Kindle-Garden Delights part 1

Amazingly, I have emerged from my adventure in making my ebooks available on Kindle (that’s Amazon.com’s ebook reader, for the uninitiated) with at least some of my coiffure intact.  I have been in the hair-tearing-out stage for the last several days. But first, some history. I had little trouble making my two ebooks, Inkjet Printing on Lutradur and Inkjet Printing on Fabric, into pdfs that I’ve  had available through my Artfire and Etsy stores. The next challenge was putting them up on Lulu, where they are also available as pdf ebooks, or as printed books.

I got through that okay, so let’s move on to the next step. Are you thinking of writing an ebook (or have you already)? What’s the 200-pound gorilla?  Amazon.com, of course. And therein lies the goal that has been on my to-do list for at least a year: get the ebooks formatted for kindle to sell on Amazon. And therein languished the goal month after month, sliding down to the bottom of the list.

What do you think Amazon says about publishing your own book for kindle? I’ll tell you: “Welcome to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, the fast and easy way to self-publish your books for sale in the Kindle Store.”  Yeah, right.  Even just looking through the guides and help topics was enough to send me back to the to-do list.

So although I really like to learn new things and do most things myself, I realized that those ebooks were never going to be kindle-ized unless I got professional help.  I was lucky to have a free phone consultation with the inspiring creative-arts business coach, Jane Button.  Jane suggested I contact Joy Randall, who, among other things, helps writers publish theirs books and ebooks through her business Wisdom House.

And Joy was exactly what I needed! She took my WordPerfect file (more on that in part 2) and transformed it into a file that I could upload to Amazon for the kindle. I’m sure she has heard it so much that she’s sick of it, but Joy was really a joy to work with. She patiently answered my questions, she did exactly what we agreed to, and she delivered days earlier than her initial estimate. So ta-da! My first kindle ebook, Inkjet Printing on Fabric, went live on Amazon.com last week.

If you’re thinking of publishing an ebook that involves a format other than pdf (which can be tricky in itself), and you don’t want to learn how to do it yourself, I’d definitely recommend talking to Joy. You can contact her through her website.  There are many other options but I can’t vouch for them since I haven’t tried them.  Anyone out there have other services they’ve used and liked (or not)?

Anyway, getting that first kindle ebook made was easy – Joy did all of the heavy lifting.  But of course I had to pay her for her hard work. And you know (because I just said it) I do so love to learn how to do things myself. So therein lies the hair-tearing-out, about which more soon!

Big dogs little dogs!

I’m a cat person.  Hey, guess what my astrological sign is?  Yep, I’m a Leo.  And from the first kitten I begged my parents to get (who I named Button, for the spot on the top of her white head), I’ve rarely lived without a cat (or two, or three…).   Don’t get me wrong, I really like dogs.  But when my husband George and I see a really cute dog, we call it a “kitty pup” …   Anyway, you know from my previous blog post that I just started making pet collars from the fabric that I design.  The cat collars came first, of course.  I made this soft sculpture to display the collars from a photograph of our cat Lars.  I lengthened his neck a little so more collars would fit on … a bit of artistic liberty thanks to Photoshop.

 

Lars soft sculpture with collars galore

 

But guess what? There are a whole lot of dog people out there who want collars for their pups!  And boy, are they different from cat collars.  First, the breakaway clasp that I use for the cat collars (so they can release if they get stuck on something while they’re being bad cats) don’t work for dog collars.   You need the dog’s clasp to hold so when the collar is attached to a leash it won’t release.   And another thing that’s different between cats and dogs — cats vary in size a bit, but oh my … you’ve got your mini-sized dogs and you’ve got your jumbo-sized dogs!  So yesterday I made one collar for a mini-dog (an adult dachshund whose neck is 11.5 inches) and one for a jumbo-dog (a Lab puppy whose neck is already 18.5 inches).

