Creating Patterns

I think I mentioned last month that I was taking an online surface pattern course.  There is about one week left in the workshop and I have been having so much fun with it.  Playing with my drawings and designs is so rewarding.  Here are three patterns I put together recently.

The first two photos are just layered patterns, with no formal repeat.  The last photo is called a box repeat and there are actually four tiles in this photo to see how it looks in a repeated pattern. I think I could play with designs and patterns all day on my computer. 

The Lost Forest

I shared this painting project with you back in April. I wasn't thrilled with how it was turning out and thought for a while about what to do with it.  

Well I radically changed it and you won't even recognize it anymore. I painted over the entire surface with black paint and started all over. With a different design too. I didn't take photos every step of the way, but there are a couple progress photos to show.

The last photo shown is where the painting is currently. I still have some final touches to add here and there, but it's mostly done at this point. I haven't come up with a title for this one yet. I welcome any suggestions you may have.

Thermofax Screen Party & Giveaway

I'm having a party!!! A Thermofax Screen party and it includes a giveaway.  I've been adding several designs to my Etsy shop over the past couple of weeks or so and I'd love for you to stop by and take a peek.

I've been busy making up some samples to share with you today.  While I work mainly with textiles, please note that the Thermofax screens can be used on other surfaces as well, like paper.

I currently have 36 screen designs in the shop and you can view them all at this link.  I plan to add more to this line up over time.  The designs I'm sharing with you today in this blog post do not include all designs in the shop.  In all my screen printed samples shown here I am printing on 100% cotton quilting fabric and I'm using textile paints.

Circle in Square 1, Circle Motif 3, Circle Motif 9
Circle Motif 2, Circle Motif 5, and Circle in Square 2

The Birds

Silly Circles and Circle Motif 7

Scattered Flowers and Stem 5

Funky Floral Stems 1, Pods, Stem 1, and Stem 2

Scattered Circles 1 and Stem 1

Layered Circles and Circle Motif 1

Mini Flowers and Plume

Goofy Guy, Layered Circles, Plume, Spots, and Corrugated

Funky Floral Stem 3 and Circle Motif 6

Corrugated and Spots

If you are a regular reader of my blog you might remember that I was recently gifted a Thermofax machine.  Because of that generous gift I am able to share my designs with you.  In keeping the spirit of generosity going, I am going to give away five Thermofax screens.  If you would like a chance to win one of the five screens, please leave me a comment on this blog post.  The five winning names will get to choose the screen design they like best from all the designs in my shop.

The giveaway is open to everyone and if you would like more than one opportunity to put your name in the hat, please share and link to this post on your own blog or Facebook page.  Then come back here and leave me another comment telling me about your blog or Facebook post and give us a link to see your post.  I will then add your name into the hat for a second chance to win.

I will draw the five winners on Monday, May 27, which happens to be Memorial Day.  Good luck to you!

DVD Giveaway Winner

Thank you so much everyone, for participating in the giveaway for a copy of this DVD. I've drawn the winning name for the DVD.  

The random number generator chose #42 as the DVD winner and that person is Judy Warner. Congratulations to Judy!

But don't despair...I have another gift to give away. When Susan sent me the DVD, she also included one of her Thermofax screen designs. And I'm going to give that to another lucky winner from those who signed up to win the DVD.

Elle!  You are the winner of the Thermofax screen by Susan Purney Mark. Congratulations!

I will give these two winners two weeks to come forth and claim their prizes. If I haven't heard from them by May 25, I'll draw alternative winners. Thanks again everyone and thanks to Susan Purney Mark for allowing me to have this fun giveaway! I highly recommend her video, so if you weren't a lucky winner, and you'd like to learn this process, please check out Susan's site where you can purchase a copy of this DVD and see her other offerings. Have a great Mother's Day weekend.

Playing with Screens and Stencils

I found some time yesterday to add some surface design to two of my soy wax batik fabrics. 

detail

detail

The two fabrics above each have been screen printed with one design and also stenciled with one design. Here are the two Thermofax screens I used:

Circle Motif 4

Flower 2

And here are the two stencils I used:

Slices 9 x 12"

Daisies 6 x 6"

I used Jacquard Textile Colors to add the designs to the fabrics.

I am now selling some Thermofax screen designs in my Etsy Shop. I was able to get some added to the shop over the weekend. I am going to be adding some more screen designs over the next week or so. Once I have the shop well stocked, I am planning on having a Thermofax screen giveaway. I hope you'll stay tuned for that.

All of my stencil designs are available through Stencil Girl Products.

Soy Wax Inspirations

Here's my review of this DVD in a nutshell: GET IT! You'll enjoy the heck out of it if you've always wanted to try this technique or are just discovering it and now want to try it. I had so much fun playing with soy wax. I'll be the first to admit that there were parts of the process that I enjoyed less...like soaking the wax out of the fabric in the end. It is a bit of a slimy mess. But I think that with more experience I'll develop a system that works well for me. Ha! How's that for positive thinking.

