Art Studio Sale March 5, 2016 9 am-12 pm

Art and Art Studio Sale

Saturday March 5th 2016

9 am-12 pm

3703 St. Andrews Dr. SE

Rio Rancho, NM

I'm moving across the Pacific pond back to my childhood home on Molokai, HI and I need to lighten my load! I will have some of my art on sale that will be reduced by anywhere from 30-70% off of the original prices.

This is an art sale for just about everyone-whether you're a printmaker, photographer, mixed media, collage,assemblages, etc. There will also be fine art frames, decorative photo frames, hand made papers, handmade paste papers (great for collage work and for those crafters that use die cut machines) specialty papers (large and small sheets), photographic equipment (such as a couple of Polaroid 230 cameras and a SX-70 camera to name a few), roll of brown paper and cutter, lots of things for the mixed media artists-tons of ephemera. All at ridiculous prices-a lot of things are priced at $1.00 and some things are even free (because I couldn't figure out a fair price for it and it just needs a new home!). Books-mostly hiking books for New Mexico (I won't need these on Molokai). Art magazines (these are free). Lots of rusty things (free). The list goes on and on.

Come on by-spread the word! Great bargains at ridiculous prices. I take cash and credit cards (no checks). It all has to go!

If you'd like to see images of some of the items that will be on sale, I have and will be posting them to my Facebook Fan Page for Molokai Girl Studio. You can find it all here.

On Being An Artist In Residence (a presentation to the community)

On Being An Artist In Residence

at the Hubbell Trading Post Historic Site

Presentation by: Paula Scott

Wednesday, Feb. 10th, 2016

At the Rio Rancho Art Association Membership Meeting

(you need not be a member to attend)

Meeting begins at 6:30 pm

Presentation will be made after the business

portion of the meeting is adjourned

Where: Community/Break Room at

Don Chalmers Ford, Rio Rancho

Paula Scott will be giving a presentation/talk about her recent experience as an artist in residence at the Hubbell Trading Post. She will be describing the application process, what her proposal was, how she prepared for the trip and what was accomplished while there, along with stories relating to the day to day experience. Part of the requirement for being an artist in residence is to create a piece of work that will be donated to the site. Pictured (above) are the 'finalists' that Paula presented to the park staff to chose from as the image to be donated. Paula will reveal which one was selected and have on hand the actual piece of art that will be shipped to Hubbell immediately after the presentation.

This event is free and open to the public. 

For more information about this event, call 505 301-2009

Eco Printed Scarves for Sale

No two scarves are alike in this collection! The color on each scarf is strictly from botanicals where their natural pigments are coaxed out of them by way of a steaming process.  Different plant matter was used for each scarf, making them even more unique. Plant matter used was: eucalyptus leaves, ferns, sycamore leaves, oak leaves, red and yellow onion skins, marigold flower petals, Virginia Creeper leaves, protea leaves and chamisa flowers. This process is called eco-printing since the plants impart their print to the textile (as opposed to eco-dyeing). It is also considered to be a natural dying process.

Perfect to own for yourself or to give as a gift-they are not gender specific and is suitable for women or men to wear. Goes great with casual outfits or adding that extra flair to a dressier look-from blue jeans to a board meeting power suit.

These scarves are all for sale and you can contact me here or here if you are interested. Prices do not include shipping as shipping will vary as to weight and destination. I can only ship to the United States as the cost for international gets prohibitive.

Should you need to launder the scarf, hand wash with a gentle laundry detergent such as Woolite. Line dry and iron on silk setting.

Scarf A: $35.00 100% silk chiffon SOLD

Scarf B: 13" x 67"  $45.00 100% silk chiffon SOLD

Scarf C: 11" x 55": $35.00 100% silk chiffon SOLD

Scarf D: 10" x 52": $35.00 100% silk SOLD

Scarf E: 8" x 50": $35.00 100% silk

Scarf F: 11" x 50" $35.00 100% silk chiffon SOLD

Scarf G: $35.00:100% silk SOLD

Scarf H: 10" x 52" $35.00 100% silk chiffon

Scarf I: 10" x 52" $35.00 100% silk chiffon

Scarf J: 10" x 52" $35.00 100% silk chiffon SOLD

Scarf K: 10" x 52" $35.00 100% silk chiffon

Scarf L: 8" x 52" 100% silk

Scarf M: 10" x 52" $35.00 100% silk chiffon SOLD

Scarf N: 8" x 52" $35.00 100% silk

Scarf O: 8" x 52" $35.00 100% silk SOLD

New Exhibit Installed at the Hubbell Trading Post

The visitor's center at the Hubbell Trading Post National Monument now has new permanent exhibit that does a wonderful job of explaining how this trading post got to be and the importance of it. A reception and a traditional Navajo Blessing Way Ceremony was held on Aug. 26, 2015.