This is the large collar.  The fabric is one of my new designs. I took my photos of a monarch butterfly wing and a peacock feather and blended them, then kaleidoscoped the blended image.  I had the fabric printed by spoonflower.  The collar is easily adjustable for when the puppy grows.  The person who wanted the collar taught me something else — some dogs chew up their dog tags (I don’t think even bad cats do that).  Hence, the invention of slider tags.  The tag slides right onto the collar – before it’s sewed up, of course.  You can’t add the slider if you buy this kind of collar ready-made (another reason to make a custom order, hint, hint).  I ordered the slider pre-printed.  Here’s a photo of what the slider looks like (the printing’s nice, I blurred it here):

 

Dog collar with slider

 

Here’s the small collar.  Because the dog is full grown, I didn’t leave much extra length, but it is adjustable to add about an inch.

 

Small pup collar

 

And here … a stack of dog collars!

 

Dog collars

 

And for fun, this is the tag I designed for my dog collars.  The model is Scout, who lives with my brother and his family.

I’d love to make a collar for your pet out of any of my fabric designs.  If you’re interested, just email me at HeidiRand@gmail.com  Click here to see some of my fabric designs.  I can also make a custom collar using your photographs or images.

Click here to see the cat collars listed in my Artfire shop and click here to see the dog collars.

Garden Design Fabric pet collars!

You know I love thinking up new ways to use the fabric that I design and print from my nature photographs.  My newest favorite thing to make with my fabric  — cat and dog collars! On the runway (okay, on the bed) … presenting our model, Lars!

For cat collars I use breakaway safety hardware, because we all know that mischievous cats need collars that will come apart to release kitty if he or she gets snagged on something.

Dog collars have different hardware — you can’t use the breakaway latches because they would come apart when you’ve got your dog on a leash.  For the dog collars, I sew in a “D” ring very securely, to attach the collar to the leash.

Dog collar

I make the collars from fabric that I’ve designed and either printed myself or had printed for me by Spoonflower or DPI-SF.  The fabric is sturdy cotton, and it’s waterfast — so you can hand wash the collars in cold water or spot clean.  I use interfacing for strength and protect the collars with Quiltgard (a product that’s not available anymore, it’s like Scotch Guard) to resist dirt.

The collars are easily adjustable using the slide (in the picture above the slide  is brass-plated), and the cat collars also have brass-plated bells.

I can make a collar for your pet out of any of my fabric designs.  If you’re interested, just email me at HeidiRand@gmail.com  Click here to see some of my fabric designs.  I can also make a custom collar using your photographs or images.

Click here to see one of the collars listed in my etsy shop.

Garden Design Fabric Bowties!

I have gone bowtie crazy!  George has been after me for years to make him a bowtie.  Evidently they are really hard to find and good ones are quite expensive.  Then recently an old friend asked me whether I would make her some neckties from my fabric designs. I got a McCalls pattern that had both a necktie and a bowtie.  Sad to say, I quickly realized that making the necktie was going to take more time than I had .. .  But the bowtie — now that was a different story.  It was far less complicated than the necktie, and took much less fabric.  So here’s my first effort … what do you think?  The fabric is one of my favorites, a design I made by kaleidoscoping my photograph of a purple laelia orchid.

Bowtie number one

Here’s the bowtie on the proud model, George.

George wearing bowtie number 1

Bowtie number two is also from the McCalls pattern.  I used another of my favorite fabric designs, a kaleidoscope pattern from my photograph of a butterfly’s wing.

Bowtie number 2

How do you like it on George?   For this one I used the standard bowtie hardware, a hook and clasp and adjustable slider.  I had to order the hardware online because none of the local fabric stores carry it.  Contact me if you want information about where I got the hardware.

George wearing bowtie number 2

Here’s my third bowtie.  I found great instructions on a blog for boys’ bowties, and just made it a bit larger for a man-sized bowtie.  This is a double fold tie.  I haven’t had a chance to make the strap, so I’m using one of the bowtie clip-ons that I got when I ordered the other hardware sets.

Larger bowtie

This is the back, showing the clip-on hardware.  You just slip the gizmo through the tube at the back and clip it onto each side of the shirt collar.

