Make It

Works in Progress

A nearly completed bag made from some fabric I blockprinted a while ago. This is one of my favorite pattern/color combos. I hope to make a silkscreen of this pattern soon.

I'm rejecting the photo emulsion route and instead making my silkscreens using the drawing fluid method. This is pretty time consuming but for me, I feel more comfortable working with a pencil and paintbrush than  with a computer and darkroom chemicals.

First I sketch out the pattern, scan it into the computer and make a few pattern repeats in GIMP.

Then I print it out and place it under the screen to trace my design directly onto the mesh using a pencil.

The screen I'm using is actually so big that I've got two different designs on here.

After everything is traced onto the screen, I flip it over so that the screen frame is directly on the table and the mesh is hovering slightly above the tabletop. Now it's time to paint on the drawing fluid using a paint brush.

If I thought my right hand was cramping after the tracing, that was nothing compared to the cramping that came from painting the tiny pattern. I'm fully done with the pattern above but I've still got to paint the zigzag pattern on today. Once that's done, I wait for it to dry, spread on the screen filler over the whole screen, wait for that to dry, then rinse everything out. If all goes as it should, the blue stuff will wash out, exposing my pattern and the screen filler will remain in the screen. Pics to come!

Also here's another project from a while ago I never shared. I made my first attempt at clothing design, using some of the fabric I silkscreened with the circles pattern. The final result was a cute shirt but way too small and unwearable for me. I was really inspired by Caitlin Mociun, who designs, silkscreens and sews all the garments in her line. Next time I silkscreen fabric I'm definitely trying again.

From Picture to Pattern

I like this look at the process of how Cheeky Beaks finds inspiration in a picture book and turns it into a fabric design. It's great when designers share the behind the scenes peeks at their creative process.

Mod Green Pod Intern Needed

Mod Green Pod, an organic textile and wallpaper company where I work part time, is in need of a part time intern! It's a great opportunity to get hands-on experience in all aspects of a small design business. Details below.

General Business Internship: Fall/Winter time frame. Option to extend internship into Spring exists if desired.   

Mod Green Pod (www.modgreenpod.com) is a Boston-based company that designs, manufactures and sells organic cotton upholstery fabric and vinyl-free wallpaper.   We are seeking a part-time intern to help with general business tasks. The intern must be able to commit to at least 15 hours a week.  Intern will work directly with co-founder Lisa Mims, as well as other employees.   This is an unpaid internship, but school credit can be earned.

Primary Responsibilities:
1.    Manage mailing list
2.    Send samples to customers/inquirers and follow up
3.    Assist taking of orders
4.    Assist packing/shipping of orders
5.    Help to manage inventory
6.    Research additional sales channel

Qualities:
1.    Creativity, enthusiasm, follow through
2.    Knowledge of MS Office
3.    Interest in textile design, green home design, green building

Incentives:
1.    School credit can be earned
2.    Duties/hours can be tailored to your requirements
3.    Flexible work schedule
4.    Opportunity to learn first hand about working in a small design company, in an entrepreneurial environment as well as in the Green building industry

Please email a resume, a description of any special internship requirements and questions to lisam@modgreenpod.com.

To learn more about Mod Green Pod, please visit: www.modgreenpod.com

Silkscreening wallpaper: a video

So I'm a little obsessed with the silkscreening process. Here's a series of photos (and a video!) from wallpaper and fabric studio, Twenty2 of their production process. Make sure to watch the video, the artisan makes it look so easy. I love how long these screening tables are. Think I can fit one into my apartment?

Unfortch I can't link directly to the video and photos (it's a pop-up) but go to this page, click on "see how it's made" and take a look.

Pictures of the fabric printing process

Here's a textile company that's new to me. Esperanto makes silk screened textiles in small batches. I love the process photos on their site - though I wish they were larger so I could take a better look.

Speaking of process, photos have you seen the newly updated Mod Green Pod site? There's a whole page with great (large) pics of the fabric production. Check out a video interview with the founders here.

Inspiration: Rapture and White

Screenprinted fabrics from Rapture and White are 100% British. Cloth is woven in the UK and patterns are designs and handprinted in their studio. I love that it's a small, family-run business.

Inspiration: Galbraith and Paul

The Grandaddy of fabric blockprinters (are there any others?), I visit the Galbraith and Paul site probably twice a week, just to click around and drool. I love the pics of their process. I don't know of anyone else doing block printed fabrics by the yard in the States. Why is it so rare?

Inspiration: Virginia Johnson

I have a ton of inspirational links I've been visiting often, especially on the days when I get frustrated with my projects. I'll share some of those links with you this week.

I found the link to Virginia Johnson's textiles yesterday afternoon, via decor8, after a particularly annoying day when none of my block printing seemed to go my way. Her style and sense of color improved my mood immediately.

Virginia is a fashion designer and illustrator who creates all of her own patterns. I went through her press page and read some of the articles about her from other publications. I especially liked this multimedia slideshow in which she shows her sketchbook and talks about inspiration.

Playing with Pattern

Today I played with patterns on my computer using GIMP to scan in one of my linoblock prints, clean it up digitally, and then play with repeats, orientations and colors. Does anyone have any advice for how to turn a drawing or print into a clean digital image? For example, here's how my print looked when I scanned it in, untouched.

Here's how it looked after about an hour of playing with contrast and using the pixel-sized eraser tool to clean it up.

My question is, how can I get an image like the one above without spending an hour squinting at the screen erasing all the stray lines? Allegedly I can do something called "vectorizing" to do this, but I'm not sure if this is possible with GIMP. Any suggestions?

After I had the cleaned up image, I spent a long while playing with different colors and tiling them to see how it would look repeated on fabric. I'm trying to come up with a few killer color combos that I'll use for my first "collection" of block print fabrics. Here are my favorites from today.

coffee/aqua

above: slate/plum

below: mustard

I purchased some larger linoleum blocks that are 12 x 12. I had been using 3 x 4 blocks which had just one repeat of the pattern on it. A larger block will allow me to print a 12 x 12 area in one print, instead of doing several small prints to cover the same area. The goal is that it will save time and effort so that I can stamp more fabric. I have tons of pattern ideas but I'm scaling back my focus for the moment and am going to concentrate on printing some yardage of this pattern in only a few colors. A great lesson I've learned from my internship is that customers like basics. The patterns in bright colors get lots of attention, but when it comes down to actually purchasing a fabric to cover your couch, most people go for the neutrals and more subdued colors.

I'm interested in your guys' feedback. Do you want to see this in a different color? (I sort of think this would be cool in red). What do you think of the two patterns that have a hint of contrasting color, or do you prefer the all solid pattern? Would you carry a bag with this pattern? Curtains? An accent pillow?

I love working on my project but it's hard to spend 3 hours inside on a glorious day like this. I needed to do it because I simply don't have this much uninterrupted time during the week but I don't know how those of you with kids make time to work on your artistic endeavors and work and have a social life. Kudos to you! No blog dump this week but I've been collecting links of some amazing textile designers who are inspiring to me that I'll share with you later on.

Thanks for all the kind words about my new 'do! It's taken a little getting used to but I now I love it and I'm so happy I went for it after wanting to go short for years.

Now on Flickr

So I finally got my act together and put some pics on my Flickr account. I have no Flickr friends, if any of you are Flickr members, be my friend!

Here are some pics (also on Flickr) of some printing I did last night. I'm loving this color and print.

Also, here is a pic of my latest packaging idea. I had a "rifferaff" stamp made a couple of months ago for only $7. I stamped it on plain white sticker dots to make custom stickers. They look quite chic if you ask me!