The images that I have posted here might not be in the order it should be (and I apologize for that), but I hope you take the time to read through this and also visit the website as this place is full of significant history-history that we should be aware of as the impact that one man had on a nation and its people.

Untying the Eco Bundles (eco-printing or plant dyeing)

One of the 'dangers' for me in having two weeks to myself to create art (as an artist in residence at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site) is that I bring with me more projects than I could possibly complete in that 2 week time.

This post is a continuation of the previous post where I got the plant matter ready and bundled things up to steam and let the chemistry and natural pigments do their work for some eco-printing aka botanical dyeing.

Now, I get to 'unveil' them!

This one is a small silk scarf that contained red onion skins, marigold petals and some tea leaves (from the tea I brew every morning). I don't think I got any color out of the tea leaves, but I do think the tannins in the tea helped to intensify the colors.

I did three of these small silk scarves and although I used the same technique in assembling them, they all look different to me.

This is the larger bundle which is a cotton tea towel from Target. It contains the sliced up 'wild carrot' (which really isn't a carrot, but a plant called, dock root), tea leaves, oak leaves from last fall and some red onion skins.

Peeling the 'sandwich ' apart...

I was surprised the the PVC pipe that I wrapped everything around picked up the pigment from the dock root. I didn't think it was a porous surface!

And, here comes the, 'now what?' question, as in, what do I do now? I will hang onto it until I get home and wait for the oak trees to turn red in the fall. With that, I'll do some over dyeing and see how I feel about that outcome then.

Here are the 3 silk scarves after they've had a chance to dry. Don't think I'm done with these either.

Part Artist, Part Mad Scientist

There are a good handful of books out there on dyeing wool with Native Plant Dyes. This is one by Isabell Deschinny who is an expert on this subject matter and has taught many others how to collect the plants, process and dye their wool. I researched her hoping I could track her down to talk to her, but all I could find out was that she taught this subject matter at the UNM Gallup campus for many years. I believe she has retired now, but her son, Mark Deschinny has carried on and also makes rug weaving tools and looms. In addition to weaving and selling his work. In fact, he was here at the Trading Post the day before I got here-to drop off some weaving tools to sell (I saw them and they are beautiful!). I guess meeting him or his mother was not meant to be on this trip.

Before I came out here, I was talking to Donna Barnitz who had been here as an artist in residence last year and she was trying to tell me about the weavers she had met and who knows how to dye wool with native plants. She then proceeded to tell me about a plant they call a wild carrot and that it was highly prized as it doesn't grow in abundance in this area, but that it does in Rio Rancho. It blooms in the spring and then dies down by the end of May, but it is the tubers that are used and they can be dug up year 'round if you know how to recognize the already spent plant. In fact, she knew where a whole bunch of it grows in Rio Rancho. Since she didn't know the real name of the plant, she drew me a picture of it. When I got home and looked through my books, I saw that the illustration on Isabell's book looked just like the picture Donna drew! 

I got pretty excited having found this plant in my book and was able to tell her what it was called. And, before I knew it, a few days later, she had gone out and dug some up for me to take on my trip out to Hubbell. By the way, it is called dock root. Donna said it would be nice to take some with me to play around with and to 'gift' some of it to someone who knew how to use it.

Here's what the tubers look like and boy do they smell of the earth!

I cut some up of the tubers up (they are tough) and let them soak overnight. I can see why they are referred to as wild carrots but it is also called wild rhubarb as the stems look like rhubarb. 

I let it soak with some oak leaves I harvested last fall as they are full of tannins and help the dyeing process along. In all the research I've done, it seems that if you give the plant matter a chance to break down some, you will get better results.

 Fresh marigold flowers will yield a light yellow-green. The dock root should yield a darker yellow.

Some hibiscus tea (red) and last year's sunflowers. I don't know if the sunflowers will be successful-we'll see. This is where the mad scientist part starts to come in.

I spread out the mixture over a cotton tea towel and said a few prayers over it that it will go all well.

It's like making a sandwich with fabric instead of bread.

I also had a few silk hankies (thank you, Donna!) and decided to try out the marigold and red onion skins on it. The red onion skins yield dark reds and purples.

All bundled up and in the steamer (this is after it has steamed for 2 hours and cooled down). Alum was added at the start of this process. I need to leave it be and wait a few days before I unravel these bundles to see what magic (if any) happened. Technically, I am not dyeing the entire article of fabric a solid color. I am letting it impart the natural pigment just where it has contact with the fiber. This is called 'eco printing'. I have a Pinterest board that has many examples of eco printing.

This is what I use to steam the bundles in which is a pot dedicated just to this process on an induction plate. I like using the induction plate since it has to go for a few hours-it is more energy efficient and doesn't heat up the room.

In a few days, I'll be able to post what these bundles will look like unraveled. I hope you are far more patient than I am!