Handprinted: a fabric swap III : fabric!

Aw, poor swap folks, I feel like I've totally abandoned you since the mailout deadline! Not to fear, I'm back to show some of the goodies I have received from my two swap groups (we had 98 people sign up so I joined two groups to have full numbers) and will put together a post later this week with some ideas of how to use these amazing fat quarters.

First up, a gloriously stunning FOUR colour, stencil cut print by screen printer extraordinaire, Sarah Waterhouse. This design is just amazing and the colours are so striking. My kids both love this one and had a little tussle over it until I said I'd make them a cushion cover for their playroom with it - crisis averted!

Some beautifully stamped fabric by Adrienne, made with hand carved stamps of her own design. What makes this one truly special to me is the way she has overprinted the different shaped feathers and accent designs in the multi-colour piece. It is so wonderfully and spontaneously done and the colours are just perfect. (I had the pleasure of meeting Adrienne in person last week at Finders Keepers - Hi, Adrienne! It was great chatting to you {and your pal, her name escapes me, apologies!!}) 

Some more gorgeously subtle stamping by Katja in Germany! She explored a variety of different materials to create these: an old wooden block stamp for the bird/flower bud design, her own linocut for the flamingos and a cork lid for the circles, which in turn form a flower. So clever!

Awesome, simple but super effective wave design, screen printed by Anna. I'm not sure if this one was stencil cut or emulsion but I truly love it, I think it will be great as a cushion cover for my couch, along with the next fabulous piece...

By the hugely talented, Amy of Umbrella Prints! Amy screen printed four sections of this circle for each of the swap participants so that, when put together, they would form a whole. Awesome concept, beautiful (as always) design. So pleased to have this!

Another super talented print maker, Kylie, created this gorgeous design with a hand carved stamp. It's so clever, take a look and see if you can make out the actual shape of the stamp apart from the shapes it creates as a pattern. The lady is a genius, I tell you. Also destined for couch cushion fame, I think it will be perfect with the two above.

And last but most certainly not least is a collection of screen and block prints by Krista, who has been doing all sorts of experimenting with drawing fluid and photo emulsion! I don't want to play favourites but these designs are up there, the geometric block print is so great and the circles made up of tiny lines gives me serious design envy. I'm excited to see where she goes with these 'cause the girl's got huge talent (which we already knew from her quilting prowess).

Thank you so much to each and every one of my swap groups, it has been such a delight to recieve these in the mail and so exciting to see people explore new ground. I've got one more print on it's way from the UK so hopefully that will turn up in time for my post of fabric usage ideas. I'm eager to sew with these and actually use a few from the first swap as well - off to see what projects I can find and share!

Handprinted: a fabric swap III update

Wow, lots of amazing work already showing up in the handprinted: fabric Flickr group! Here are a few examples but be sure to click through to the group to check it all out:

Gorgeous designs and a great, detailed blog post on her process from Craft Kitty.

Stunning dove design created with hand carved stamps and a stencil by Marilla Walker.

Amazing stamped fabric by Monique.

And as for me, I decided to finally get my EziCut stencil material out of it's packaging and give it a try. I cut a simple design of organic stripes using a box cutter (an Exacto knife would probably be better for more detailed or finer designs) and thought it would be interesting to try a multicolour, layered print with them. For screen printing, you use this stencil material the exact same way you would use a paper stencil, as shown in my tutorial here.

Stencil vinyl cut and ready to use...

First layer of stripes printed. I'm loving it at this point...

And here are my final prints...

While I don't absolutely hate them, I have to say that I don't really love them at all either... The colours, which looked so great together in my head, somehow don't work for me, even though I switched the yellow for a pale green in my second batch. I do think they will look really great when made up into something, maybe a cushion cover or a little zipper pouch. The print got favourable reviews on Instagram so I'm hoping that my swap buddies won't be as nonplussed about it as I am! It was really very fun to play though and great to have an excuse, otherwise my EziCut might have stayed in it's package for three more months. Now I'm already plotting my next stencil design and am thinking about printing some panels of single layer stripes...

