I am creatively bamboozled by the Printed Village challenge at the same time as Carol Soderlund and I are hosting a Playful Fabric Print-Along. The two goals have collided. Really, I couldn’t be happier! Working in this manner is exactly how I was taught to design when I attended F.I.T.
Stylists would gather a presentation of ideas and we were asked to interpret them. Then we worked together to make the artwork stronger, with the best use of color for each motif.
The graffiti element I spoke about in my last post? I decided to use the StencilGirl Scroll Y100rev as a graffiti like element in my NYC MTA Subway carved rubber layer. You see above, I traced out a few of the scrolls from the stencil to fill the ‘negative space’ with a graffiti like spray of scrolls. At least this is my hope.
(Check out this post about using negative space and stencils in a journal).
Drinking coffee while carving is the height of relaxation for me. So I got to work.
This is a first printing or strike off (Playful Fabric Printing, page 29). Strike off‘s are very important to the design of multicolor sets (especially when designing in repeat). It can get confusing to think through the best use of color, without the use of this step. Strike off’s reveal and highlight the carved (all techniques really)design in the printed format. This information is an education to applying dye color and using the Playful Fabric Printing techniques.
This particular strike off revealed a several things.
1. I found a mistake in the repeat. Because I hadn’t carved another area of the design, and was able to fix the mistake.
2. I had left the uncarved area for inspection in this strike off, just to be able to ponder whether a textural element might be called for. Because of this printing, I decided against.
3. Revealed detail possibilities, like the roof of the subway train, and the lone tree in the bend of the tracks.
4. I had been thinking my lines were to heavy while I was carving, but this printing is pleasing and thus acceptable to me.
So I applied my fix and completed the carving.
This will be a fun print to color. I am working on this now. 🙂
Melanie Testa 
I am so enjoying watching your progress on this design. It is like watching the clips of artisans in India, Japan, and elsewhere create using their techniques. The print is wonderful. I love all the details. I can’t help but remember my one trip to NYC. Riding the train in from Connecticut, a couple of subway rides, and an eye opening taxi ride. Have fun printing!
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