Blog Hop To Welcome A New Book: "Playful Fabric Printing"

I've been waiting (WAITING!!) for this book for such a long time!  And, finally, it is HERE!
First, a bit of background:  I love both of these authors.  I am friends with each and admire their work individually.
When I caught wind of the fact that the two of them were working on a book about their fabric dyeing and printing strategy I was really enthused.  Playful Fabric Printing was underway!  This year, at the 2nd annual Craft Napa, the book was finally placed in my hands.

Playful Fabric Printing is one gorgeous book!

Take a look at all the information contained in it....

Carol is a master at teaching people how to dye fabric for specific colors.  

Here she is showing her 3-dimensional color cube in her workshop called "color mixing for dyers". 

I took this photo during Carol's workshop about 2 and a half years ago.  Below is a page in their new book showing 

all the color "value bands" and how to achieve them.

Melly has a degree in textile design from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Can you see where I'm going with this?  These two dynamos just co-wrote a fabulous book!  The book was made even more fabulous because Pokey Bolton, founder of Quilting Arts & Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine, published their book under her new brand, "Crafting A life".   The book is yummy in every way:  chock-full of easy-to-understand information that is beautifully photographed.

Carol and Melly are keen for people to learn how to use thickened dyes to create their own personal imagery on cloth.  They have developed a system that is simple yet elegant.

Several surface design artists stayed after the second annual Craft Napa for a dye "play day" to become acquainted with Carol & Melly's system of using dye and stamps to develop prints.  Here are a few images from that day...

Carol shows us how to mix the dye into print paste.

Carol and Melly talk about the book and how to cut stamps using their technique.

Melly demonstrates how to apply the thickened dye to the stamp surface for printing with multiple layers to create an image.

You know, these two really love color!

Here is a quilt Melly created using her hand-printed fabrics along with my new line of fabrics from RJR called 

Urban Artifacts.  See how great they look together?  I think this is important because the book will show you how to create

unique prints that work well in combination with other prints or on their own!

After showing our small group how to use simple and easy-to-obtain supplies to create our stamps we all made our own.  The idea was to design stamps that referenced the theme of "x's and o's" in some way.

Using a piece of clear plastic and fun foam I cut and adhered my foam stamp pieces onto separate pieces of clear plastic (think transparency film-type plastic).

Each of these foam stamps can be used together to create one image or separately.

This is a new way of making marks for me and I am excited about it!

I've been thinking of many ways to utilize this new information.

I mottled my dye on a paper palette prior to rolling onto my stamp for this piece.

circles within circles...

x's and o's combined

a variation in scale

These are my first experiments.  They are the beginning of my journey with this idea.  I am enjoying the discovery!   I think it is very important to remain playful and experimental.  Not every print I will make will be fantastic but I intend to make lots and lots.

Guess what?  It does NOT matter if you are totally new to this or a seasoned surface design artist.  This book is easy to read and a great tool for getting started or equally good for adding new ideas to your current surface design practice.

There is even a Playful Fabric Printing Facebook Community, where we will gather fabric printers to share their work and get feedback on their processes.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/998848793595331/ and you should come join us!

Each artist on the hop is giving away a copy of this book.  All you have to do is leave a comment here (and on any of the other blogs on the hop) to be eligible for the drawing.  So don't forget to leave a comment!   I'm so anxious for people to get this book and try all the techniques, including the use of the dye mixing information that shows you how to easily mix dye colors into many different gradations.  I'll be posting some more images really soon so please drop back by and check it out.  

January 23: Melly Testa

http://melanietesta.com/blog/

Jan 24: Carol Soderlund

http://www.carolsoderlund.com/blog/

Jan 25: Lisa Chin

http://somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com

Jan 26:  Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

http://www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com/

Jan 27: Judy Coates Perez

http://www.judycoatesperez.com

Jan 28: Carrie Bloomston

http://www.carriebloomston.com/blog/
Jan 28:  Chris Dodsley as made by ChrissieD
http://madebychrissied.blogspot.com

Jan 29: Lynn Krawcyzk

http://smudgeddesignstudio.com

Jan 30: Leslie Tucker Jenison

http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com

Jan 31: Pokey Bolton

http://pokeybolton.com 

Pokey is about to surprise Carol and Melly with this cake!

Here is a shot of Pokey cutting the surprise cake (decorated with the cover of Playful Fabric Printing)

during the Craft Napa event earlier this month!