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Fiber and Pixels

Fiber and Pixels

Category Archives: pattern design

Inspired by Teasels

30 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by Alice Frenz in be inspired, pattern design, sketchbook

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Tags

ink, inspiration, nature, sketchbook, teasels

While taking a walk at Thanksgiving, interesting spiral shapes caught my eye in the dried teasels along the edge of a meadow.

After the walk I drew this page of motif ideas in my sketchbook inspired by them. There are also shapes inspired by small puffy white wildflower seed heads that reminded me of dried cotton boles or large baby’s breath. I wished I had also taken a photo of them.

From Sketchbook to Scarf

15 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by Alice Frenz in digital fabric printing, pattern design, pixels, scarf design, sketchbook

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

blue, charmeuse, digital fabric printing, georgette, ink, scarf design, sewing, silk, watercolor

alice-frenz-emma-ink-watercolor-mandala-floral-blue-sketchbook-page 727x900-60b

my ink and watercolor sketchbook page

After purchasing a new 11″ x 14″ hard cover sketchbook for a workshop with Susan Shie May 2017, I decided to try drawing some mandala designs. I was also trying out a new pen from the workshop supply list, Uni-ball Signo 207 Bold. It’s a retractable gel pen which dries to a waterproof ink line. The line of the Bold size pen is wider and the ink takes longer to dry than the pens I usually use, but held up nicely to painting with watercolor after drying.

Emma scarf design by Alice Frenz from watercolor ink sketchbook page horizontal 700x339-70c

one end of my rectangle scarf design

I worked with a scan of my page in Photoshop, selecting and copying motifs to create a long 11″ x 58″ rectangle scarf design. I flipped the main mandala motif vertically and combined 4 together in a row alternating the flipped versions. I then selected and copied smaller motifs to fill in the areas between.

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digital printing with fiber reactive dyes on silk

On the digital fabric printer at work, I test printed a sample on silk charmeuse. The colors appear dull right off the printer before steaming. After the dye is laid down by the wide format ink jet printer, the fabric is rolled in steamer paper and steamed under pressure. That’s when the fiber reactive dyes bond to the silk and the color  becomes more vivid.

Emma scarf test sample compared to sketchbook alice frenz 0208 900x600-70c

I made a few adjustments to my file based on the test print, then printed the full size scarf on silk crepe georgette. Since the georgette fabric was more than twice as wide as my design, I printed it together with another of my scarf designs lengthwise on the fabric.

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my silk georgette scarf designs after steaming

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I finished the scarf with a hand rolled hem.

alice frenz silk scarf design from sketchbook 0230 600x1018-70
emma-silk-scarf-alice-frenz-watercolor-ink-0270 900x600-70c

©2018 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

See the other scarf design I printed at the same time in this post.

Lady Beetles scarf on crepe de chine 200x300

Lady Beetles Scarf

Jazz Blossoms Art Deco Pattern

09 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by Alice Frenz in graphic design, pattern design, pixels

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Tags

Adobe Illustrator, Ai, art deco, design, graphic, pattern, pattern motif, Photoshop, spoonflower, tulips

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Using Adobe Illustrator, I created the motifs for this design. Then I assembled them into an initial pattern layout.

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I exported the initial layout as a .png file and opened it in Photoshop. I applied the offset filter to wrap around 1/2 the vertical and 1/2 the horizontal distances. This moved the empty black areas to the center for editing.

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I chose this method because the center of my design had the spacing just as I liked it but needed the outer edges revised. After applying the offset filter, my outer edges will now align perfectly with each other when I tile out the pattern in repeat.

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Next I selected each quadrant, cut and Edit > Paste Special > Paste in Place, to get each on its own layer. I used layer masks to hide the excess black areas of the top 2 quadrants. Then I selected the top 2 quadrants and moved them together straight down to meet up and align with the bottom 2.

jazz-blossoms-pattern-photoshop-tile-in-progress Alice-frenz-786x664-85

Then I cropped the tile to the new top edge.

I used a layer mask to hide the excess black area of the lower right quadrant. Then selected both right side quadrants and moved them to the left to overlap and align, closing up the extra black space.

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I cropped to the new right edge. Now I had a repeatable tile with the excess black removed.

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To test the revised design, I entered the pattern tile in Photoshop’s pattern library. Edit > Define Pattern and selected this new pattern tile. Then in a new larger document Edit > Fill > Contents: Pattern and Custom Pattern: select the new pattern. An alternate to test filling in a new document is to add a pattern fill layer to the same document and scale the pattern down.

