Tag Archives: designing fabric

Textile Collection Animalistic Innocence

This year’s big chill has had us dreaming of warmer climates, and in anticipation for sun drenched adventures and hot summer nights, our design team has been working hard on a new range of exotic prints for our fabric shop. We are very excited to introduce our new Animalistic Innocence Collection.

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To create this playful range we we’re taking creative cues straight out of the Jungle Book, and wanted to create a visual narrative around the serene beauty of temperate forests, the thrill of being wild and the romance of being far away from home.

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The gorgeous jungle inspired artwork for this range was painted using both inky watercolours and rugged dry brush techniques to create a variety of textures, line and form. It was important to maintain a naivety to the style of the design elements to give a sense of child-like wonder and curiosity.

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Colour was central when designing this collection and a palette of luxurious greens, blues, golds and blush pinks were chosen. All of the motifs were then digitally manipulated and layered to create lush repeat patterns, full of interest and drama.

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The Animalistic Innocence Collection has been designed to help you shake off those winter blues by taking you off the beaten path, so go wild for your next DIY textiles project and let our playful range of prints stir up some creative instincts. We’d love to know what you think these designs would be perfect for so get in touch! Prints are available in our Design Library now.

Snippets: Chats With Creatives – Series 1, Snippet 9

Snippets’. Chats with Creatives. Here at Digital Fabrics we love everything print, pattern and colour and we love to know what makes designers tick. This series is all about asking some fun and different questions and learning about the inspirations and ideas behind the artist and their work. We hope to inspire others by sharing snippets of these creative stories. We gave the artists and designers featured a varied list of questions to choose from so we will learn something new from everyone involved, should be fun!

Today on Snippet’s we are talking to Sara Johnson, the artist behind ‘Travelling Alice’ a printmaker based in Sydney who designs and prints her own fabric before making it into unique accessories.

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The Snippety Snips:

Tell us a bit about yourself and what your creative practice is, how and when you began:

Travelling Alice is a range of hand printed travel accessories, made in my Sydney Studio.

I studied Fine Arts just out of High School as I just wanted to Draw, while there I learnt Printing (wow ) I could turn my drawings into prints.

At nineteen I got the opportunity to volunteer in India for three months, and this is where my love of fabrics and Crafts came from and of course my travelling obsession began, seeing all these amazing artist, crafts people. Traveling Alice Started from a need to make light weight and colourful travel accessories for myself and friends. I am such an organised traveller I like to pack things so they are easy to find but of course they have to look good as well.

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Travelling Alice_digital fabrics_custom fabric_fabric printing 3Which part of the creative process is your favourite and why?

Drawing drawing and drawing. My Mum is a sign writer so I have always been around pencils, pens and brushes my whole life so it feels as natural as eating. By the way I have the worst hand writing, so I did not get this talent.

How would you describe your work, and what influences your style? 

I design fabric that I can sew into accessories. Travel definitely influences my style and my life. I became obsessed with it when I first travelled to India when I was 19. This was also where my love of Fabrics and pattern came from, you get exposed to colour and patterns, it’s a feast for the eyes.

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Travelling Alice_digital fabrics_custom fabric_fabric printing 4If you could have your portrait painted by any artist dead or alive, who would you choose?

Louise Bourgeois, that would be amazing and fun, she was known for her Sculptures but I love her printmaking. Louise Bourgeois was also known for her dry humour so we could have a laugh at the same time.

Love your Locals:

City/Town/Village where you currently reside:

Sydney South

Favourite spot for a bite:

I am a Coffee lover so food is a second thought so my favourite place to get coffee is White Horse Coffee in Sutherland

Secret Inspirational spot:

To be honest I find inspiration anywhere and anytime of the day or night. I have numerous note books so I can quickly write the inspiration down.