Back of bowtie showing clip-on

George was too tired to put on the shirt to model it, but I got some shots of him holding it up to his t-shirt. Here’s one:

Mr. Bowtie

And another … !  I figured out how to print the fabric for this design using letter-sized sheets of fabric, so I can whip up the bowties rather than waiting for yardage to be printed for me.

Honeybee design bowtie

This is a closeup of the center loop

Honeybee design bowtie center loop

This is the original file I used – my photograph of honeybees in a hive, kaleidoscoped into this design:

Honeybee kaleidoscope design

Tired of bowties yet?  Okay, just one more.  My latest is made of fabric I designed from my photograph of a swallowtail butterfly wing.  I kaleidoscoped a small part of the photograph using the Kaleider software program (see my other blog posts about Kaleider).  I love how brightly colored the fabric turned out –

Swallowtail bright bowtie

I just started showing the bowties in my Etsy store.  Click here for my first listing. I can also make them to order from any of my fabric designs, so contact me if you want to special order one.

Art Quilts & Fabric Hangings : One-day workshop

Workshop taught by Heidi Rand

Canyon Trail Art Center, El Cerrito California

Saturday June 19, 2010 – noon to 4:00 p.m.
$50 + materials

Lars quilt

Further adventures in the exciting new world of fabric printing!  Offered for the first time — a hands-on workshop where we will explore printing your fabric and designing a small art quilt or hanging.  Even if you’ve never made a quilt before, this workshop will teach you basic art quilt construction.  We go beyond quilts used for bedding, by adding embellishments and mixed media elements, and framing or hanging options.   Basic inkjet printing and sewing knowledge is helpful, but not required.

Golden butterfly art quilt on canvas

I’ll show you many examples of the kinds of art quilts and hangings you can make using your inkjet printer and sewing machine. You’ll get lots of new ideas about what to do with your images and designs, and the knowledge to go home and start making your own personal fabric-art piece!

Lavender rust quilt

Bring a flash drive with your images, or letter-sized images to scan.   If you want to begin sewing your piece at the workshop, bring your sewing machine and some possible backing fabric.  Pre-registration required.   Please email me at HeidiRand@gmail.com

Upcoming workshops:

Saturday July 17, 2010 noon to 4:00 p.m.  Inkjet transfer techniques. El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Sunday August 29, 2010, noon to 3:30 p.m. Photo Art : Altered Imagery. El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Sunday September 19, 2010, noon to 4 p.m. Beyond paper : inkjet printing on alternative surfaces.  El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Sunday October 24, 2010, noon to 3:30 p.m.  Exploring lutradur.  El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Sunday November 21, 2010, noon – 3:30 p.m.  Handmade gifts with your inkjet printer. El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Have questions? Interested in registering?  Please email me

If you can’t make the workshop, I also have an ebook to teach you to print on fabric and online classes at CraftEdu

Saturday June 19, 2010, noon to 4. Art quilts and fabric hangings. El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Inkjet Printing on Fabric Workshop

Inkjet Printing on Fabric

Workshop taught by Heidi Rand

Canyon Trail Art Center, El Cerrito California

Saturday May 22, 2010 – noon to 3:30 p.m.
$35 + materials

Lavender rust quilt

Welcome to the exciting world of fabric printing!  Learn to print your artwork, images and designs on fabric using your home inkjet printer.  This exciting technique opens the door to endless possibilities for creating original fabric to use in quilts, art pieces, gifts, home decor, and much more.

Fabric vases

I take you step-by-step through the entire process, from preparing your files to print, to choosing the right fabric and getting it ready to go through the printer, to post-printing treatment, and much more.  I will discuss the importance of knowing what kinds of inks your printer uses, and give you tips to get fabric through even the most finicky printer.

Fabric cuff bracelet

With many examples of printed fabric and fabric artwork and crafts, you’ll get new ideas about what to do with your images and designs, and the knowledge to go home and start printing your own!

