the mold off the top carefully and refilled the pot with water, the cochineal vat revived beautifully.

Overwintered Cochineal Vat

Three Winters Cloth

A five yard section of cotton fabric that has been sitting outside for the past three winters, it's currently in the washer and will go into a revived cochineal vat shortly.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Altered Prom Dress

The 1950's formal I altered for Clare for her prom.  I added ribbons under the dress so that it could be hitched up giving it more form, then added an underskirt with tulle so that it would be poofy.  To break up the color I added a velvet belt with on of my vintage brooches, the colors in the brooch compliment the dress beautifully: smokey quartz, quartz, blue topaz, and silver.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Mixed Media Painting Workshop

Spend the afternoon trying a variety of techniques using paint!
In this workshop students will learn how to combine various wet materials to create a painting. Students will work with acrylics, water color media, emulsions, opaque pens, papers, etc.   This is a great opportunity to try some new techniques and media without having to committ to a six week class!

The class will be held Fisher Art Center in Marshalltown, IA

Sunday, April 04, 2010

North Garden Planted

John tilled the north garden for the second time in 24 hours this morning, it is now two thirds planted.  I chose to plant mainly cold/cole crops in the north garden this year, later this spring I'll plant tomatoes in the remaining area.  So far I've planted rhutabega's, beets, carrots, purple and green kolrhabi, and red kale.  Can't wait for the greens to start popping up ;-)  We put up the fence, replacing parts of it that was damaged, and are now calling it a night.

He has Risen!

He has Risen!

Friday, April 02, 2010

WIP Fabric Journal Covers

Book Cover Fronts - Painted Upholostry Fabric

Book Covers - inside painted timtex

Am thinking of adding more paint, ink, etc., to the outsides of the book covers, maybe some shiva paintstiks. I bought the piece of fabric because I liked the sage green color but the more I work with it the less of it I want to see.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Western Teaching Tour

This coming fall John and I will be doing a four week tour of the west! During this time, from September 16th through October 10th, I have several workshops scheduled, if you would like to host me for a one to three day workshop during this time please let me know as I would love to add your guild, organization, school, etc., to my schedule!



I can be reached at prairiefibers@hotmail.com or 515-232-0912 for additional information regarding classes, workshops, or speaking engagements, etc.

Copper Bars


Copper Bars on a Mausoleum

WIP - Journal Cover

WIP - Journal Cover
5x10 inches