Photo Mishap

Yesterday I finished packaging all the new silk ribbons and embroidery floss in their little plastic sleeves. I need to get these listed right away. They have been sitting here forever waiting patiently. I went to sort the photos and add names to them and lo and behold...no pictures. I looked everywhere but they are gone. All those photos I took right before we left for the US are gone. The only ones left are the few I posted here. So today I spent taking ribbons out of sleeves and reshooting pictures. This batch will have to be put up with the one photo of them on their cards. I just can't see myself unwinding one of every size and color, then ironing them all just to get that second shot.So these are the ones I took. Good enough I think.

I am still making jewelry too....here is a pretty pair of earring I made this week :) I have a few more pieces I will be posting later,

Last but not least...they are putting in the floor of the living room YAYAYA

 Hopefully I will have a completed room y next week some time "crosses fingers"

BEFORE:

And AFTER!

Been busy this week trying to get this done. I am very happy with how these look!

Busy Bee

New Ribbon Cards

I've been working on redesigning how I wrap and store the ribbons and floss for my shop. I have been using the little floss spindles and they made the threads so bulky in packages i just hated it but I didn't want to go back to plain old card stock like I was using before. I decided instead to use business cards. I designed a new card and ordered a pile of them and then went in search of a nice paper punch for the end. After receiving one that just wouldn't work because of the size I finally found one that looks good and isn't too large for the card. I think they turned out splendidly and with the added bonus of the buyer having a nice business card there when they finish their ribbon or floss to help them remember who they purchased it from. I hate when I run out of a supply and can't remember what shop I bought it at. What do you think of them?

Sail Away

Goodies in the mail

Time Warp

Not sure what I have been up to the last two weeks. All I know is I turned around and time had passed, I did this though:

I am going to start adding color to it tonight. I am a bit nervous but it will either turn out good or not. Learning new things are always a bit daunting at first but I am always glad I did them.

Still in holding

So I have finally completed that cleaning job in my studio. Floors and furniture scrubbed down, everything sorted and put away. I removed everything from my dye table and took boxes of items into the bathroom wash area to be scrubbed down. I have piles of bottles and little glass containers that I mix dye in. Eyedroppers and other pieces of equipment. After removing them all from the studio and also removing the tubs I use to soak the material in soda ash and placing them all in the bathroom I noticed that when entering the studio my allergy symptoms did not go berserk as they have all week when I have been cleaning (I have a small bathroom that connects to my studio that is used only for work)
This whole process took me almost a week as I was only able to work in the room for a short time before my eyes were itching so bad, my nose was tickling, I was sneezing and the headaches returned in the first few days. So I can safely say whatever is causing my allergies is in that bathroom. Now with the door closed. Now I still don't know what it is. Maybe whatever it is has nothing to do with my dyes and always came from the bathroom. I never closed the door before so it very well could be that. Next step is to actually go in that room, clean all the items in there and seal them up and see if that makes my allergies stop.
In the meantime I have a huge pile of items here in my living room that I found all about my studio that have never been listed in my shop. I spent part of this week measuring pieces and trying to find the photos to match to the item, etc. I am really quite taken aback at the amount of work I have here that was never listed. How did I fall so behind on all of this? I know that for a good two months or maybe even more I suffered from severe headaches and facial pain so bad from the allergies that I really wasn't working well but never realized just how sidetracked and forgetful I had become. It is hard to concentrate when your head hurts so bad you keep the shutters rolled down because the light is too bright.
Thankfully the medicine my doctor gave me, Aerius, seems to have greatly reduced the symptoms. The headaches are almost completely gone. Still itchy eyes and nose but the facial pain has also diminished to a tolerable level.
My two up and coming goals are to completely catalog the contents of this huge box of dyed goods and start listing them AND to go into that bathroom and finish the cleaning in there. I am determined to get this under control and hopefully after this is all said and done still be able to continue with my dyeing. If it is the dye itself causing the problem then I will have to build a dust free mixing box. I have seen them before and I think building one wont be that difficult. If it is the soda ash then I will simply have to start soaking my fabric in a sealed container and not allow any materials soaked in it to be exposed either (I have several pieces of cotton, t-shirts and such that were soaked in the soda ash mixture, allowed to dry and then not dyed. The soda ash dust can possible enter the air from them I suppose)
SO though I feel I am still in holding with this whole situation I do feel I am making progress.