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Looking at the test repeat of the tile, I could see that the repeat was working, but there were a number of changes I wanted to make.

If you compare this test to the final design below, you’ll see that I removed one each of the duplicate vertical rows of medium size motifs, changed the centers of the largest diamond motifs, and rotated the tile 90 degrees for a more horizontal emphasis.

jazz-blossoms-art-deco-alice-frenz-fabric-design-spoonflower-875x700-70

©2018 Alice Frenz all rights reserved.

My Jazz Blossoms Art Deco design is available for sale on Spoonflower and Roostery

roostery pillow 300x334-100

 

Lady Beetles Scarf

12 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by Alice Frenz in digital fabric printing, pattern design, pixels, scarf design

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

design, digital fabric printing, georgette, ink, ladybugs, scarf, sewing, silk, sunflowers, watercolor

lady-beetles-silk-georgette-scarf-by-alice-frenz-720x900-70

my scarf design on silk crepe georgette

I created this scarf design from my ink and watercolor sketchbook page. I used Photoshop to duplicate motifs and arrange them for a 22″ x 70″ scarf.

 

alice frenz lady beetles scarf design 900x720-70

detail view of my design artwork ready to print

I first printed the design on silk charmeuse to test the colors. The scan of my sketch book pages turned out to be Epson RGB instead of sRGB. I learned that “convert color profile” is the right way to change the colors to sRGB for our fabric printer. The colors didn’t come out as I expected when I used “assign color profile”.

alice frenz lady beetles scarf being printed on silk 900x720-70

lady beetles silk scarf alice frenz 600x720-70

before entering the steamer, the fabric is removed from the paper backing

I printed the final scarf on silk crepe georgette. The georgette allows more dye to pass through the fabric and shows the design on the back side more than the other silks we print. And some dye penetrates all the way through to the paper backing.

 

lady-beetles-silk-scarf-ink-watercolor-alice-frenz-detail-view 900x720-70b

©2018 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

 

Read more about my ink and watercolor sketchbook art I used for this scarf in this post.

alice-frenz-testing-prang-vs-loew-cornell-watercolor-sketchbook-pattern-design-257x201

Illustrated Pride Flag

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by Alice Frenz in paper, pattern design, pattern play, sketchbook

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

creative, decorative, flag, flowers, hand lettering, healing, ideas, illustration, ink, LGBTQ, life, nature, peace, pride, rainbow, spirit, sunlight

I spent Monday wrapped in thought and prayers for all touched by the Pulse Nightclub shooting last year. Remembering so many times members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters have touched my life, inspired creativity and shared pride in personal expression, I took to my sketchbook, trying to express emotion and meaning for each of the stripes in the Rainbow Pride Flag.

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Uniball Signo 207 Bold ink pen on 11″ x 17″ Borden & Riley sketchbook

Below is a colored pencil study on a smaller size copy to show my concept for the colors. I hope to eventually create a larger version and add watercolor.

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Color study in Prismacolor pencil on an 8.5″ x 11″ print.

Being out-of-town and away from my scanner, I used my favorite scanner app, Scanner Pro by Readdle Inc. to capture an image of my inked page so I could print a copy for making a color study.

I make it a regular habit to capture every sketchbook page with Scanner Pro as I finish working on it, no matter where I am. This way I always have a library of sketched ideas with me on my iPhone as a resource I can refer to in further development of my ideas.

Emma Scarf Design

06 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by Alice Frenz in pattern design, scarf design

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Tags

ink, mandala, motif, Photoshop, scarf, scarf design, watercolor

alice frenz Emma sketchbook 6-06-17 015-d-scarf-h 3 units vertical for blog 550x2052-60

©2017 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

Read more about how I created this scarf design from my sketchbook page in this post.

Emma scarf sketchbook alice frenz 300x200-90

emma-silk-scarf-alice-frenz-299x200-90.jpg

Appalachian Spirit Animals

17 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by Alice Frenz in pattern design, pixels

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Tags

appalachian, design, illustration, mouse, owl, pattern, raccoon

appalachian spirit animals alice frenz pattern design 900x710-75

Custom brushes in Photoshop were used to create this repeat design. I drew the animal and tree shapes with Pit india ink on Strathmore drawing paper. To keep the informal, hand drawn look, I made very few edits to them before creating their Photoshop brushes.

