Fabric Repeats

Well, it's not Picasso but here is my first Photoshop generated pattern repeat. I figured out how to create this by following instructions from Mel's Brushes. The images are my own hand drawn sketches doodled while watching Law & Order re-runs.

While I'm a reasonably accomplished designer, I'm a crappy artist. I can make cute little drawings like these, but ask me to make something look real and I'll tell you to get real. Like any skill, the art of drawing is developed only over time and requires motivation coupled with a liberal dose of natural talent. While I may be motivated, my skills lie in other areas. Fortunately for me, most block printed images, at least those that interest me, are based on simple lines and patterns.

It will be some time before I can translate a repeat like this into a useable block, but I'm beginning to understand the concept. I can also see some texture easily created with my new Creative Textile Tool.  I'll take it home tonight and see what kind of fun stuff I come up with.

Heat Carving

Since the designs keeping me awake at night are large in scale and require more knowledge about block printing than I currently have, I decided to put design & block construction aside to play with a little detail. Using this Creative Textile Tool.

Last night while watching Toddlers & Tiaras (I know. Shoot me) I pulled this gadget out and plugged it in. While waiting for it to warm up, I learned a little about what it can do. Sort of a cross between a soldering iron and a wood burning tool, this tool can be used to emboss velvet, transfer laser-print images onto fabric, fabric applique, seam pressing, stencil cutting and more.

Since my drawing skills are limited to simple geometric shapes and badly proportioned interpretations, I thought I'd stick to the basics - circles and lines. The first thing I did was grab a large foam dot and melt some little dots into it. Stamped the results on scrap. Smiled. Little effort for a fun effect.

Lines heat carved into craft foam are not smooth and clean like those made with a blade. Pulling the heat tool through the foam leaves a tattered, kind of jaggy edge that's kind of interesting.

My next remarkable work of art was a square filled with radiating circles and lines. Don't be jealous of my
skillz. As lame as it looks, the stamped results were fun and inspirational. The cuts were deep enough not to fill with paint when rolled. I flipped it over. The cuts went down to the adhesive, but not through it. Which means the element won't fall apart when mounted onto Plexi.

I've gained a new respect for craft foam in the last days. I have no idea how or what it's made of and hope that when I find out, the knowledge won't accompany a wave of guilt. This cool material can be heated with something as simple as a 75 watt bulb or heat embossing tool, then pressed into just about any textured surface you can think of. Once it cools, the texture remains until heated again. Buttons. Coins. Rubber bands. Corrugated cardboard. This journey just keeps getting cooler every day.