Taking a break from Art Bags, I whipped up this soft fabric journal cover using one of my print samples. This is a similar image to the one I used on this art bag, except it has a different background color and this image was printed directly onto fabric using durabrite inks. This was a fun project to put together and a great way to use up sample prints.
This is the front …
And the back …
Ever since I began using digital grounds for my inkjet prints, I’ve also began taking an interest in digital art. It’s taken more than a little re-education to understand fully how Photoshop can be used to create interesting art because the most I ever used Photoshop for was to tweak my photos, but it’s really turned out to be quite an interesting process. I plan to incorporate my digital art designs into some of my textile art pieces.
This is one of my first digital art designs; a photo of some magnolias blended on a gradiant background and overstamped with some handwriting.
And this is the same design printed onto fabric using digital grounds. The size is approx 9″ x 12″ and you can notice that the print is almost an exact color reproduction of the original and it has excellent clarity in the details. Next print though I think I’ll try another coat of digital grounds which will hopefully enhance the color even further.
This weekend I played around some more with my favorite fabric paper and my very favorite digital grounds, and combined the two together to make a lovely journal cover.
I collaged together an image in Photoshop …
… and printed it onto a sheet of fabric paper treated with digital grounds.
Added a few beads, decorative fibers and other embellishments; and it’s done!
Lovely surface texture.
One of my goals this year is to streamline my online business activities and websites as I move ahead with slightly different personal and professional goals than in the past, and one of those decisions I’ve made is to discontinue my online and downloadable workshops and classes. But wait … good news ahead!
The online workshops I currently offer are either self-paced or downloadable, and while this might seem convenient, it does in fact take up a lot of time/effort/money in maintaining, updating and hosting the classrooms; time I think that could be better spent doing other things – fun things! But because teaching is a part of what I enjoy doing, I’m not totally doing away with online classes but rather I’ll be focusing on developing instructional dvds instead.
I’ve previously offered dvds on my website however I had a major problem last year when my online store hiccuped and died, however I now have a new shopping cart and things seem to be working just fine so I’m back in business and the first new dvd release you’ll find there is Exploring Digital Grounds on Fabric.
I often like to use images in my work. My favorite methods of transfer are printing directly onto fabric, and image transfers using gel medium.
However I thought I’d take the opportunity to whip up a small project using a product called TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) which is featured in an article in the May 2009 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine.
TAP is a sheet of transfer paper that you use with your inkjet printer. The information sheet that comes with it explains that the paper has a polymer coating on it so that once the image is heat set to your fabric it virtually becomes a part of the material and can be washed therefore resulting in no hand to the fabric. For best results it’s recommended waiting 2 or 3 days before washing, however the results I got after washing did not produce a “perfect” image, so whether you like the results will depend on your expectations and your application. You can see comparisons below.
This is a picture of my son when he was very young. I’m sure he must be sick of me using him as a guinea pig for all my image transfer experiments, but he’s so darn cute 
When the image is transferred to fabric it is “stiff” but softens as you wash it.
Before Washing
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Washed immediately after transferring 
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Washed 3 days after transferring
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When printed, the colors are transparent, so ironing onto a white background will provide you with the most vivid color.
Ironing to a colored background produced a more silhouette type image.
Full details and instructions for TAP can be found at www.TransferArtist.com.
I had in mind to do an oriental type art quilt using an image of a koi fish
I started with some background fabric and quilted it.
However after it was quilted I felt the colors were too strong, so I used a foam roller to add an uneven coating of Lumiere gold metallic paint over the top, and this toned it down a lot and added a sparkly background.
I then added a “pond” for the koi and quilted a bubble design on it – reminiscent of raindrops hitting the water.
Using a blue metallic paintstik, I highlighted the raised bubble areas. This produced a nice contrast in color between the raised areas and the depressed areas.
I then added the fish. I printed out the design onto muslin using TAP and then fused some wunder under to the images and cut them out like an applique. I fused the fish to the background and stitched an outline around them using a sculpture stitch with gold metallic thread. I then added some contrasting borders.
Some decorative shapes and a black binding . . .
. . . and finally some Chinese coin embellishment.
Although I started out with this design in mind . . .
. . . I think it looks better like this! What do you think?
2012 is the year of the EPIC ADVENTURE as I lead a band of daring Creative Explorers on a year-long exploration of self-discovery and artful self-expression behind the doors of The Creative Explorer's Club. We'd love you to join us. You can find more details here.
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