Olmsted - Hand-Printing Studio

PUBLISHER: Amy Marson CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Gailen Runge EDITOR: Lynn Koolish TECHNICAL EDITORS: Julie Waldman and Gailen Runge COVER/BOOK DESIGN: Page + Pixel PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: Tim Manibusan PRODUCTION EDITORS: Alice Mace Nakanishi and Jessie Brotman ILLUSTRATOR: Aliza Shalit PHOTOGRAPHY by Sara Code Kroll, unless otherwise noted INSTRUCTIONAL PHOTO STYLING by Betsy Olmsted and Sara Code Kroll Published by Stash Books, an imprint of C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1456, Lafayette, CA 94549 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I could not have accomplished this book without the help and support of others. Many special thanks to My children, Emmett and Wells, for sharing me with the studio and for their artistic contributions and modeling cooperation My husband, Peter, for his love and support Nicole Michels, of Bird & Banner, my unofficial consultant Ed and Nance, my parents, for providing us with a full-service studio space, including lunch delivery and home-grown celery, in their beautiful home Joanna Davis, for making the amazing Rodent Magnet as a birthday gift and for listening to all my creature woes Sara Code Kroll, CODE, my lovely friend and perfectly talented photographer who brought the book to life. We make a great team, and I hope to do it again! Baby Maevanot for cooperating during your photo shoot but for allowing us to bother you! Your company was loved during all the photo shoots, both inside and outside of Mommy. Hitoshi Ujiie, of Philadelphia University, for telling me to make the crap and for your printing expertise Roxane Cerda, for visiting my booth at the Country Living Fair and giving me the encouragement and opportunity to work with C&T Publishing Lynn Koolish and Kristy Zacharias, for their confidence in me and their editorial direction in designing this book Katharine Karnaky, who would be my full-time life manager if she had not moved to California Rogan Motternot necessarily for helping with the book but for helping with mostly everything else so that I could write it Michelle Johnsen, Erin Dorney, and Deb Grothe, for your assistance during photo shoots DEDICATION ~ For Nance, my #1 fan ~ INTRODUCTION Having always wanted to write a book, but having too many ideas as to what it would be, I am so happy to say, Here it is! My favorite part of working on this book was the photography shoots. I remember saying countless times to Sara, my friend and photographer, that I could not believe we managed to capture such neat and clean process images, while being surrounded by so much studio chaos! Do not be intimidated by the photos; you will make a mess while printing.

Some of the things you do not see are all the masking tape stuck to the back of the tablecloth and the piles of unwashed spatulas, spoons, and palettes. I hope that this book brings hand printing into your life and that you will enjoy experimenting, creating, and making a mess. Happy printing! NOTE Important! The designs included in this book are only for your personal use and for donation to nonprofit organizations. They may not be used for personal profit. One of the most common questions I am asked is, How do you come up with your ideas? For me the difficulty is not finding ideas but trying to narrow them! Too many ideas come from simply observing the everyday world. If a squirrel has been digging up my garden, then I paint his portrait.

Weeds take over, so I pluck and sketch them. Listening to the imaginations of my children and absorbing their insatiable curiosity helps make the everyday enriching. I am drawn to an array of colors and textures that change through the seasonsso much of my work is inspired by nature. I also adore gathering objects and specimens, as you will see in these photographs. Allow the ins and outs of your daily life to inspire your designs and tell the story of you. Although this book includes patterns of my work for you to use, I hope you will experiment in coming up with your own! DESIGNING FOR PRINTING While you are drawing your design, it is a good idea to envision how it will look printed.

Will it be one color or two or three? How will it be printed? On what will it be printed? Will it be a repeating pattern? Knowing the answers to these questions from the beginning may help you create the design. Sometimes I come up with the design first and then decide how it should be printed. After I created the rooster for This Little Rooster Went to Market, I knew that he was for kitchen items. The kaftan for Fluttering Kaftan was designed first, and then I decided on the appropriate print for the finished piece. TYPES OF DESIGNS Understanding types of designs will help you figure out where to start and can also help you organize ideas and plan collections. Creating at least one design from each of the traditional genres is a starting method for developing prints that can be mixed and matched.

The photos that follow are of designs that I have created over the years. TIP If you really want to be inspired, the book Textile Designs: Two Hundred Years of European and American Patterns Organized by Motif, Style, Color, Layout, and Period, by Susan Meller and Joost Elffers, is the quintessential textile reference bible and is great for coming up with ideas. GEOMETRIC Characterized by shapes you probably remember from geometry class, these designs do not need to be mathematically correct, symmetrical, or even drawn straight. Hand drawn or crooked can be charming and the simplest type of design to make. CONVERSATIONAL Conversational designs consist of recognizable motifs such as people, animals, seashells, fruits, and objects. Novelties and toiles fall into this category.

A lot of my designs are conversational, since I love to draw and paint animals. ABSTRACT Although abstract designs depict unrecognizable forms, they can be representations of a particular subject. Simple shapes, marks, textures, and washes can be abstract. FLORAL As their name suggests, floral designs are renderings of flowers and plants. They can be simple, complex, or even geometric. TECHNIQUES