Skip to main content

SJMA - Textile Design Workshop!

I went to a Textile Design workshop yesterday at the San Jose Museum of Art, offered as part of the museum's current exhibition called 'Beauty.  Tessellation and repetitive imagery was the theme of the workshop and is what is really the foundation of making a print design (textile or otherwise).  After the design is finalized, the imagery can be printed via screen-printing or as a Photoshop-edited image sent to a printer for tiling and reproduction.

Our schedule for the three-hour workshop included:

Task 1:   Look at graphic inspiration from the exhibit;
Task 2:   Draw a base image leaving some white space around the outer edges.  My image was a living room with an antique sofa, Art Deco lamp, and modern painting and rug;
Task 3:   Cut the base image into quarters and re-arrange them (horizontally and vertically) in which you could add more drawn elements into the rearranged to minimize white space and to create secondary designs; and
Task 4:   Using printed copies of the rearranged image, repeat them to see what a textile design would look like.

What I thought worked the best based on student work -- were spontaneous and organic forms rather than planned single images.  Here are photos of my work including the original drawing, the rearranged image, and then a repeating pattern based on the rearranged image that could be printed as a textile design.

Original Drawing (Post Pen and Watercolor)

Quartered and Rearranged Drawing

Repetition of Quartered/Rearranged Drawing - What a Textile Print could look like
 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Highjacked Blog Photo

My profile photo was highjacked ! For those of you who are blogging, be wary. There are some unscrupulous folks out there who may be using or about to use a photo(s) you've uploaded to an online photo-hosting site. At the time I created a blog, having a URL for a photo uploaded online was the only way to insert a photo in your profile or to create a custom header. There had been no problems for a long while. This morning, however, I did a Google image search for my name and found my photo linked to a totally different blog than my own! It is possible I didn't mark my file with the online photo-hosting site as private, but I didn't expect this to happen. I don't know whether marking it private would have actually averted the situation, but I'm not waiting to find out. I eliminated my membership to that online photo-hosting service today and caution anyone to be careful with uploading images to the internet . If you read the terms of agreement at many sites, you'...

Life Book 15 - Week 36 Project Completed (or nearly completed)

This project went in an entirely different direction than the Life Book 2015 lesson.  That's ok because we're also working on accepting those times when we move in our own direction using the lesson purely as a launching point. This piece involved experimenting with collage on a substrate (muslin covered with joint compound), followed with paint, more collage, and then the felt, fabric and beaded plant. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this link:  www.willowing.org .

Get to Work and Get Clear - Stop the Waffling

I haven't painted in some time. So it seemed like the perfect time to sign up for Louise Fletcher's 10-day free taster course titled 'The Creative Reset' that recently started.  She has re-engineered the taster since I took it last, and I'm liking how it is rolling out.  The images below are from our first lesson that were timed studies with additional constraints.  The purpose was not to have finished pieces.  Rather it was to help students identify their preferences and gain clarity about our likes.  This means not choosing to like what others want us to like or think we should, but what we honestly like.     From my six-block painted sheets, I chose one favorite from the first grouping and two favorites from the second grouping.  The step I'm choosing to do is to write down why I like those three in particular.  The reason is because being able to articulate my reasoning will help clarify, strengthen and hone my voice -- not just in art bu...