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    My Life in Fabric with Valori Wells: 14 Modern Projects • Get Creative with Fabric—Silk Screen, Block Print, Paint, Embroider
    My Life in Fabric with Valori Wells: 14 Modern Projects • Get Creative with Fabric—Silk Screen, Block Print, Paint, Embroider
    My Life in Fabric with Valori Wells: 14 Modern Projects • Get Creative with Fabric—Silk Screen, Block Print, Paint, Embroider
    Ebook209 pages1 hour

    My Life in Fabric with Valori Wells: 14 Modern Projects • Get Creative with Fabric—Silk Screen, Block Print, Paint, Embroider

    By Valori Wells

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    About this ebook

    Take a journey with Valori Wells, traveling through her life with fabric. With her illuminating expertise, she'll teach you inventive ways to combine fabrics with techniques such as silk screening, block printing, painting, and embroidery. Her fresh concepts and ideas are demonstrated through 14 modern projects for quilts, pillows, table runners, dresses, and more. Without a doubt, this book will redefine how you think about fabric and will inspire a journey of your own.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherC&T Publishing, Inc.
    Release dateOct 1, 2014
    ISBN9781607059066
    My Life in Fabric with Valori Wells: 14 Modern Projects • Get Creative with Fabric—Silk Screen, Block Print, Paint, Embroider

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    Book preview

    My Life in Fabric with Valori Wells - Valori Wells

    Keenan

    Growing Up Creative

    Growing up in a quilt shop since I was a year and a half old definitely contributes to My Life in Fabric. Being surrounded by textiles and the love that I felt from my mother as I would play in her sewing room subtly led me to my career as a textile designer.

    My life is fabric.

    I design it—I love the movement, the colors, and textures.

    I surround my family, my friends, and my life in fabric.

    I don’t know how else to be but creative; this has always been who I am. Creativity feeds my soul. I am fortunate to have been nurtured in the creative spirit, which has given me the confidence to pursue a career as an artist. As a college student, I was exposed to a variety of printmaking techniques; I found a love of working with ink and paper in that world of printmaking. It was years later, after I became a fabric designer, that I even thought of bringing the two worlds together.

    My love of photography is the root of all my creative endeavors. My family has learned that I will always have a camera or my iPhone ready to capture something that inspires me or to save a moment in time. As I studied photography in college, I realized that my images could translate to fabric, and this led to my career as a fabric designer. My first collection of fabric was released in 1998, and it was based on my nature photography. Since this first collection I have made a conscious effort to push myself to be a better designer—learning as much as I can about fabric design and myself to create beautiful fabrics that come from my heart.

    I am a very visual person and find that not only do I learn better with pictures, but I explain myself better with pictures—this is why this book is filled with images.

    We all need to push our creativity. Failures and mishaps can lead to a better conclusion, a better quilt, and better fabric designs. I had several possible failures when working on projects in this book, but I took them as learning opportunities and I am a better artist because of them. I have always had a thing for big designs, and I have to control myself when I create to meet not just my needs as a designer but also to meet the needs of the people who will purchase my fabric. At the same time, it is important to design from a personal perspective—it gives the designs more life. I believe this to be true in all my creative endeavors, and it has taken me years to see the beauty in that.

    Creating from the heart will give you the most satisfaction.

    On the journey of creativity you will find the need to capture ideas. Not all ideas for these projects came at once—some of them developed over time, with many ideas mingling into the final piece. This is how I create fabric designs, quilts, and crafts. To capture your ideas, carry a camera, a sketchbook, and an open mind to all that surrounds you.

    Sketchbooks can be a collection box of ideas and words, from a simple design on a coffee table to a magazine photo that you just love.

    Rip, tear, glue, print, draw, sketch, write. This is your sketchbook. Have no fear. Just capture what you see and feel.

    In this spirit of creativity, you will see not only inspirational photographs but also how the ideas have been developed into a wide variety of techniques and projects for you to explore. I am a very visual person and find that not only do I learn better with pictures, but I explain myself better with pictures—this is why this book is filled with images.

    My mom is always giving me inspirational cards, and one of them I keep pinned onto my studio wall. It says, Take a moment, make a wish, and fly. I think about this every time I get ready to start a new project, try a new technique, and take a step out of my comfort zone. My hope is to inspire you to make a wish and fly—to create from your heart.

    Living and Working with Fabric Crafts

    Creating a Workspace (Small or Large)

    Depending on your living situation, you may have a desktop, kitchen table, or an entire room, but make sure you have a dedicated space for your creative endeavors.

    It should have a sense of you—who you are, what you love, where your dreams are.

    It is a place to contemplate, to discover and push your creativity. With all of the great storage options these days, you can even create a space that is transportable if need be. Have fun making a space just for you. Your space may end up being in an old funky suitcase, but it is all yours.

    Tools and Materials

    This book contains techniques that are interchangeable. For example, a silk-screen design for a project can be translated into a design for block printing or it can be embroidered or painted instead. The possibilities are numerous, so don’t be afraid to mix it up.

    Fabric is the foundation of all the projects. I like to use a variety of types of fabric, such as cotton, cotton voile, cotton sateen, cotton/linen blend, and rayon. Each fabric has a different texture and can add interest to a design. The end use of the project will determine which fabric to use.

    My exploration into mixed media has given me the opportunity to work with silk screening, block printing, embroidery, and decorative painting. I will

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