PhotoEZ Screenprints

Wow . . . I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted. Where does the time go?

Here's some of the printed fabric I made using the PhotoEZ screens I made from bubble wrap. As predicted, both samples printed great. The red sample looks pretty similar to how real bubble wrap would print. This sample shows the Photoshop manipulated outline of bubble wrap. I really like the way this one turned out, it will add a wonderful layer of texture and it's very unique.The graphics for this last screen was made in Illustrator by manipulating the letter"o". I'm involved in an alphabet challenge, and this is one of my experiments. I'm not sure if I'll use it, but I enjoyed playing with letters.

As many of you know, there have been a lot of wildfires around my house in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, we're having another one, the Jesusita fire! This fire quickly spread through the hills of three neighboring cities, Goleta (where I live), Santa Barbara, and Montecito. Over 30,000 people were evacuated and another 15,000 were in the evacuation warning area. The winds blew embers up to 1/2 mile away and would start another fire. Needless to say, it was horrific. Nobody was safe. I've never been so grateful to see the fog roll in.

The last report I heard said it was 65% contained, and as long as the Santa Ana winds don't blow tonight, we should be fine. I think 80 houses were completely destroyed and 20 or so damaged. I was packed, but didn't get evacuated. Many of my friends were evacuated, but all of them are safe and none of their houses were burned.

Firefighters from all over the surrounding states came to put this fire out. I am in total awe of these brave individuals, they are true heroes.

I guess I'll get my sewing machine out of the car, I need to finish some postcards for an Anything but Cotton trade for the Surface Design Yahoo Group.

Love My Bubble Wrap

I've used bubble wrap many times to print on fabric or paper. It is one of the easiest background textures that I've found. In order to get the best texture, you should pop the large bubbles; it doesn't seem to make a difference with the small bubbles.

While trying to figure out a new way to use bubble wrap, I had one of those "What If" moments. I decided to put the bubble wrap directly on the scanner to see what would happen. The scan has some interesting textures, but the ink coverage would be really thick. I proceeded to play in Photoshop until I came up with the next example.Hmmm . . . I like! I think this one will make a nice print, but . . . I decided to take it even further.

Wow, very cool. I decided to make a PhotoEZ screen of the last two examples. I haven't had a chance to print with them yet, but I think (hope) they are going to look great. In the past, I made a couple of screens that just didn't look good when printed, they ended up looking mushy. At this point, I've accumulated a pretty extensive set of PhotoEZ and Thermofax screens; you would think I could tell ahead of time, but I still can't be sure what the final results will like.

Which one do you think will look best when printed?