Book Review: Fabric Printing at Home

Lynda here from Bloombakecreate.com and for the next two posts I'll be sharing with you a couple of books that I've come across recently that you might find interesting and useful.

I don't know about you, but I love books. It seems like I can never read enough about fabric surface design. Fabric Printing at Home by Julie B. Booth is a brand new book from Quarry.

 

This is the blurb from the publisher about this book:

You don’t have to be a fashion designer to create your own amazing fabrics! Fabric Printing at Home will show you how to print your own custom fabrics using everyday items from the kitchen and around the house! With tons of color photos, step-by-step instructions, and helpful hints, you will be crafting your very own fabric designs in no time! Learn to make print blocks, rubbing plates, stencils, and fabric resists from a wide range of kitchen materials. See how your favorite fruits and veggies create perfect shapes and texture patterns for your fabrics and how to upcycle simple materials for surface design. This family-friendly guide shows how to make fantastic, colorful fabric designs with accessible, non-toxic materials.


This book is full of techniques - all from stuff you already have in your kitchen or around the house.

Julie starts you out on how to set up your work area, the basic tool kit, and even directions on making your own portable print surface.

Then each chapter has different surface design methods. I absolutely love the corn cob printing in her 
Kitchen Textures chapter. It's definitely one I will try.

I love resists and she has a couple I've not tried. One of them was using gelatin. I love her clear directions and sample pieces.

I also like the Recycled and Repurpose chapter where she makes lots of interesting stamps out of cardboard.

And if all of the techniques weren’t enough, the Contributing Artists chapter provides the reader lots of inspiration from artists using techniques from the book.

You can get into fabric printing without spending a lot of money. As I mentioned earlier, many of the objects used to print are in your kitchen or somewhere in your house. If you are new to printing on fabric, you will find all kinds of different techniques, with pictures and instructions. If you’re experienced with fabric printing, you might be surprised at what you didn’t know. I found several techniques I plan to try soon.

Fabric Printing at Home by Julie B. Booth, is one of those reference books that is great to have on the studio bookshelf.

Excerpts used/ photos used with permission from Quarry Books.