I have had many hobbies over the years. The primary one being drawing. Designing textiles is a new hobby that has pulled from some of my old hobbies. It seems to feel like a combination of drawing, painting, stamping, cutting, or even making floral arrangements.
A few years back, a relative of mine, fell in love with digital abstract art that I was creating. She really had an interest in wall hangings. I enjoyed creating them, but never brought them into printed art. Time went by and she contacted me to say she had heard of a company called Spoonflower and they were printing textiles from uploaded digital designs and had hoped I would give it a try.
I had gotten some experience with digital art through working on a grant project for special needs science programs, as the staff artist. I had learned many ways to manipulate the art programs from that experience. The textile designs required somewhat different skills, which were far beyond pure artistic inspiration. It was necessary to comprehend the way fabric repeats would occur within a design. Easier said than done. A bit of mathematics and intuition would have to come into play to succeed with the desired effects. It was also necessary to grasp that the colors on the monitor may differ from the actual printed design. After a few frustrations along the way, the process became more predictable and very enjoyable.
Last month was the most successful I have seen, since submitting my designs to Spoonflower, with over thirty yards being sold.
Here are a few photos of the printed fabrics, if you would like to take a look.
I have several colorways of this design.
One very useful element among the design options with the Spoonflower Company, is the option to scale the designs. This design is shown in an 8 inch square and a 4 inch square.
The photo below shows an example of how a quilter might be able to apply this type of print into their quilts.
This design is from my Jungle series. It was printed on the cotton sateen at 4 inch scale. By rotating the designs, it will create an entirely different square.
By continuing to rotate identical cuts, so that a different corner appears in the center,
then a new design square will form.
These are grouped into color coordinated samples. The larger ones were printed on the quilting cotton and the small paisley designs were printed on the cotton sateen. The colors remind me of Skittles Candy.
This design is printed onto the quilting weight cotton. I was pleased with the printing.
Everyone really liked this print. Resembles cloisonne' just a bit.
This is a large scale design. I hope to continue designing with the large scale. There are options on this design, to have it set to smaller scale also. I am thinking of having these
become a set of pillow cases.
Well, I won't continue tempting you with the eye candy...................but that gives a taste of my newest hobby.
By the way, the cousin that originally discovered Spoonflower, ended up ordering a design I called Silk Sari, a large-scale blue abstract. Her plan was to print it to silk. She is expects to be wearing it soon, as a silk sari. When she is not wearing it, she wants to hang it on her wall, as art.
If you would like to see more of the designs I have with Spoonflower, I will add the link for their site. The folks there are creating some new and helpful search options at the present time. It is fun to be simply window shopping, even if you are not a fabric buyer. They have a great customer service department and want to provide an enjoyable experience for their users.
Listed below is my link. I am not sure if it pasted as a hyperlink. If it did not. Then see how copy and paste works.
http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/art_is_us?shop_selection=recent&sub_action=new_profile
Well, I am need of a few minutes designing time.................
more later.