Last call for Handprinted: a fabric swap III

Signups for the fabric swap end tonight so if you're still debating, check out these gorgeous examples of handprinted work and then visit my handprinted board on Pinterest to really push yourself over the edge...

Screen printed cushion cover by Kate Clarke

Screen printed fabric by Celina Macurti

Block printed by Jeanne McGee

Block printed by Seedpod

Handprinted: a fabric swap III deadline for sign ups approaching

Only a few more days to sing up for the third fantastico Handprinted: a fabric swap! We already have over 65 people ready to start putting their ink to fabric, that is 65 new designs hitting the world in the next month which is pretty darn exciting. Check out the original post to find out what is involved in taking part and browse a couple more tantalising tutorials to get the creative gears turning...

A super simple but super effect stencil technique from Domestifluff.

Awesome foam block printing tutorial by Susie of Flowerpress.

Screen printing at home

Great tutorial from Lil Blue Boo on using Speedball photo emulsion with sunlight

Very comprehensive tutorial for creating your own screens with Speedball photo emulsion 

My tutorial for screen printing with a paper stencil

Small scale screen printing tutorial by Lotta Jansdotter

Handprinting tutorials

With so many of you signing up for Handprinted: a fabric swap III (nine groups already - woohoo!), I thought I'd better start filling your heads with the many ways you can tackle printing by hand...

A great tutorial from Line Across that shows just how easy it is to make your own stamps

Tutorial for a very cool monoprint technique from Design Mom

Learn how to print with stencils from Jezze Prints

And come back in a couple of days for links to some screen printing tutorials : )

Handprinted: a fabric swap III

Want to experiment with some fun new techniques and snag a meter of handprinted fabric for yourself? Read on!

::the gist::

You'll be sending one printed fat quarter to each of four assigned swap buddies and receiving four printed fat quarters from these same folk. Whether you want to print one whole meter (yard) and chop it into quarters or you want to print four separate 50cm x 50cm (18inch x 20inch) pieces is up to you. Designs must be your own and hand printed using whatever technique you want to play with. Please print on natural fibers - cotton, linen, hemp or a blend of these - and be sure you use ink/paint designed for fabric (you can read a post about fabric and paint/ink options here). You will be sent your swap mates' preferred colours but, in the end, ink colours and design are entirely of your own choosing.

::sign up::

Send the following information to handprintedfabricswap@gmail.com
Name:
Postal address:
Website/blog:
Preferred colours:

Signups will be open until Thursday, February 28th. Your swap group details will be sent to you by Sunday, March 3rd and the deadline to send your fabric is Monday, March 25th, giving you three whole weeks to play around with techniques. This swap is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, which means if you sign up, you have to be willing to ship fabric overseas (since we'll only be sending fat quarters, you should be able to sandwich your fabric between two pieces of card and send it in a C4 (8.5 x 11inch) envelope to keep postage costs down).

::resources::
my leaf printing tutorial

hand carved stamp tutorial
stencil and potato printing
foam stamping tutorial
lino stamping tutorial
homemade stamps turorial
stamp carving tutorial
contact paper printing tutorial
screen printing at home
screen printing tutorial
screen printing using drawing fluid
screen printing photo emulsion tutorial
my create your own screen tutorial

::inspiration::
my handprinted board on pinterest
handprinted: fabric group on flickr
printing by hand group on flickr


There are a ton of books on every kind of fabric printing you can imagine but one I can recommend wholeheartedly is Lena Corwin's Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens.  I'll be posting about tutorials and techniques over the course of the swap to keep you motivated but please feel free to add links to any other resources in the comments, there is so much great information out there! Once the mailing deadline has past, I'll be posting ideas of what to make with your fancy handprinted fat quarters : )

Here's a little sidebar button if you want to show off that you are taking part:

and please feel free to use the large image above to blog about the swap, the more the merrier!


