One of my current projects is hand printing fabric for textile art with the focus being on texture. This has been a work in process since my mentorship with the Ballarat Arts Foundation. My mentor was Christine Lethlean.

Christine is a textile artist, and she was very interested in my textile designs. At that time, my focus was more on abstract landscape painting. I trusted Christine and we had many discussions about textile art. Under her mentorship, I created my first textile artwork, ‘The Pink Switch’.

The experience of hand printing my own fabric for my artwork was inspiring. Since then, I’ve been exploring various ways of personalising and hand printing fabric to use in my textile art. One example is the linear texture shown in the image below. The colours are selected to correspond with bushland colours.

Fabric as Art

As the printed fabrics mount up, I can see there are some I want to use, and other interesting designs I can’t see myself working with. When I show my experiments to others, discussions about selling these printed fabrics arose. I really love this idea.

At the moment I am considering whether to reproduce the hand printed designs through digital means. The other option is to sell each design as a one off. Each has pros and cons. I’m still doing my research on this.

The intention for both one-off hand printed fabrics, and digitally produced fabrics are the same. Use in textile artworks by cutting the fabric and creating something new. However, one is an original work, the other is a reproduction. A product, more than an artwork. What does that mean for me, and for those who buy it? Just a little bit more research and I’ll have a decision. Stay tuned.

Next Steps

During my mentorship with Christine, we discussed many ways of creating textile art. I can see so many possibilities in hand printing fabric for textile art. There are also many enticing ways to approach my textile work. So, as I step into this new territory, many things are calling to me.

The next year seems full of promise. Like all new skills, I’m sure there will be challenges as I learn. However, I’m so excited to meet them and find my path.

Stay Tuned

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