Travelling Alice_digital fabrics_custom fabric_fabric printing 2You can follow what Sara is upto: Website, Instagram, Facebook

Textile Collection Artful Simplicity

We’re very excited here at Digital Fabrics to be dropping another range of yummy prints! This time we’re inspired by bold earthy colours and organic forms, bringing to you a collection of hand painted, textural abstract designs.

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Our Sunset Gum design is a small scale abstract print with bold contrasting colours. Who doesn’t love a splash of red?

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Our Blush Pebble design is a medium scale graphic print. We just can’t get enough of pink!

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Our Ochre Scatter design is a small scale print with a fabulous burnt vermilion colourway, able to liven up any space or outfit!

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Our Clay design is a medium scale print with bold geometric shapes and a deep warm colour palette.

The Artful Simplicity collection is available for purchase in our Design Library. We can’t wait to see what you do with them!

Snippets: Chats With Creatives – Series 1, Snippet 1

Snippets’. Chats with Creatives. Here at Digital Fabrics we love everything print, pattern and colour and we love to know what makes designers tick. This series is all about asking some fun and different questions and learning about the inspirations and ideas behind the artist and their work. We hope to inspire others by sharing snippets of these creative stories. We gave the artists and designers featured a varied list of questions to choose from so we will learn something new from everyone involved, should be fun!

Today on Snippet’s we are talking to Shyanne Clark, the swimwear and textile designer behind ‘Printsea’ a print design brand who love to spread sparkle and magic and inspire others to do the same.

textile designer Shyanne Clark

The Snippety Snips:

Tell us a bit about yourself and what your creative practice is, how and when you began:

I’ve been a textile fabric designer for the past 5 years. My style is very mermaidy and I love tropical florals, so my business PRINTSEA has naturally progressed to helping bikini designers find their signature style and launch beautiful labels.

I am such a cheerleader for people doing what they truly love, the things that make them all sparkly inside. I was always that kid that didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn’t fit in one of the boxes. I think it’s because I didn’t know this job existed or how all my talents could come together to be something. I adore what I do so much and its always growing and changing me. I feel so grateful that I listened to my heart and followed its windy path, you learn so much along the way and I would love that for everyone. I get giddy just thinking about it.

At the moment I’m creating a signature range of beautiful hand designed, high vibrational pieces. There is such magic in colour and creativity. My hope is that each piece will add a little extra sparkle to your day and that owning a piece will feel like a precious treasure that brings you many heart swelling, quiet smiles and inspires your soul.

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What would your dream creative project look like?

I’ve actually got a bit of a fascination with creating a print that would cover a whole aeroplane. Could you imagine a giant bunch of gorgeous flowers flying through the sky. Instant happiness I reckon. I wonder if Richard Branson would let me print wrap a Virgin plane for fun?

fabric design Shyanne Clarke PRINTSEA

In another life what natural talent would you wish for?

I’m pretty much tone deaf, sometimes I’ll sing + scare myself with how out of tune I am. I have always admired people that can make your heart swell with emotion from their singing voice. I’ve secretly wished that I could do this, but in saying that, I wouldn’t want to trade my talent of drawing flowers. Can I have two natural talents?

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Which part of the creative process is your favourite and why?

I absolutely love the moment when the inspiration strikes + your imagination goes all bright + sparkly. You can’t wait to birth this creation that’s swirling around inside. It’s just such a rush of ecstatic excitement. I love that part. The finished piece is pretty amazing too, but the journey is the best.

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Which other Australian designers, artists or creative people are you enjoying at the moment?

I adore Annie Everingham. Her paintings evoke so much feeling. They are so happy and beautiful. I could stare at their gorgeousness for hours.

Love your Locals:                                      

 City/Town/Village where you currently reside:

I live on the beautiful Sunshine Coast, some people say, it’s like what Byron Bay was 20 years ago.

Favourite spot for a bite:

There is a gorgeous cafe at Rosemount called ‘GURU Life.’ The brother sister team roast their own beans + it truly is enlightenment in every cup, they have delicious raw treats and the staff are super friendly.

