Trailblazing an Art Business

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by…” Becka talks about the secret power of saying YES, even when that unexplored path in front of you definitely has wolves and quicksand. She’ll share her journey of creating a full-time art business from nothing, the essential skills you must have in your travel pack and the unforeseen dangers on the road. Learn about how she quit her day job and found out how amazing and difficult it is to be her own boss and blaze the trail. Finally, she’ll share some tips for recognizing milestones on your path and finding some hiking companions along the way.

Why Does Your Brain Love Pattern?

As fabric artists, we work with patterns everyday. From polka dots and stripes to tropical florals and mid-century mod, we each have designs that we are drawn to. Whether you are interested in designing your own fabrics or creating repeating patterns from quilt blocks, there are ways to make your patterns sing and it’s based on a little bit of brain science. Join fabric designer Becka Rahn as she talks about why our brains love to find patterns and how you can design repeats that light up more of your creative neurons.

A Spoonful of Spoonflower

Designing fabric is more than just putting pencil to paper or generating pixels in Photoshop; it’s about connecting and sharing stories and ideas. Get a tour of what it’s like to design fabrics and print them using Spoonflower, a web-based service for printing your own fabric designs. Get the scoop on the technical details of uploading and proofing your files, see samples of different fabrics and walk through the process from start to finish. We’ll also talk cost-saving tips for getting the most out of your yard of fabric, ways to proof designs and more.

Selling your Fabric Designs is as Simple as Tacos

Have you dreamed of being a fabric designer? Spoonflower is a print-on-demand service with a Marketplace of thousands of designs that are created by designers all over the world and are available for anyone to purchase by the swatch or by the yard. Anyone can be a designer by uploading a design and getting a proof swatch. Once it’s available for sale, you get a commission on every purchase. The most important thing you need to know to get started? TACOS! Learn how Theme, Audience, Color, Object, Scale are the key to success when selling your designs and get answers to your questions about copyright, copycats and more.

In person or online. These classes can all be presented as a 3 hour session in-person or a 2-3 hour virtual demo/lecture with lots of time for Q&A.

Designing Kaleidoscope Geometrics (Digital Fabric Design)

Get a taste of what it is like to digitally design and print your own fabric with Spoonflower. This session focuses on abstract designs, so you don’t need to feel limited by your drawing skills. We’ll start with simple hands-on art, transform it into pixels, and create two seamlessly repeating geometric patterns all in one session. No special software or computer skills are required; you can create amazing patterns using just your web browser and some simple design tools. For the virtual version of this class, because it’s not practical to watch a Zoom session and follow along with the online part of projects in real-time, this session will be presented as an interactive demo with hands-on components, handouts and links to refer to later, plus lots of opportunities to ask questions.

No fabric design experience necessary, but you should be comfortable with basic computer skills like opening and saving a file, copy/paste. You do not need Photoshop or any special software or equipment. 

Tea Towel from a Recipe Card (Digital Fabric Design)

Do you have a favorite handwritten recipe card in your collection? Make your own keepsake tea towel by scanning your grandmother’s handwritten recipe card and learning how to scale it up to fill a fat quarter of fabric. See how to upload and digitally print it on to linen-cotton fabric with Spoonflower to make a one-of-a-kind tea towel. Bring a 5×3 inch recipe card with you to class; see supply list for details. Your printed fabric fat quarter will be mailed to you after class.

No fabric design experience necessary, but you should be comfortable with basic computer skills like opening and saving a file, copy/paste, and using a thumb drive. You do not need Photoshop or any special software or equipment.  

Designing Seamless Repeats: Designing Your Own Fabrics (Digital Fabric Design)

This class is an introduction to creating seamlessly repeating patterns that can be printed on fabrics. What’s a seamless repeat? It’s a tile or motif that can be repeated over and over to fill a yard of fabric without obvious edges or visible borders between the repeats. Focus for this class will be about learning to create the layout of your design and strategies for making it look balanced and seamless. We’ll start with hands-on exercises to create a template to use for your patterns. Then we’ll work on a design sketch for a novelty print to use later to create your finished artwork. You don’t need fantastic drawing skills for this class; you can create your finished design using any media you like but the sketch will help you get there. Then I’ll demonstrate how to go from sketch to finished design using Photoshop or Pixlr apps.

Trio of Techniques (Digital Fabric Design)

You don’t need to be a Photoshop pro to be able to digitally design and print your own fabrics. This class is packed with projects you can design using simple and low-cost digital design tools and apps, most that work right from your web browser. Great designs don’t just start with opening up a blank digital canvas, so we will learn techniques to transform cut paper art, drawings and paintings into pixels to make a geometric print, a faux batik and a novelty design. We’ll go step-by-step learning how to create and save your files, upload, and print your own original fabric designs.

Etsy Shop Behind the Scenes (Business of Art)

Tips, techniques and words of wisdom from a long-time Etsy Seller about what it takes to run an Etsy shop. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the technical side of running your shop, setting up items via the Shop Manager, and choosing shipping profiles; as well as marketing and search tips to help get you started on the right foot. 

Design your own Typeface (Digital Design)

Learn how to create your own font or typeface! Using your favorite art materials, you design a whole alphabet of letters in your favorite style. Once your letters are drawn, painted or cut out, you scan/photograph and upload them and using a free online tool you can make them into a font you can download and use on your computer. Get tips for fine tuning your font, styling your letters and more.

