Day #5: Fabric Printing at Home Blog Tour

Today is Day #5 of the Fabric Printing at Home Blog Tour. Thank you all so much for your sweet comments! I've had a great time putting this all together and am so lucky to have thirteen VERY artistic friends helping me out!

The Tour heads to Carol R. Eaton's blog today. I had the pleasure of meeting Carol last year at a SAQA conference in Virginia...she is a delight and a very talented artist. Her forte is gorgeous hand-dyed fabric...especially ice and snow dyeing (and since she lives in Connecticut there's been a great deal of the latter going on!).

Carol R. Eaton is a surface design artist who has been creating original, one-of-a-kind fabrics for the past 10 years. Inspired by the natural world her designs are filled with warm colors, balance and an unexpected variety of textures. Eaton’s work is made using only the highest quality fabric and incorporates unusual techniques such as dyeing with ice, manipulating dyes and the use of decolorants. Each art cloth in the collection is signed by the artist.

Stop by Carol's blog today and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Fabric Printing at Home. AND Carol is also giving away 4 fat quarters of her hand-dyed fabric...how great is that!?

TIP: Using Folded and Cut Paper as a Design Tool

I love the graphic look of folded and cut paper designs. They are also so easy to make. Use them as a jumping off point for designing stencils and carved print blocks.

When I'm using folded and cut paper as a design tool, I usually either make paper cuts that are the specific dimensions of a print block (e.g. Speedy Carve) or use shaped templates such as a margarine top or the inside diameter of a tape roll (see below).

Once I've traced and cut out the shapes, it's time to fold them before cutting out the details. 

I usually cut freehand using small sharp scissors. I love the thrill of opening up the folded and cut paper to reveal an unexpected design!

Next, I glue these designs to black paper. The contrast enables me to see how the design would look printed as a stencil or print block. From there I can trace and transfer the design to the final stencil or print block material. Chapter 5: Recycled and Repurposed in Fabric Printing at Home shows you how to turn these bold, graphic designs into stencils.

Here is a fabric I designed using stencils. I call it, Nanny's Flower Garden in honor of my grandmother. You can see that I used a number of folded and cut paper designs as a basis for the stencils.

Today's giveaway is a pair of Non-Stick Fiskars scissors. Use them to cut intricate paper designs. Leave a comment for a chance to win. I will choose a winner at 11:00 PM Eastern USA time. Check tomorrow's post to see if you are the winner. Your comment also enters you in the final drawing on February 15 for a free copy of Fabric Printing at Home: Quick and Easy Fabric Design Using Fresh Produce and Found Objects. 

And now for the winner of yesterday's giveaway (two Detailer Writers)....congratulations to Sue Andrus! Please email me with your contact information (threadborn@cox.net) so I can send off your prize.

Tomorrow, the Tour stops at Judy Gula's blog. Judy owns Artistic Artifacts...a fiber and mixed media artist's dream shop! I drool over the hand-dyed threads and beautiful batik fabrics every time I visit!
 
Be sure to visit all the stops on the Tour:
February 2: Lisa Chin
February 3: Lynn Krawczyk
February 4: Jane Davila

February 5: Carol R. Eaton

February 6: Judy Gula

February 7: Susan Purney Mark

February 8: Teri Lucas

February 9: Jennifer Coyne Qudeen

February 10: Deborah Boschert

February 11: Lynda Heines

February 12: Cheryl Sleboda

February 13: Terri Stegmiller

February 14: Jackie Lams

 

Playing with Black & White

I've been working on the next issue of Julie B Booth Surface Design News. Believe it or not, it's been a whole year since I published the first issue!

Some of you might know that I've had a recent fascination with cut paper art. I've manage to collect a few books and have admired the intricate, sometimes delicate artworks created by the talented artists who work with this medium.

This month's newsletter is focusing on black and white and the Japanese concept of Notan, which literally means, dark-light. I've been spending lots of time in the studio this week cutting and pasting. It's been great fun and quite surprising!

I'm off to do some more work on the Newsletter...it's coming out this Saturday...gotta get crackin'!

A Story in the Making: Muses

This weekend, I'm holing myself up in the studio to work on samples for an upcoming class called, A Story in the Making: Creating Story Cloth with Print and Stitch. Unlike most of my classes, which are technique-driven, this class focuses on creating a story...actually letting the story unfold... while working with surface design techniques.

Today, I'm starting with a possible jumpstart for the class. I'm going to ask them to bring in objects that speak to them. This could be any object that catches their attention. I had a look in my china cabinet and these two objects caught my eye...

Stone carving of a rooster and a sunflower that I bought at some point for $24. Quite honestly, I don't remember buying it!

An heirloom. My great grandfather's prayerbook. It's not in the best shape, but I love the carving (bone or ivory), the maroon velvet and metalwork on the cover.

In addition, I want there to be some random element...a little bit of unpredictability. I decided to close my eyes and flip through The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images published by Taschen.

This is the page I landed on...

As I did all of the above last night, I had time to do a bit of brainstorming and connecting the elements and starting a story in my head. I wrote and scribbled sketches (more of that in a future post).

I started to think about the rooster in the stone carving who is most likely to become the protagonist of the story. I thought of Chagall's roosters.

I thought about a book I have on paper cutting (a topic that seems to be swirling around in my head lately) that has some rooster designs.

Then, I realized that there were other roosters and hens lurking about the house.

A wonderful and very colorful mother hen with her chicks stitched on burlap, from Haiti

Two angry roosters embroidered on cotton, from Mexico.

So, now I am gathering my thoughts and heading for the studio.

I want to keep an open mind about the story as I play with the fabric paints, create blocks and stencils and start in.

Wish me luck!

Happy Hearts, Healing Thoughts

Happy Valentine's Day!

I thought I'd share this piece of fabric which I created for the January issue of Julie B Booth Surface Design News. 

I used my X-acto knife to cut designs out of freezer paper which I ironed onto painted fabric and then painted using a foam dauber.

I really enjoyed cutting the designs within the freezer paper heart shapes. I cut freely without drawing designs with pencil. It was very spontaneous and liberating!

This has given me the urge to try some paper cutting. A blog suggestion by Ersi led me to  the site of papercutter, Beatrice Coron.

On her site you can see many wonderful images. She is a story teller and many of her stories are fantastical! This has me thinking about my  A Story in the Making class coming up next month. I'm looking forward to getting into the studio to make up my own stories.

You can see a TED presentation of Beatrice's work here.

I've just found out that Mary Jane Dodd is recovering from septicemia. Mary Jane is a peace-filled soul. She started the Flags for Peace Project which gave me the chance to honor a friend. I am constantly inspired by her beautiful works of jewelry and poetic words. I hope you will send healing thoughts her way.