Spoonflower & Fabric Design

26 February, 2013

Grid

beckarahn2013-02-27T07:07:56-06:00Classes & Teaching, Everything Else, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|2 Comments

You might be wondering about the grid that appeared on my blog last night. I taught a class for the last 3 weeks all about intro to fabric design. Last night we were tackling seamless repeat patterns and needed a grid to work with in order to place all of our objects and motifs so they would repeat. We have been working in an elementary school computer lab and they have a lot of the features of the computers disabled (so the kids can’t mess things up) and we were having a jump drive issue. So uploaded our practice grid to my blog because everyone could get there to download it easily. It was a GREAT class – one of the best I have ever had and I really hope that they keep working on their designs.

Our very first night of class we did this design as a group. I didn’t tell them why we were drawing on little squares, but since our first class was just before Valentines day, we did a love theme.

We then scanned and made a repeat from this and printed it, so we each had a swatch of collaborative fabric to take home last night.

Valentine Grid repeat at Spoonflower. Collaborative class project.

31 January, 2013

A Visit to NC

beckarahn2013-01-31T19:52:13-06:00Everything Else, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|Comments Off on A Visit to NC

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I took a fast flying trip to NC this week. The weather was sublime (73 degrees compared to -6 at home!) and the people were lovely. This was my second visit to Spoonflower and I am pretty sure that it is one of my very favorite “vacation” spots for a few days jam-packed with creativity. (The reason for my visit is a blog post for another day.)

Here are a few snapshots of the office – views of the lobby, the gorgeous classroom/conference room space and the printers hard at work. There is an energy and activity in the building that is hard to describe: friendly, focused, thoughtful, busy but not frantic, and above all a deep appreciation for the creative people that are all part of the community.

2 January, 2013

Happy New Year

beckarahn2013-01-02T19:10:11-06:00Sewing & Design, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|3 Comments

Hello there blog. It’s been a while. I have been reading all kinds of inspirational posts on all of the blogs I follow all about the year in review and all of the things everyone talked about and most popular posts and all of the goals for all of the things that they want to do. I saw one whole post that was 12 different projects for the holidays that were all carefully color coordinated with tutorials and downloads and printables. And while I actually enjoy reading it from everyone else, it just makes me wonder how some people have time to do that kind reminiscing and collecting of old posts and analyzing. I would much rather spend my Christmas break cooking and reading and spending some time with my darling husband and elderly hound who I haven’t seen enough of this fall.

So none of that here. I am sorry that I haven’t been posting much. Not so much sorry for you, although I enormously appreciate all of you that read and lurk and comment, but really for myself. This blog over the years has become a journal (hence the name) of all of my projects and I look back and reference things here all the time. I love the idea of keeping a beautiful journal but the reality is, I am not a journal kind of girl. But this blog works for me and I love it. The last few months have been a challenge. It’s been nothing earth shattering. The people I love are safe and well. I am safe and well, but I have been creatively and professionally challenged in ways that have squeezed a lot of what I am willing or able to share here in to a trickle. It’s been stressful in good and bad ways and it has made me re-prioritize some things and totally drop the ball on a few things (which makes me crazy) and just plain let some things go.

But, I think we are heading towards the end of the drought and in that spirit, I have some Christmas presents that I am really proud of to share with you. The handmade gifts were very carefully planned this year and although they didn’t arrive quite on time, they turned out beautifully and I am happy with them (and I believe the recipients were too.)

Mom got a handwoven camera strap (or maybe it is for binoculars). She is a major birdwatcher and wildlife photographer, so she will use this, I think. It is a pick up pattern on an inkle loom, made with 5/2 perle cotton, a few scraps of ultra suede, and some webbing/buckles I found on Etsy. A pick up pattern is similar to brocade fabric, you choose threads out of the pattern and pick them up to float on top of the regular weave. That is what is making the zig-zag/diamond pattern you can see.

Next, my youngest niece and nephew (ages 2 and 4) got a “Map to Uncle Andy & Auntie Becky’s House”. I took a google map of our neighborhood, traced/simplified it in Illustrator and printed a fabric “map” of our neighborhood. (Thank you Spoonflower!) I didn’t think it was too smart to post a map to my house for the whole internet to see, so you get a section of it so you get the idea. We added all of the best parts of our neighborhood, like the pool down the street and the very important location of the coffee shop and the pizza place. I filled in between the streets with photos of textures – grass, gravel, sand. I found the little tiny cars and was really thrilled to get a set with a police car, fire truck, garbage truck and parking enforcement. Then finally three big dice with different locations on each face so you can roll the dice and drive to each location, making a very simple game for them to play. Mommy has to read the words right now, but I think after not too long they will start to recognize the words on their own. This niece and nephew live out in very rural farm country and so the city is a pretty fun thing to play pretend about.