Intro to Pixlr (Digital Design)

Get started with simple but powerful graphic design app, Pixlr E. Pixlr is free, works right in your web browser, and is an easy and accessible tool to start designing your own graphics, editing photos, designing fabrics and more. Learn step-by-step how to create and edit designs and use many of the built in tools. This class will be presented as a demo with detailed live Q&A. Because it is not feasible to complete a project on your computer while simultaneously watching a Zoom presentation, you will complete any projects on your own after class has ended. You do not need any special software or equipment for this class; all parts of the project can be completed using your own computer and basic web browser.

Fabrics from Scratch: An Intro to Designing & Printing Your Own Fabrics (Digital Fabric Design)

This class is packed with projects you can design using simple and low-cost digital design tools, most that work just from your web browser. You will learn how to create a variety of projects, from repeating geometric patterns to a faux batik print, and gain the confidence you need to build on those basic instructions to make your own designs. Great designs don’t always just start with opening up a blank digital file, so we will learn techniques to transform cut paper art, drawings and paintings into pixels too. Then, we’ll take a tour of everything you need to know about printing with Spoonflower, including pro tips about working with color, resolution and scale.

No fabric design experience necessary, but you should be comfortable with basic computer skills like opening and saving a file, copy/paste, and using a thumb drive. You do not need Photoshop or any special software for this class.

(This session works best as a 1 day, 6 hour class. For the virtual version, we can break it into 2 sessions to allow for a break.)

Adobe Photoshop for Fabric Design (Fabric Design)

The focus of this workshop will be an introduction to working with Adobe Photoshop as a fabric design tool. We will spend 3 intense days getting to know the tools in the software to make seamless repeats, layers and more. Becka will teach you how to use the basic tools in Photoshop to edit, add layers and design seamless textures using Photoshop. The goal is to help you understand how the Photoshop tools and techniques work so that you can make the designs you have in your head. Class time will be focused on practice with tools and techniques like creating seamless textures, learning how to work with layers, and understanding the settings for tools to accomplish specific effects.

Becka will also talk about using Spoonflower to print your fabrics and how to set up your file resolution and color for success using Spoonflower’s print on demand service. She will have samples of all of the Spoonflower fabrics and talk about optimizing your design for printing on different surfaces, troubleshooting your designs and choosing the right fabric for your project. We will discuss color and resolution, so you have the skills to make prints that turn out just the way you want them to.

Why would you choose Photoshop vs Illustrator to create your fabric designs? Photoshop is great at rich textures and gradients of color, art effects like watercolor or paint-look designs, photographic elements, blended colors, soft edges, and layers. Illustrator is great at geometrics and precise edges, modern clean designs, graphic elements and icons, solid colors. If you are trying to choose which app to learn, think about the kinds of designs you most want to make. Both programs can really do far more than I have listed, but my list is to give you an idea of what things are easier to do in one vs the other.

For this class, you do not need drawing or painting skills; no experience with Photoshop, Illustrator or fabric design is necessary, although you should be familiar with the Spoonflower site and comfortable with basic computer functions. (3 days)

Adobe Illustrator for Fabric Design (Fabric Design)

The focus of this workshop will be an introduction to working with vectors and Adobe Illustrator as a fabric design tool. Why vectors? Designing with vectors gives you a lot of flexibility with size and scale, options to easily create colorways and edit your designs, and the ability to create smooth lines and simple repeating patterns in just a few steps. The goal for this class is for you to learn to use the basic vector drawing tools and techniques and have time to practice with them while you have expert help to troubleshoot. Unlike painting with brushes in Photoshop, Illustrator uses a very different kind of tool to create and join shapes together to build up your design with points, corners and curves.

Becka will also talk about using Spoonflower to print your fabrics and how to set up your file resolution and color for success using Spoonflower’s print on demand service. She will have samples of all of the Spoonflower fabrics and talk about optimizing your design for printing on different surfaces, troubleshooting your designs and choosing the right fabric for your project.

For this class, you do not need drawing or painting skills; no experience with Photoshop, Illustrator or fabric design is necessary, although you should be familiar with the Spoonflower site and comfortable with basic computer functions. (3 days)

Embroidered Coptic Stitch Sketchbook (Handcrafts)

In this class we’ll do a variety of surface design and hand stitched techniques. First, learn some hand embroidery stitches to monogram or embellish a fabric cover for your book. We’ll turn your embroidered fabric into bookcloth to make covers for the sketchbook and learn to tear down drawing papers for the inside pages. Then we’ll design some custom endpapers with handmade paste papers. Finally you’ll learn to stitch the signatures of your book together using a coptic or chain stitch binding with waxed linen thread. At the end of class, you will have completed a small custom sketchbook. Throughout the class, you will be able to customize your book in many ways: choosing scrap fabric from your stash for the cover, designing your own end papers, picking the colors and embroidered designs. (2 days)

If you are interested in hiring me for a private lesson, either in person or online, email me and let’s talk. Private lessons are generally $25-$40 per hour. We can meet at a coffee shop (post-COVID), have a Zoom Meeting (I can host), Google Hangout or talk on the phone. I am happy to work with you to figure out what works best.

I am happy to work with you to

• help you create a special fabric design with your artwork or to commemorate a special occasion
• set up your Etsy shop and work with you on descriptions and tags and settings
• troubleshoot something you are struggling with in Photoshop or Illustrator or on Spoonflower

I rarely take on commissions to design fabrics for someone or using someone else’s art or logo. I do not do sewing-for-hire or photography for other people.