On a happier note: I received my drawing supplies finally in the mail yesterday. I plan on doing some real drawing in the up and coming weeks. It's been a long time since I challenged myself to do more than just a sketch. Wonder if I still have it in me?

Are natural dyes really as safe as you think they are?

Message: Are Reactive Dyes eco-friendly?

I wanted to direct you all to the link above because this is a subject near and dear to my heart. I struggled mightily with this in the beginning of my dyeing adventures because I felt pressure from many to do natural dyeing instead of using procioin MX. The more I read about it and studied the subject the more I felt uneasy about using natural dyes and just wasn't so sure that they were really as eco-friendly as they were believed to be. I finally concluded that I truly felt the procion mx was the better choice and that is why I went in that direction. Now I'm not saying I will never use natural dyes. I think there could be some fun small projects using readily available natural dye stuffs on a small scale. For large and extended dyeing I have already made my choice though.

Silk Painting

I have started adding color and I am in LOVE!

The beginning of silk painting

Finally got around to playing with my new frame and getting geared up for some silk painting. As you can see by the picture it has several pieces so I can actually make a very large frame if I want to. This piece is for a color chart that I am doing out of Susan Louise Moyer's book Silk Painting: the Artist's guide to Gutta and Wax Resists. An excellent book by the way if you are at all interested in this subject.

And here is after I applied my first gutta ever. It was definitely different from anything I have done before, I was quite shaky and my lines are terribly wobbly. This will definitely need some practice. Next: Painting time!

Doing the Happy Dance! I have my internet back. YAY!

Internet Troubles

I've had problems with my modem for the last week and it looks like it might continue on through the week till we can get it replaced.
In the meantime, I have been busy

More Floss!

So here I am, up to my elbows in new floss to wrap and get ready for the shop. I am not complaining though. It's been fun getting back in the groove. I even bought myself an umbrella swift. I figure with this much wrapping I need all the help I can get...now if it would just hurry up and get here!

Tonight...back to wrapping more floss. I think if I don't I might sell out. Oh dear!

Going Forward

Thank you all so much for your kind words on my last post and Anne I will heed your words of wisdom. I can see where that could easily happen!

I have been very busy with my embroidery floss. I dyed a lot of it the last few weeks but continue on to refill my stock. I was amazed to see how low it was.

 So yesterday I spent the day wrapping skein after skein of floss and setting it to soak in the soda ash. Today I will be mixing dyes and hopefully get all these lovelies steeping in their colors.

Last night I decided to take a rest and play with some fabric. I am loving how this is coming along...

I need quiet here!

I've been feeling a little pressured. I like my solitude. I like it quiet. I like a nice even measured schedule with no surprises. I know, I am weird. Truth is when there is unexpected and I jump into it and flow with it I end up having a good time but...I drag my feet every time. Right now I am working hard at learning about my two new passions, especially the wire, though I have been studying and pondering the beads also ( they will have their run too) Now right when I am in the middle of learning this wonderful new art I also hire a French teacher and we had guests all weekend. Now dont get me wrong, I am glad I hired the teacher and I accept the fact that she is going to start taking up a lot of my time. I also really enjoyed having our guests. I just get in this mind set where all I want to do is create. I want to sketch and study and learn everything there is to learn about the new passion and when I am like this there is no room for anything else. So I guess I am feeling a bit disgruntled and very stingy with my time. It will all settle back down soon I hope and sort itself into some kind of routine. Here's hoping!

Anyway, I finished two of my wire pieces this week despite feeling pressured on all sides. I also dyed another piece of the electric dreams. I am quite thrilled with the results! Now back to studying, drawing, wrapping wire and of course...playing!

