Some skills can easily be learned on your own or with the help of online resources. But other skills are best learned with in-person instruction or guidance. In my experience, linocut printing―especially printing on fabric, falls into the latter category. That’s why I was thrilled to attend a recent Block Printing and Pattern Design on Fabric workshop.
Gwen Frostic loved nature. She loved all nature―animals, birds, plants, snow, stars―but she seemed to have a special fondness for trees. In her book, These Things are Ours, she wrote “somehow a tree exemplifies a great unconquerable spirit”.
Fabrics, wallpapers, gift products and decorative papers are great sources of surface design inspiration. Examining the patterns, illustrations, and other artwork on these surfaces reveals a profusion of design motifs and patterns.
Once you start noticing them, patterns appear everywhere. Patterns can take many forms from abstract ideas to observable behaviors to rhythm and rhyme. But the focus of today’s discussion is visual patterns―regular repetitions of an element or motif―that can be observed through sight.
Tap, tap, taptap, tap! The flower hammering continues. This week hundreds of clover leaves, hydrangea florets and maple leaves felt the hammer’s blow.
Nothing says summer like a freshly mown country field―cut grass drying in the sun―sweet scent of new hay filling the air. The frenzied activity of haymaking―everyone racing to get the hay done before it rains. The situation instantly brings to mind the old adage to “make hay while the sun shines”.
