I spent an absolutely lovely few days with the Block Party Quilters in Seattle last week.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
The Kindness Chronicles
"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves."
James M. Barrie
If you haven't discovered the TED talks yet - you are in for a treat. Here's one that I enjoyed this month.
A researcher named Michael Norton found that money can by happiness - but only if you don't spend it on yourself.
The 101 Happy People Project
A young man is gifted anonymously with $100 and chooses to spend it on 100 gifts for others.
The 101th person is himself - it makes him happy to find little ways to help others.
My friend Lindy Rex battled cancer for 11 years before passing away last week.
She made jewelry and gave it away to patients whenever she went in for treatments. She'd have sales and donate the money for cancer care and research. She loved to teach anyone who stopped by how to create their own beautiful jewelry. She helped me finish a two foot high stack of samples for my book when I was going crazy under a tight deadline. She made a quilt for a retiring school teacher. She always thought of others - and acted on those thoughts.
She brought light and love into this world and I'm sure she is still doing so in the next world. We will miss her terribly here. I want to carry on her good works. I want to be as unselfish and giving as she was.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Tutorial: How to edit a photo for a thermofax screen
I'd like to show you how to take a photograph and prepare it for a thermofax screen. Printing with these screens is one of my very favorite things to do - you can use them with cloth or paper or really - any flat surface. If you don't have access to a thermofax machine, I have a service where I can create a screen for you from your own images, as well as having a number of ready-made images for you to use.1- Select an image. Choose something with high contrast - it's easiest if it has a plain or simple background. Either use your own photography or find something that is copyright free. Wikimedia Commons has a wonderful repository of images under Creative Commons Licenses that are available for you to use. Download the highest resolution available.
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Harmann zebra, Hobatere Private Reserve, west of Etosha National Park Author - moongatclimber |
2 - Open your image in your favorite digital editing program.
I'm using Adobe's Photoshop Elements (PS10) but the tools I'm using are fairly standard. They might be in a different place - if you have trouble finding them type in the name of the tool in the help window on the toolbar. You can download a trial version of the PS10 and use if free of charge for 30 days.
3- Crop your image.
Use the CROP tool to eliminate extra background. It simply gives you less space to have to fuss with.4- Remember that command or control Z is your best friend - it's the "undo" function and will let you back up as many steps as you need to if you don't like what you've done.
\5- Select your subject. Use the magic wand, or some other selection tool to click and select all the way around the edge of your subject. You might need to click a lot in some areas that don't have a high contrast line - don't worry if extra space is included - you can erase that in a minute.
Sometimes when I double click I lose the selection. I just clicked too fast and the whole thing disappeared. What I do is just hit command Z again and it reappears.
7- Hit Delete and the background will disappear - at least mostly.
8- Control - D deselects everything.
9- Click on the Zoom tool and zoom in so you can see the edges of your work.
You can see that there are areas that need a bit of cleaning up and areas that you might not want to draw attention to. (Sorry guy - you’re going to be gelded.)
10- Choose the eraser tool to clean up your edges.
Use the slider to change the size of the pixel brush so that it comfortably fits within your picture. Keep the opacity at 100%.
Start working your edges but try not to erase large areas all in one sweep. That way if you accidentally erase something you wanted to keep (remember “control Z!”) you won’t have to re-do large areas.Continue to zoom in and out, moving around your image and changing the size of your brush to get into any tight areas.
11- Play with the Threshold filter found under the Filter/Adjustments menu. Sometimes it works the first time but sometimes you need to back out and fix some other things first. This is one of those times.
In this case, Mr. Stripes has lost the stripes on his back - he’s not quite ready for the “Threshold” filter yet. Simply hit “cancel” and we’ll do something else.
12- Play with the lighting. Find "Enhance/Lighting" then either "Brightness/Contrast" or "Shadows/Highlights". In this case - it is the highlights on the Zebra’s back that are being lost so I’m going to play with those for a bit and see if I can get the black and white stripes to look more even.
I’ve darkened the highlights, played with the shadows and messed with the midtone contrast until it looks like all of the stripes are closer to the same. Notice all the highly technical terms I’ve used - it’s really just messing around with things until you get something you think will work. As you gain experience you’ll be able to come quicker to the place where you can make the image work for a thermofax screen.
14- Save your image. In fact - it is helpful to take this step quite often during your explorations. Hit File/Save As - (NOT just the automatic save function!) and rename each picture as you go. For instance, Zebra1.jpg, Zebra1.jpg etc.Another thing to pay attention to when that "save as" screen is up is the "options" button. (I think I might have cut it off in this picture. It's usually on the bottom right. Slide your "Image Quality" button all the way to maximum. This minimizes the compression that happens every time you save a jpg. If you don't do this the file size might be so small by the time I get it that it will be too pixelated to use.
And there you have it. A crisp black and white image - no shades of gray - ready to be turned into a thermofax screen for your printing pleasure.
Send it through your thermofax machine or send it off to your favorite thermofax service provider and get ready to play! You'll be printing in no time at all!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
For Your Inspiration: Hanging Rock, NC
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| Kalmia Latifolia (mountain laurel) by Lyric Kinard |
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| happy feet by Lyric Kinard |
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| Rhododendron by Lyric Kinard |
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| Waterfalls and Peace by Lyric Kinard (and the autostitch app on my iphone) |
It was an absolutely lovely day spent with good friends in a spectacular setting.
Don't forget to stop by these blogs for more Artspark May Day tutorials!
Lisa Engelbrecht's
May 3 - Judy Coates Perez
Lisa Engelbrecht's
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Work In Progress: a really big canvas
A couple of weeks ago I had the extra leaf in my dining room table (it's a huge table - I love it!) and I had my padded print surface covering it - all ready to teach a thermofax screen printing class. Later in the day, before I put everything away I pulled out this gargantuan canvas and started playing with it.
It's been taking up room in my studio for months. I bought it on a whim - thinking it would be fun to just play with something so big. I love the freedom and the instant gratification I feel when I'm painting a canvas. As much as I love textiles - they can be time consuming. The plan for this canvas is to hang it on my bedroom wall - eventually.
I have a little painting I bought from Constance Pappalardo that I adore. Mine painting begins with the same geometry and colors but I think this first iteration is just a base layer. There is more to come. Eventually.
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| Rain by Constance Pappalardo |
Don't forget to check out Artspark's next artist in the blog tour
Traci Bunker's
gelatin plate printing tutorial over at
Monday, April 30, 2012
Artspark's MAY DAY tutorial blog tour
Welcome to Artspark's 2012 May Day tutorial blog tour!
Each of the artists has put together a wonderful little sets of instructions for you to follow.
Spark your creativity!
April 30 - Tracie Lynn Huskamp
Each of the artists has put together a wonderful little sets of instructions for you to follow.
Spark your creativity!
April 30 - Tracie Lynn Huskamp
May 2 - Lisa Engelbrecht
May 5 - Lyric Kinard
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