Is that a robin I see/

So things are looking up around here, the smell of spring is in the air. My stomach flu seems to have turned tail and disappeared!I am starting to feel back to my normal self and this is a good thing. This week I met an English teacher in the elevator of my building. She offered to start helping me with my french and I jumped on that. So yesterday I went to my first conversation club and I had a blast. I think this is going to help me out a lot. It is so convenient that she lives in my building too. I am thrilled.

I did a few pieces in the dye bath this week. This lovely piece was for a custom order. It's a difficult job but I think it turned out good. The little piece you see in the upper left corner was the piece I was trying to copy. I do think it is lacking the pinks of the original but that's the beauty of hand dyed. It's never the same!

I have also been working gung ho on my wire wrapping. The more i do, the more I want to do. Hubby said I can buy myself tools for my birthday present. That is just TOO exciting for me. I cant wait till I have some better tools to work with and more wire....definitely more wire.

So my owl is almost done. I have a few more things to do to him and then I will put a darker patina on him. I really like how he turned out.

I started a new piece too, this is the first part of it. A dragonfly!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Missing the Sun

Happy Saturday to everyone! I am sitting here staring at the wall of grey out my window and dreaming of sunny days. I am very ready for spring this year. It's been cold and bleak here.



I have continued working with the wire wrapping and I am just in love with it. I find myself dreaming of new pieces so I know it has sunk a hook in my heart. So this is the new piece I started. It is not finished yet and I have many plans for it still but as you can see...I went a bit crazy with it!


I also did a nice big batch of silk gauze and habotai this week. Seems I have completely sold out in the shop so I thought I would make a few more. Every time I dye the big pieces of silk I fall in love all over again. There is such beauty in this cloth. Ironing it out after it comes from the wash I marvel at the sheen, the iridescent quality of the colors laid upon the surface. I do so love to play with these!

Moving on

Life is looking up this week. I no longer sound like a frog. I can get out of my chair without a great struggle and the temperature is actually on the positive side of the zero for the first time in weeks. To make things even better I had some great success with the dye pots this week AND my bead loom arrived in the mail. I am a happy camper =D

When getting this last dye batch together I was having such a difficult time coming up with a color combination. Iwas getting ready to dye the largest amount of material at one time that I have ever done. When you are staring at several hundreds of dollars of gorgeous white fabric it takes courage to start dumping dyes in that pot. I mulled for days over what to do and finally I picked this palette:

I was a little worried about the combination because I knew I would get greens in the mix with the yellow and blue tones being present but in the end I decided I didn't care. I also knew that the blues would not be as deep unless I wanted to use a different dye. Silks can be quite picky with certain colors especially blacks and darker blues. So I threw caution to the wind and mixed up my giant dye batch.


The results in my mind were glorious! Does it exactly match the palette I picked? No, but it has the spirit of it and that's what I was going for.


The velvet of course is much deeper and way vibrant and usually I enjoy that more but the softer touch is what appeals to me in this batch, though I love them all. I adore the silk gauze and habotai. The ribbons are just luscious! I am quite thrilled with this one and I can't wait for my next batch.

My second highlight of the week was receiving my bead loom and I love it! I looked at them long and hard before I bought one and decided before hand that I wanted a wood one. This one is perfect for me. Although I may make some more side bars that are longer if I want to do bigger pieces.


I set to work right away making up a pattern and this is what has come of it so far. I wasnt sure if I would like doing loom beading but I love it. It is another way to satisfy my urge to create with patterns and color and it is not a great strain on my eyes. I find myself more and more treating my eyes gently. I think the eye problems of the last year scared me more than I wanted to admit at first. I am trying to find ways of expressing myself creatively without the great eye strain I was putting myself through. This looks like it might be a good one!

Hope you have all had a wonderful creative week and have a peaceful and renewing weekend!

Fun Stuff

I am back in the studio and having so much fun. Wow, do I love to play with my dyes. I found this site that I just love called ColourLovers and I am just starting to play around with it. I made this palette today from one of my pieces



Color by COLOURlovers