Secret Inspirational spot:

Well if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret! … I actually adore the Noosa National Park, it’s a stunning feast for your eyes and soul (and a good workout if you walk all 8kms.) On a great day you’ll see turtles, whales + koalas.

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Feeling inspired by Printsea to start a swimwear brand? You can buy her E book here.  AND she is currently running a promo where you can purchase 1 print and get one for free with the code: PRINTME until August 17th, then you can print it onto lycra here at Digital Fabrics and start YOUR creative journey.

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You can follow what Printsea is upto:  Website, Instagram, Facebook.

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Designing Fabric: How To Make A Repeat Pattern – Half Drop Repeat in Illustrator

Using Illustrator for repeats can sometimes be quicker and less labour intensive than using Photoshop, but it all comes down to the type of file you start with or the style of artwork you’re after. Stick to illustrator for vector files and images with a very “graphic” orientation, bearing in mind how the artwork was originally generated. Avoid using a jpg, tiff, psd or Photoshop eps you will lose the inherent quality of the original artwork.

Half Drop Repeat in Illustrator

To practise your fabric design skills you can use an existing illustrator artwork. Open up an existing illustrator artwork or create a new vector graphic to your specifications. Set up your art board to the repeat size that you’d prefer. Here I’m using a 64 cm repeat. Starting off with squares can be easier to work out half measurements at a late step.

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When you are happy with your artwork, move it to the top left corner of your art board so it hangs off the edge. Double click on the move tool to duplicate (click copy) the object the exact repeat size vertically.

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Now with all objects selected, use the move tool again. This time you will duplicate the objects across the full repeat width but down by HALF the repeat size, in this case 64 x 32 cm. Click copy.

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At this stage you can adjust the scale of the original object or add in additional motifs. This is not always necessary and depends on your individual artwork but it has the potential to add variety and interest
in the overall design.

N.B. Don’t forget that what happens on the top ‘line’ of your artboard must happen on the bottom i.e. repeat

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When you are happy with the layout for your half drop, delete any duplicated objects (across the right side and bottom of art board) so that you only have one group of objects.

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Adjust the artboard dimension to to be a full print width, in this case 147cm and proceed to duplicate the objects so that it fills and over hangs the artboard. Remember that it is a half drop, so follow the previous steps for duplication.

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A colour overlay was added purely for aesthetic purposes. Save as pdf as previous tutorial.

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Designing Fabric: How To Make A Repeat Pattern – Mirror Repeat Tutorial in Photoshop

Mirror repeat technic is one of the easiest way to make a repeat pattern with any digital image, photographs, graphic artwork or painting. Mirror repeat creates an interesting effect, simple and quick, doesn’t require great Photoshop skills. To design your own fabric you can either use our Photoshop tutorial or Fabric Uploader with an instant Mirror repeat option.

Mirror Repeat Tutorial in Photoshop

Open your artwork in Photoshop, make any adjustments to the dimensions (width/height) at this stage.

Double click (press OK) the background layer in your layers panel so it is no longer locked.

First tutorial screenshot

Increase your artboard size, go to Menu > Image > Canvas Size > double the width of the canvas size making sure to click the left arrow so the increase only happens to one side.

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Now duplicate the original layer by clicking and dragging it to the second from the right icon at the base of the layers panel.

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With the duplicated layer selected go to Menu>Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontally>OK. Drag the flipped layer across (holding down SHIFT key) so the layer slots into place in line with the original layer. Make sure to zoom into mirroed join beetwin the images to double check that no pixels are out. Merge layers by sellecting them both, right click and choose Merger Layers option.

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Repeat this step again, but mirroring the length/height of the image. When you transform the duplicated layer, make sure to flip VERTICALLY before dragging into place.

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Flatten the layers, right click on one of the layers, select Flatten Image option. This is now your mirrored repeat tile that repeats
seamlessly on all four sides! Now you can use your design for digital custom fabric printing.

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final tutorial screenshot

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