Susan Purney Mark did an excellent job in providing information on soy wax and she also walks you through many different ways to use it and options in products, such as dyes and paints.

Here are the results from my soy wax play day.

The first fabric shown is actually the last one I did that day. I was basically trying to use up the dyes I had mixed up. With each photo you will see the tool I used to make the soy wax marks.

This next fabric is my favorite of the bunch. Did you notice the fabric in the photo with the DVD above? That is this same piece of fabric. It started out as a piece of hand dyed fabric and then I used a bleach pen to create circles on it. From there it turned into this piece. The bleached circles are fainter, but still noticeable, now that they've been over dyed.

The next fabric started out as a hand dyed piece as well. I simply snipped some bristles from my paintbrush to create an interesting paint stroke pattern as I painted on the wax.

This fabric started out as white PFD. I love playing with the tjanting tool.

The next one, which is the palest of them all, was the first one I did. I wasn't sure yet how much dye concentrate to add to my soda solution.

Things I learned from the experience:

• I need to gain more experience with mixing dyes to use as paints. It is hard to tell how light or dark the resulting color will be and I need to be more aware of what I'm doing and probably make notes and measure better.
• I need to find a method of washing out the soy wax that works better for me. I think that will come with more experience.

The colors of dye I used in my fabrics (not all necessarily on the same piece) were golden yellow, deep orange, amethyst, light red, and grape.  It will be fun to come up with different and unique ways to create the wax marks on the fabrics. I also think these finished fabrics will be fantastic canvases for more design layers...like screen printing!!!

Are you interested in winning a copy of this DVD??? I have an extra one to give away, courtesy of Susan Purney Mark. If so, please leave a comment on this post. I am accepting entries from anyone, no matter what part of the universe you live in. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win.  Thanks for stopping by and good luck!!! Oh, and I'll announce the winner one week from today...May 11.

Thermofax Play

Yesterday I got a little time to play with some of my new Thermofax screens. In the photo above I used some hand dyed fabrics I had done a long time ago. They are fat quarter size. I used two different screen designs on each fabric with one exception...I used one screen twice.

Below is a better view of the actual screen designs...I know that some of these are difficult to see on the fabrics above.

I am planning on getting more screens played with and more created to play with in the near future. I will probably also start getting them slowly added to my etsy shop too.

I also played with soy wax yesterday and my fabrics are currently soaking and I can't get a photo of them...so hopefully I'll have something to share with you tomorrow.

Getting Ready to Play

First things first!!! Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart, for all your wonderful comments on my last post. Your presence has been an amazing boost to my relief.

I've been in the studio this week with a renewed and energetic creative attitude. I worked on and completely finished a quilt I had in the works. I will be able to share a photo of that with you at a later date.

This week was the start of an online course I'm enrolled in, Module 1 of the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design with Rachael Taylor. This week we are focusing on inspiration. Yesterday's exercise was to choose a simple shape and photograph things that resembled that shape. The photographed items should be a source of design inspiration. Since I stayed at home yesterday and it was very very wind outside, I mostly took some photos in the garden shed and in hubby's shop. The photo below is the top/lid of one of my bird feeders. I like the pattern that is on it. I started a Pinterest board with my inspiration photos and I will plan to add to it and create others as time goes by. You are welcome to see my inspiration photos, visit this link: http://pinterest.com/terristegmiller/patterndesign-inspiration-round/

Over the weekend I received this DVD in the mail. I watched it and can tell you I'm so excited to try some soy wax techniques. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I've had a package of soy wax flakes in my cupboard for a long time. I had the intention of trying it out and never got around to it. I don't remember exactly how long ago I bought the soy wax, but it was more than a year ago and less than five years ago. Ha!

Because the DVD inspired me so much....I went through my cupboards and started pulling out all my dyeing supplies and taking a sort of inventory to see if I had all on hand to get started with some of the techniques from the DVD.  I'm happy to report that I have everything I need. YAY!  So today I'm getting everything ready/prepared.  I'm mixing up dye concentrate, chemical solutions and organizing my tools and workspace.  I hope to dive right in tomorrow and play play play!

HEADS UP:  Susan Purney Mark sent me an extra copy of the Soy Wax Inspirations DVD and I'm going to be giving that away. Very, very soon! Stay tuned. And in the meantime, you can have another chance to win a copy of this DVD over on Lynn Krawczyk's blog. Click here.

Check out all the Thermofax screens I've made! This was all I got made before running out of the screen product. But fear not...more is on the way. I will be starting to play with these as well, over the next few days. I do plan to offer some Thermofax screens for sale and will announce when that happens. Let me know if you have any design ideas that interest you.

And here's a recent photo of my sweet granddaughter, Rylee. She is now starting to crawl and move around quite a bit and I heard she has a couple of teeth that have broke through. She is just going on eight months old.