Sunday, June 21, 2009

Spoonflower

My fiber roots have not completely deserted me! I've been reading about a new fabric service on Kelli Perkin's blog that I just had to try out.

Spoonflower is a digital fabric printing service, where you can upload or design your own fabrics, then have them digitally printed onto either quilting or upholstery weight fabric for very reasonable price. I decided to try uploading an image of the front of my first painted cigar box to print onto a sample swatch.


The upholstery weight swatch was in my mailbox in just a few days. Unfortunately, I did not read thoroughly the discussion on color adjustments, so I was a bit dismayed to find a very yellow version of my pink painting. The photo shows them side by side, so you can see how "off" the color is.

I have since learned about LAB color in Photoshop, including out-of-gamut colors, and resubmitted the image to try again, this time on quilting weight cotton. I ordered a fat quarter with four copies of my image, with borders so I can cut them apart and make something with them.

I'm so excited about the possibilities of playing repeatedly with my images. As a person who has spent hours recently shopping for fabric to cover my bedroom chair and ottoman, where I work on my Books of Attraction and journals, I'm spinning with visions of my own fabric surrounding my artistic pursuits, for about the same price as the mass-produced cloth available in shops.