::Sign ups for this round of swapping are now closed and all participants have been notified of their group details by email::

handprinted: a fabric swap {catch up}

the next in the catch up posts: to share a bit of the amazing work that has come out of the second edition of handprinted: a fabric swap!

"bunnies" handprinted by anna harlan

handprinted with found materials by colette moscrop

block printed by susie of flowerpress

handprinted by kristin

man, there are so many good ones, i really just want to show them all. have a peek over at the flickr group to see so much more handprinted goodness!

handprinted: a fabric swap mailout deadline

the bell has rung, swapping folks! get those handprinted pieces in the mail, post haste (or at least send an email to your group if you are running behind). so much awesome work popping up in the flickr group, here are just a couple of examples:

Lino stamped by Rebecca Dunn

by Kristy @107 Quilts

using freezer paper stencils by Rachael Gander

by Heleen Webb

handprinted fabric swap :: one week to mail out

 one week to go until the postage deadline for handprinted: a fabric swap! it's been pretty quiet out there - or have i just been to busy to visit everyone's blogs? let me know in the comments if you have posted about your printing, i'd love to see what every one has come up with. and if you haven't started, dive in!

and shamefully, i realised the other day that i never actually showed the fabrics i received last time in the swap, although i always meant to. i was in two swap groups to make up numbers (which is ironic because this time i'm actually not in a swap group at all because there just wasn't room!) and i got so many beautiful pieces of cloth from amazing makers. i'm thinking about making a quilt with these, or a big set of cushion covers... so hard to decide! here are the ones i took photos of last december, there were a couple of other gorgeous prints that i got a bit later that i need to find and photograph:


from lisa (who wasn't in my swap group but is a lovely friend : ) and the ladies at heuteschmidt;



from lara (ink & spindle) and michelle;


and from suzy and jesse breytenbach.

handprinted friday:: interview with Ink & Spindle

seriously, i could gush about the extraordinarily talented and lovely Tegan and Lara of Ink & Spindle all night. i've been following the amazing rise of their handprinted textile business since its inception and have known them personally almost as long. they are truly on their way to becoming australian textile icons (if they aren't already) and are a couple of the nicest, most encouraging and supportive people you could even hope to meet. they have without a doubt been the hugest inspiration for me to start maze & vale and have been such a huge help over the past year, answering any question, offering advice and regularly presenting me with liters and liters of ink to remix and play with when they have finished a print run. i loves them : )

Ink & Spindle
website:: www.inkandspindle.com
blog:: inkandspindle.blogspot.com.au

what is your creative background?

Lara & I were both drawn to the creative whilst growing up, we did everything we could get our hands on as kids - paint by numbers, pottery, knitting, drawing, calligraphy, flower pressing... You name it, we've probably tried it.

Fortunately, I had very supportive parents who encouraged me to follow my passion & study Fine Art. I left secondary school at the beginning of my final year & undertook a Diploma of Visual Art. This led me to study my BA of Fine Art & then a Postgraduate Diploma in Education. During my second year as a secondary school teacher, I met Lara and we started Ink & Spindle.

Lara studied BA of Multimedia & became a web & graphic designer. Feeling frustrated with the limitations of digital, she began experimenting with repeat patterns & started getting her designs printed on to fabric.

how did you get started with printing by hand? 

I had printed by had as part of my diploma & degree - photographic silkscreen and also traditional printmaking, and - hilariously in hindsight - had screenprinted one-off t-shirts for friends birthday since forever... Lara had done short courses in screen printing & was getting her designs printed by a third party but wanted control over the whole process.The progression in to hand printing textiles was a very natural one.

 

what mainly influences your designs? what/who do you look to for inspiration?

We are inspired by our environment & beloved hometown of Melbourne, plus many designers - Nancybird, Spacecraft, Skinny Laminx, Lotta Jansdotter, Cloud 9 Fabric, Cloth.. the list goes on. There are so many amazing people out there doing amazing things!

what is your favourite fabric to print on?

