Melanie Testa

Color Triangle

Birds and Fleur de Lis

Carving rubber stamps is my favorite printing technique. For years, I used grey rubber, but when Lisa Chin introduced me to Inovart Eco Carve, I changed loyalties. I did so because, Eco Carve is firmer than the grey stuff, though it carves like butter. The firmness allows for finer lines.

Check out this time lapse instagram video of me carving the Bird and Fleur de Lis pattern:

 

 
 
 
 
 
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Its like being #hypnotized #handcarved #rubberstamp #repeatpattern #fleurdelis #birds #textiledesign #surfacedesign #surfacedesigner #handprintedtextiles

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I continue to swatch and print a new color triangle and am happy to say I am past the half way point. I have 15 colors swatched in gradations of four each. This means I have 13 more colors to go. Woot!

Soon, I will have 4 color triangles to choose colors from! I am a greedy little dragon! I want even more triangles! 

With each color grouping I swatch, I am using a new multicolor print set. When I am finished with this new color triangle, I will have, So. Much. Fabric!! And there is nothing wrong with that.

New Color Triangle in the Works

I am feeling the pull of having access to a new color triangle in a gradation of four values!

Playful Fabric Printing contains a color triangle that Carol Soderlund calls ‘Sunshine’. It’s a great group of colors, and I appreciate being able to draw from all four values of these colors when multicolor printing. But, I would like a new group of colors!

Having taken Carol’s class called ‘Color Mixing for Dyers’, I now want a color triangle in her ‘Juicy’ color way, so I am setting up the necessary items to swatch these new colors using the information presented in our book (page 48, Playful Fabric Printing).

Last summer I printed a new ‘bright’ color way using fuchsia, turquoise and lemon yellow. At that time, I mixed all 28 colors in all four values, all at once. This time, I am going to break it down into two sets of 10 colors and one set of eight, and I am going to try do it in such a way that I can print a new collection of fabrics using the prints I created for the Zine. This is taking some organization and I look forward to being able to complete this project and mount the swatches in my master color book.

Wish me luck!