Holiday Printing Ideas at TAC: Shiva’s Exploring Textures …
As an aspiring surface/graphic designer, when I talk to people about screen printing, they often think of the high contrast graphics we see on tee shirts, posters and street art. Although I definitely love that style of print, what I think is especially unique and exciting about surface design is the possibilities for elegant and even subtle explorations. I bet there are many designs you see around that you wouldn’t guess was printed with a screen. Like this gold leaf design silk screened onto tulle from Shiva King, the designer and owner of Gunny + Galloon.
At first glance it might seem hard to achieve, but it’s all a matter of learning a few simple techniques toapplying gold foil (provided in the class – amazing right?!) and or an adhesive onto the same mesh screen screen you squeegee ink through and you can get this beautiful delicate, and very holiday ready effect. This is one of the things taught in Shiva’s Surface Design:ExploringTextures. If students are interested, Shiva even offered to pre-burn some ready made screens with interesting geometric shapes and patterns so students can jump right in the first day of class and start experimenting. (Email cathy@textileartscenter.com if you’d like to have a screen pre-burned).
Read more at Textile Arts Center
The Narrative Power of Textiles
“Every textile has a story, whether it’s of the plant and soil it grew out of, the chemistry lab where it was engineered through molecular magic, or some combination of both! A fabric, especially if it’s composed of natural fibers, can retain traces of all the dyes that’s passed through it as much as every ring of a tree measures the passage of time. And if we look closely we can sometimes unravel a story of the human hands that once upon a time wove a tale waiting to be retold. That’s what I love about textiles, its ability to tell a story through its origins and techniques as well as create new ones.”
- - more at Textile Arts Center
Rachel Rose and Silk Painting
“One of my favorite Brooklyn designers is without a doubt Rachel Rose. Her hand-painted silk pieces are gorgeous, ‘a water-color painting you can wear.’ They’re at once both delicate and ethereal and dark and moody, all achieved through hand dyeing on silk.
The effects of painting on silk can be quite graphic and blocky or very organic and flow-y depending on the method of delivery.”
- - more at Textile Arts Center
Etsy Small Business Sustainability Summit
“Our friends at Etsy hosted a Small Business and Sustainability Summit this past weekend at Etsy Labs in DUMBO as part of their Berlin event. There were panels on Finance 101, ‘The Challenges of Sustainable Design in a Local Ecosystem with DesignNYC,’ and ‘The Case for Working with Your Hands,’ right up my alley.
Julie and the Etsy folks were nice enough to let me present a few words on Textile Arts Center’s own Business Workshops being offered Monday nights at the Manhattan location.”
- - more at Textile Arts Center
In honor of Easter next weekend take a bunny hop down to Brooklyn’s own version of Alice in Wonderland at the Voorhees Theatre this weekend for multimedia artist and pianist Phyllis Chen’s Looking Glass ReWondered . Chen asks the age – old question: what would we hear if we ate some magic mushrooms and fell down the rabbit hole?
“It might sound something like this: the tinkling of a toy piano and music box, the ticking of a pocket watch, the shuffling of a deck of cards, the banging of a frying pan, and the clattering of a china tea set… Phyllis manipulates all these sounds through the use of microphones, amplification, a magnifying glass and a live video feed to re – create that elusive experience of being a kid when we’d drink from anything that said ‘DRINK ME’ and eat any cake put in front of us, just like Alice.”
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Down The Rabbit Hole: A Glimpse of Wonderland in Phyllis Chen’s Looking Glass ReWondered, more at The Vinyl District
Phyllis Chen’s Toy Piano Wonderland Interview
“In the video of your performance ‘Double Helix’ it looks like you’re playing as two people in perfect orchestration. Amazing! How do you maintain such rhythmic coordination?
PC: Thanks! Though the toy piano part is virtuosic, I am used to playing the keyboard with my eyes closed. For this piece, my focus is really on playing the bowls while my right hand is coasting on my familiarity with the topography of the toy piano. The bowls do need to be placed in a certain way. I usually compose next to a toy piano so the physical experience of improvising and playing seems to dictate a certain level of the composition. With “Double Helix,” I had an idea in mind and knew what instruments/bowls I wanted to use. One day I had a watershed moment and wrote out the entire thing in a notebook. I told myself that I would play what I wrote, even though it was written away from a keyboard.”
- - more at Tom Tom Magazine
The Lady and the Drum Machine
A Phenomenology of Female Musicianship Part II
Tom Tom Magazine print Issue #6
Simultaneously Soft and Strong
A Phenomenology of Female Musicianship, Part I
Tom Tom Magazine print Issue #5