My youngest sister got the (hopefully) ultra cool accessory of the season. A giant cowl made from baby alpaca with a tiny bit of sparkle. This thing is seriously decadent. Seed stitch with a half twist before I seamed it up, so it has a little mobius shape happening.

Mom got the poker chip silk scarf. I hosted a “dye day” just before Christmas for my new co-workers to make gifts for their family members and I did this one and knew that my mom had to have it. It is a technique called itajime shibori and is folded and then clamped with poker chips (top and bottom of the folded scarf) held in place with clothespins. Then you add the dye and the poker chips mostly keep the dye out and leave polkadots. (You can get fancier tighter clamps and make the resist shapes very distinct, but I like this more organic look better.)

Finally, it was the year of the bat for my dad. He is an architect and one of his projects this year involved some renovation on some historic buildings. Historic buildings that happen to be home to an endangered species of bat. (Which means you have to remove the bats before you can renovate and you just can’t even imagine what that involves.) So the bat jokes and puns have been a thing this year. I found a great collection of other batty items for him on Etsy (which I will show off tomorrow), but this ornament was my contribution. A snoozing bat for the Christmas tree. (He’s about 3 inches long.)

Hoping you all had a creative and peaceful holiday with your loved ones. Cheers to the new year!

28 November, 2012

Lichen

beckarahn2012-11-28T19:09:46-06:00Embroidery, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|6 Comments

Lichen 1

October 2012, 8 x 8 inches

Digitally printed cotton, hand embroidery

I created this piece for the annual art auction at the art center in my hometown. I donate a piece to their annual fundraiser every year. There are not many fiber artists in the area that participate (many painters & photographers) so I am very proud to represent fiber art. This started with a photo Andy or I took in Wyoming this summer when we were there for a wedding. This beautiful stone was covered in many shades and shapes of lichens. I printed it on sateen fabric, which really lets the details show up very sharply. I then stitched my own clusters of lichens with about 6 shades of green threads and the chinese knot stitch to add some dimension. I love this one and so I titled it “Lichen 1”, with the anticipation that I will do a few more from the other parts of the photo.

13 October, 2012

Coils Dress

beckarahn2012-10-13T12:32:00-05:00Gallery Exhibitions, Sewing & Design, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|5 Comments

Our annual gallery fundraiser at work was last night. I don’t have a lot of time to make very elaborate pieces of art, so this is my goal each year, to make a dress to wear to this event. This is based on a vintage-inspired pattern, with some tweaks. The fabric is digitally printed silk/cotton from my friends at Spoonflower. The same scribbly circles from the skirt show up smaller scale on the top although as a very subtle color variation (you can’t really see it in the photo) and the fabric has a lovely silvery sheen with the green.

The image I based the fabric design on is a photo of a pile of video cables. I love the juxtaposition of 1940’s inspired dress with digitally printed video cable design. My friend Jay does something high-tech with keeping TV stations running and sent me a couple dozen photos from his last trade show gig that were pictures of coils and tangles and piles of bright colored video cables. I love that I have friends who don’t think I am crazy when I send messages like “OMG, I need that photo to make a dress, can I use it please!?” Ok, he might have thought I was crazy, but he sent me that photo and 15 more.

I had a lot of fun walking around last night and talking about the dress and the design. Two of the people from our local printing company (who do the newsletters and things for the center) wanted to know all about the printers and how many colors they use. Because I work at a place where I am surrounded by some amazing artists, at least one person commented on the hand-picked zipper (where else would that happen to you?) and everyone needed to touch the fabric. On Tuesday I will show it off to a highschool class we are doing a residency with. They are coming to dye some fabric with me to accompany their own Spoonflower printed designs.

14 August, 2012

Mosaic: Spoonflower & Sewing

beckarahn2012-08-14T19:00:38-05:00Gallery Exhibitions, Sewing & Design, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|3 Comments

“Take This!”, an exhibition of work by Textile Center instructors, closed today. This piece called “Mosaic” was my contribution to the show. It is cotton voile, digitally printed by Spoonflower, layered over a sheer cotton with a burnout paisley design. The top layer is very slightly transparent so you can see the texture through and the lining peeks out about an inch longer than the top layer for another hint of paisley. The fabric design is based on a photo of a “mosaic plant” which is a neat little water plant that we found at the Como Park conservatory. The original plant is about 3 inches across; I printed this one at 54+ inches across. (If you look closely in person, you can see an itsy-bitsy bug on one sleeve.) I pretty thoroughly modified a Simplicity pattern to get the shape. The trim at the neckline is some vintage lace that I handpainted with Dye-Na-Flow paints to match the fabric and it has 3 vintage metal buttons on the back.