Our favourite fabrics to print on at the moment are our hemp/yak & eco-linen in flax. They're both so beautiful, lighter weight than our normal basecloths & have lovely drape.

what colours are you currently loving? 

surprisingly (or not, we are Melbournian after all) it's all black & grey with a dash of soft gold or mustard.. we just keep coming back to these!

what would your dream printing project/job be?

We're always on the lookout for an amazing bespoke furniture maker to collaborate with - that's kind of our dream at the moment...

photo emulsion at home

 

i made my first photo emulsion screen the other day! i've had my speedball photo emulsion kit since last august but have always been too scared to try it out for one reason or another. my original many moons screen was created with speedball screen filler but it's been used and touched up so much that its really on its last legs. i knew i wanted to try photo emulsion to make a new one and finally bit the bullet after reading this AWESOME tutorial at lilblueboo that explains how you can use sunlight to expose the screens instead of rigging up some fancy light arrangement. i followed the tutorial to a tee except that instead of using a transparency, i just cut my circles out of card stock and laid them right on top of the screen. it was a bit of an experiment, i wasn't sure if it would work but i am so excited that it did! i have a bunch of digital designs ready to take to officeworks to be printed onto transparencies but it's great to know that i can use this technique with cut paper as well.



i've got a stack of homemade screens just waiting to be filled this week, CAN NOT WAIT.

handprinted friday:: interview with Jesse Breytenbach

i first discovered jesse's work when she signed up for the last handprinted swap and she quickly became a huge inspiration - her block printed fabrics (and the goods created with them) are totally gorgeous and completely unique. jesse generously shares a wealth of printing knowledge in the tutorial section of her blog, the posts on how to make your own stamp pad and tips on working with repeats are especially valuable. thanks so much, jesse, for your contributions to the handprinting community and for answering my nosy questions!

Jesse Breytenbach
website:: www.jessebreytenbach.co.za
blog:: jezzeblog.blogspot.com.au 
I’m a freelance illustrator and printmaker working in Cape Town. My textiles are printed using water-based ink, and cured to be permanent. Fabrics are sourced locally, and are cotton, linen, or hemp blends. My relief prints are printed by hand, either by burnishing or on an old book press. 

what is your creative background?

I have a Masters in printmaking (though I did spend a lot of that time making comics, not printing).

how did you get started with printing by hand?

I learned a whole lot of different printing techniques at art school: lithography, etching, silkscreening etc. But after art school I no longer had access to a studio and all the equipment that I used to take for granted! Relief printing is cheap and easy to do at home, so I started printing lino blocks on paper. When I became interested in textile design, I couldn't justify spending money on something that might turn out to be a whim. Block printing was the simplest way to test whether I might like doing this textile thing; so I started experimenting with ink and fabric.

what mainly influences your designs? what/who do you look to for inspiration?

It's hard to say. I'm sure I'm influenced by everything I see. I do love Bauhaus and Arts & Crafts textiles, but I don't know if that comes through in my prints. I tend to just close my eyes and daydream till I see a pattern I like, or to imagine a blank cushion or bag and figure out what I would like on it. Presumably all the things I notice during the day sort of stew in my brain, and hopefully whatever comes out again is a mixture of my influences and my personal taste.

what is your favourite fabric to print on and what colours are you currently loving?

I'm printing on a hemp/cotton blend at the moment. It gives slightly textured prints, and has a lovely 'wobble' to it. (I also like it because I can order it by email and it gets delivered! There's nothing more frustrating than wandering through fabric warehouses trying to find the same fabric again.) But I do like buying bits of other basecloths for limited runs - the colours can be very inspiring. Right now I really really like orange and purple - but not together.

what would your dream printing project/job be?

A very complex print with about four colours - I'm still stuck on two-colour prints, and trying to work up courage for three colours.