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mountain-spirit-animal-mouse-alice-frenz-photoshop-repeat-pattern-design-450x360
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appalachian-spirit-animals-luna-moth-alice-frenz-pattern-design-450x509
appalachian-spirit-animals-raccoon-alice-frenz-pattern-design-520x608

 

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©2017 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

Psychedelic Succulents Design

16 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by Alice Frenz in pattern design, pixels

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Adobe Illustrator, colorful, design, motifs, Op Art, Peter Max, psychedelic, succulents, textile design

psychedelic-succulants--floral-pattern-print-design-alice-frenz-2016-06-16-t4-600x877-80

For this textile pattern design, I was working towards a design inspired by Peter Max posters from the 1960s and 70s and also the current popularity of succulent plants. I decided that for at least this version, I wanted to go with the energy of bright colors and the rainbow/color spectrum feel of Peter Max’s work.  And I just kept thinking about Orlando and the rainbow colors of the Pride flag.

I think the plant and flower shapes that aren’t succulents, as well as the color, makes the succulent concept not come across and it simply feels floral. Perhaps I’ll try a more predominantly soft green palette for one of the colorways.

©2016 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

 

Here are 2 great exhibitions of Psychedelic Art to see this summer:

peter max exhibition poster tampa museum of art

 

 

You can see the work of Peter Max
at the Tampa Museum of Art
through Sept 11, 2016

 

 

Jerry Garcia exhibition at Psylodelic Gallery Fur Peace Ranch

 

 

You can see the artwork of Jerry Garcia
at the Psylodelic Gallery
in southeast Ohio
through July 31st.

 

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Psychedelic Succulent Motifs

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by Alice Frenz in pattern design, pixels

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Tags

active wear, floral, mood board, motifs, pattern, psychedelic, succulents, textile design, trend

Op-and-Pop-Succulents-leaf-and-flower-motifs-and-mood-board-alice-frenz-750x485This mood and motif board is for my Op and Pop trend observation and corresponding leaf and flower motifs. I photographed succulents in my garden and drew the leaf and flower motifs in India ink pen in my sketchbook. I then selected my favorites, scanned them, cropped and retouched in Photoshop, then assembled my board layout in Photoshop.

Op-and-Pop-Succulents-leaf-and-flower-motifs-and-mood-board-alice-frenz-detail-1-600x795-80

My idea is to combine the current popularity of succulents with a poster style reminiscent of Peter Max, in bright psychedelic colors. I also would like to incorporate some Op Art curving stripes into my final pattern inspired by the work of Op artists such as Bridget Riley.

Op-and-Pop-Succulents-leaf-and-flower-motifs-and-mood-board-alice-frenz-detail-2-600x758-80

To me, the current popularity of succulents, Mason jars, and hand letter reminds me of the 60’s and ’70s popularity of mushrooms and snails motifs, organic typography, and the psychedelic neon color posters everyone hung on their walls. I think it’s something about their curvy shapes and casual beauty. Though I don’t recall snails and mushrooms being a decorating theme at any weddings I attended back then…

I had so much fun putting this board together! I hope you enjoy it.

©2016 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

psychedelic-succulants-alice-frenz-thumbnail

 

See my colorful Psychedelic Succulent design
created using these motifs here.

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Motifs for Boho Borders

06 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by Alice Frenz in pattern design, pixels

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Tags

active wear, Adobe Illustrator, Boho, floral, mood board, motifs, women's

Boho-Borders-flower-arrows-2-alice-frenz-fiberandpixels-900x582-90I’m working on motifs for women’s active wear for a trend I found in the Vogue runway fashions for Fall 2016. I’m calling the trend Boho borders. I found designs that interested me in their pieced together look of multiple ornamental borders.

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I’m trying to build the sense of zigzag stripes and diamond shapes composed of the small flower buds and leaf shapes I created. I will probably combine these motifs with curved or angled abstract stripes, and linear textures to increase the feeling of empowerment and energy for the active wear market.

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I first drew the flower bud and leaf shapes in pen and ink. Then I manipulated scans of my drawings with Kaleidomatic by Stuffmatic to generate ideas for different arrangements and combinations of the smaller shapes.

Then I redrew the motifs I liked best in Adobe Illustrator as vector shapes. This allowed me to compose most of the motifs by reflecting and rotating copies of the vector shapes. I also composed the mood board in Adobe Illustrator.

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I have some very different flower and leaf motifs for the other trends I found and hope to get them organized to post tomorrow.  It was such a great treat to take time out to spend with the flowers and leaves in my gardens working on my sketchbook.

©2016 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

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www.alicefrenz.com go to my website

Recent Posts

  • Inspired by Teasels
  • Remnants of Color
  • From Sketchbook to Scarf
  • Jazz Blossoms Art Deco Pattern
  • Lady Beetles Scarf

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