Crafter's Guide to Patterns - Softcover

Swift, Jessica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782212191 ISBN 13: 9781782212195

Publisher: Search Press, 2015

Synopsis

Budding designers will find much to inspire them in this comprehensive guide to making and using patterns. Step-by-step tutorials take you through creating colour palettes, designing motifs, selecting backgrounds and borders, and hand-printing onto a variety of surfaces, such as textiles, paper, walls and tiles. Interviews with contemporary designers and a range of pattern photo galleries help fuel creativity.

About this title

About the Author

Jessica Swift is a full-time artist, pattern designer, and author based in Portland, Oregon. Her patterns have been licensed by a variety of companies for fabric, stationery, rugs and much more. Jessica co-authored her first book last year and has also contributed to a number of books on pattern design, lettering, and the creative industry. She also shares her ideas, inspirations, and patterns on her website www.jessicaswift.com.

Review

July 2015 Written by illustrator, Jessica Swift, this is another book in the `Crafter's Guide'. Here we look at creating hand-printed designs by learning all about patterns and repeats. The book is split into three sections - Planning Patterns, Making Patterns and Using Patterns. Planning Patterns starts at a very basic level, looking at how you can get inspiration from around you. This includes a note on copyright and what to be careful about when planning a design. The three main motif styles of geometric, floral and novelty are introduced and this section is very useful, as each has a diagram and an illustration of that pattern being used in a design. Making Patterns includes step-by-step tutorials on making the straightforward three main repeats - straight, half-drop and brick. There are lessons on stamp carving, cutting stencils, cyanotope printing plus another fantastic tutorial on how to go digital and create a repeat pattern in Photoshop and Illustrator. I followed the tutorial in Photoshop, convinced it would go wrong, and it worked perfectly. The Using Patterns section concentrates more on practical printing applications for making cards, gift wrap and patterned homeware. If you are looking at creating patterns from a textile design point-of-view, then this part is probably of limited appeal. However, there are tutorials on several techniques that would prove useful in any kind of textile art application. It is a useful book to have if you are thinking of designing textiles with repeat patterns as a clear overview is provided and the design tutorials are fantastic. * Workshop on the Web/Quilt WOB * December 2014 The Crafter's Guide to Patterns by Jessica Swift includes 20 free motifs and also shows you how to create a pattern cut out of virtually any image. Whether designing your own wall stencil or hand-printing one of the supplied motifs onto your greetings cards and cushion covers, this book gives you all the information you need. The motifs are printing in the back of the book and are also available to download so that readers can adapt and use these to create their own patterns. * Papercraft UK * May 2015 This book is all about creating patterns by hand. It's jam-packed with inspiration and guide for making patterns by different methods, including rubber blocks, cyanotype and stencilling, plus how to build up a pattern repeat and the different types of repeats. It also includes 20 free, striking motifs for you to use. So whether you want to design your own wall stencil, or handprint one of the supplied motifs in the book on to your greeting cards and cushion covers, this book gives you all the information you need to create a masterpiece! * Love to Make * This crafter-focussed book is a superb intro to the magical world of surface pattern design. Creating decorative prints is a burgeoning area for the hobbyist and pro alike, due to technological advances - the internet for sourcing design inspiration, computers for a technical assist, and the possibility of affordable small-quantity print-runs from print bureaus. Jessica Swift's book is an easy-access lightning guide for the uninitiated or technically timid. It teaches the fundamentals of pattern design, then spotlights crafty applications - such as stamping, screen printing, stencilling, and cyanotyping (a photographic printing process). There is a handy look-in on digitizing designs, but this is not the main emphasis of the book. Jessica Swift aims to train the reader to see the world through the eyes of a pattern designer. In the book's intro, she says - of the important concept of the pattern tile -, "Once you learn and understand how patterns are constructed, I'm willing to bet you `ll try to deconstruct every pattern you see in the world from now on." I can vouch for this! Being a pattern repeat detective can provide puzzles to solve while queuing or in waiting rooms. The book is in lavish full-colour photography. A delightful feature is interviews with "name" designers from around the world, such as Heather Moore (Skinny LaMinx). Discover what makes them tick! The book is divided into three sections - Planning Patterns (pattern design bootcamp), Using Patterns (various applications - with tips), and Resources (20 copyright-free motifs with QR codes, printing and image resources, useful websites, plus an index). There is surface- and technique - specific advice aplenty. Think of Jessica Swift's book as a portal to the wonderful world of pattern design. It is ideal for gifting. * The Papercraft Post -thepapercraftpost.blogspot.co.uk *

About this edition

• Publisher: Search Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1782212191
• ISBN 13: 9781782212195
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144