Synergy: Traditional Fiber Art and Digital Design

This piece was created on a recycled sheet. The sheet is an excellent quality, high thread count pima cotton with a beautiful sheen.

The pattern was created by simple folding and low water immersion dyeing. This process was repeated four or five times. Each time the material was folded in a different direction or a specific area was dipped in the dye bath.

The piece measures 24 X 96 inches, it is long and narrow.

After washing, rinsing and ironing, I took 30 shots of the fabric. I adjusted the camera for a variety of sizes, and moved the tripod closer and further from the work for detail or long range shots.

After the images were uploaded into PhotoShop I evened them out and then cropped the areas that were most interesting or had photographed the best. Then saved them to a folder.

I opened a new document in PhotoShop and sized it for the maximum image size of each product I intended to place the final image on. The document was set up as a PNG with a transparent background.

Opening my image file folder I selected one image and placed it on the background. To create larger images, I copied the original image, rotated it until I was pleased with the direction, created a new layer and then pasted the second image. Using the move tool I combined both images together.

Another image, sometimes two, was selected and added as a border or both border and center piece.

I don't smooth out the edges where one image meets another. I like the collage effect and in some cases the work reminds of quilting.

The completed work is uploaded to my online store sites and digitally printed on a variety of products.

Today I began uploading images to Spoonflower, so expect to see some yardage soon.