Ready for flight ...

The process ...

many ask, 

"So what is it that you do, Kimberly?"

Original drawing of "Trio"©
21"square, marker rendering.
This was the beginning of my feature piece
for next weekends fine art show.
[info below]

Biggest piece of canvas this one has
ever painted.  I had to borrow an easel!
Which if you'd seen me trying to put this
together, you'd still be laughing.  

Finished hand painted canvas of
"Trio"©
From here, it was mounted to stretcher bars to 
allow me to go crazy with cotton and silk fibers,
silk wrapped gimp [love this stuff] from
Tentakulum Painters Threads


amazing Silk Ribbon from
River Silk,

 metallics, silk, and fine copper mesh from
  Kreinik Mfg.

Doug Kreinik found this awesome 
copper mesh for me after much 
fruitless searching on my part.
My dragonflies would be flat winged 
without his generous assistance.

Rendered in thread, one of a kind,
fiber art, mixed media canvas by
a Kimberly design©

As I rendered this piece .... my hands just seem to know what
to do, what a magical journey this piece has been for me.
The outlined flowers in the background, the hatchmarked
sparkle ... stems, leaves, many moons .... and oh!
Those WINGS!!!

The 'viney' things ...
that's the silk wrapped gimp.

Meet Betsy Bohrer!
She is the creator and curator of two different
art venues here in mid Florida.
Both of which she graciously asked this one
to be a part of.  She is helping me introduce
the world, one small step at a time, to my
world of needleart. 
I met Betsy about two years ago during a one
woman show of her beautiful works of art.
The friendship took off from there. She introduces
us as Mischief and Mayhem. You'll have
to guess at who is what ;-)
[although, I think we trade back and forth]

If you're in the area of Central Florida ...
Please join us next weekend for
Fine Art at the Magnolia
We are a collection of seventeen Fine Artists 
from all walks.
Ranging from pottery to paint to
sculptural basketry to
digital to photograpy
to sculpture
to jewelry to glass.
Something for everyone.
... and all in air conditioned comfort by 
beautiful Lake Mirror in the historical
Magnolia Building.

My proud Mom!
Love this picture of her!

I know...I know...

I've been rather quiet ...

but ...

I've been rather busy doing more art.

Soon ...

they'll be something I can share.

In the meantime ...

I'm creating and of course, 

it's colorful!

Me too, pay attention to me ...
Of course ... this is just a portion
of the pile of threads I'm playing with.
I need MORE !

You just thought this was going to be easy Mom ...

Hmmmm ....

"DRAGON and Son"
We did release another of my Dragons.
He's looking so impressed with himself 
as the little one peeks down from above.

"DRAGON & Son" 
is available now through my distributor
Ruth Schmuff Designs

kid leather...

...try searching those two words on the internet. 

Actually, it wasn't that bad. 

Learned a little about Kid Rock and 

I did find a helpful video from Sarah Homfray. 

Although, it was like looking for the 

proverbial needle in the haystack. 

Below are the results of my search.

I do have 'old' knowledge of the how to apply leather to canvas ...
just thought it smart to refresh my brain cells on the process.
Thank you to Kreinik for the materials 
that continue to inspire and embellish!

Traced above, then drawn on the leather with pencil.
[a sharp pencil the dots will be beaded ... I think ...]

Wool felt for padding, just one layer makes the magic.
And as you can see, cut much smaller.

Applied with silk couching thread.
I came up to the outside of the leather,
then pierced as close to the edge as possible.
This would be easier with a thimble.
I, however, used my thumbnail. 

TaDa!
This is the beginning of a new series.
I've painted nine new five inch square designs.
Each will feature some fun off the wall
techniques for embellishing.

They're tiny, yes, but stitch up quickly.
In my humble opinion, I think they're going
to look ever so awesome displayed
all together.

This is where the teaming up with 

The Black Sheep 

in Orlando comes to life.

TBS will host the workshops!!

Watch for dates and times to come soon!

Wicked....

...wicked cool!

Introducing 

"My Castle, My Dragon"©

Figured you could watch me bring this to life...

this will be available ... after it's totally complete.

Once again, I love what I do!
Even when it takes an entire day to accomplish one small area!
I haven't come up with a name for my beast,
it'll come to me though.
Scales, sparkle and shine and ... well defined!

His ear and eye ridge.
Eye ridges are important to dragons.

So a little more sparkle to the ridge.
I managed to move to an area that is
the Sahara Desert of Needlepoint.  
Not one shop is close by.
I do, however, know how to pick up the phone.
 But ... sometimes ... WHO wants to wait.
 The idea is there and you're ready to stitch.  
This happened on his eye ridge.  
I only have Kreinik #8 in 3202, one of my favorites,
 so it's not odd that I'm out of a size.  
Another BUT ...
did you know you can strip/ply some braids??  
It's not easy but it is possible.
So I gently extricated three very fine plies
from my #8 and worked
just the tiniest bit of string art
on his ridge ... and it's perfecto!

Warning...this may take a while for me to stitch.
I'm on a roll right now but shortly 
I'll be winging my way to Germany for
 ... drum roll ... can you believe it's been a year???
Emma's first birthday!!!

Emma's First Easter celebrated in Crete.
My little world traveler!
And yes, I knit that colorful cardi she's looking so adorable in.