Pre-registration required.  Please email me at HeidiRand@gmail.com

Upcoming workshops:

Saturday June 19, 2010, noon to 4. Art quilts and fabric hangings. El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Saturday July 17, 2010 noon to 4:00 p.m.  Inkjet transfer techniques. El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Sunday August 29, 2010, noon to 3:30 p.m. Photo Art : Altered Imagery. El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Sunday September 19, 2010, noon to 4 p.m. Beyond paper : inkjet printing on alternative surfaces.  El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Sunday October 24, 2010, noon to 3:30 p.m.  Exploring lutradur.  El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Sunday November 21, 2010, noon – 3:30 p.m.  Handmade gifts with your inkjet printer. El Cerrito Canyon Trail Art Center

Have questions? Interested in registering?  Please email me

If you can’t make the workshop, I also have an ebook to teach you to print on fabric and online classes at CraftEdu

Lavender and rust art quilt – finishing and framing

When last we met, I had printed and quilted an art quilt from a blended collage of my photographs of a lavender flower and a piece of rusted machinery.  Here’s a photo of the quilt, and this is the post about the process :

Lavender and rust art quilt

Finishing and framing a piece is always a challenge for me. Since I used new techniques and products for the quilt (more about that later!), I wanted that novelty to be reflected in the way I framed it.  Rooting around in my supply closet, I found wooden framing stretcher strips about the right size.  When assembled, the frame was a bit larger than the quilt.  To finish the plain wood in a manner that would reflect and honor the quilt, I printed some of the elements of the lavender and rust collage onto Transfer Artist Paper (see my earlier posts about TAP), and ironed them onto the front of the frame.

TAP on frame

My next challenge was how to attach the quilt to the frame.  I decided to use some kind of ribbon that I would sew to the quilt and thread through screw eyes attached to the inside edge of the frame.  It’s not easy finding good screw eyes! My local fabric store didn’t have anything I liked, and I had to visit three hardware stores to find the size and color that I wanted. I put screw eyes in each of the four sides of the frame.  This is the top right edge, showing the screw eye:

Ribbon and screw eye attachment

I decided that instead of using premade cord or ribbon, I would make it myself.  I started with the image that I used for the quilt and designed ribbons, but rescaled to be much smaller because the ribbon would have to fit  through the screw eyes. I printed it on the fabric that I had used for the quilt and doubled the fabric over so both sides would have a pattern.  I cut thin strips and stitched down the center of each to hold the sides together.  I threaded them through the eyes and tied knots, working with each to get the quilt centered in the frame. This is a closeup of the ribbon at the center right side of the frame:

Ribbon tied through screw eye

And this is the quilt tied to the frame at the six eyes:

Quilt in frame

The last challenge: how to hang the framed quilt? I didn’t want to string a wire across the back because that would show through the gaps. I couldn’t use a sawtooth because the gallery that I show my work in (a plug here for the Pinole Artisan galleries) doesn’t allow those. I decided to echo the screw eyes used on the inside, and put two at the top of the frame.  I made another long ribbon, threaded it through the eyes, doubled it over and stitched it together. The framed quilt now hangs flush against the wall from a hook or nail. This is it:

Hanging framed art quilt

If you’re wondering about the back of the frame, it’s nothing fancy. I finished it by painting the plain wood with a few coats of white gesso.  I solved the eternal question of how to sign an art quilt (many people print labels on fabric and sew them to the back), by signing the gessoed surface with a pigment ink pen. This is how the back looks:

Back of the quilt

If you’re interested in learning how to print on fabric, check out my online class at CraftEdu.  I also offer the class with captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Lavender and rust art quilt

Egret in flight lutradur art quilt

I took a photograph of a gorgeous Great White Egret flying at the Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline in Point Richmond.  I blended it with my photograph of an allium flower in bloom, ending up with this collage:

Egret in flight

I printed the blended collage onto lutradur that I coated with matte-for-porous-surfaces Digital Ground (for more on that process, see my prior detailed posts about printing on lutradur with Digital Ground).  I thought the print turned out very well – the detail in the egret’s wings is nearly as good as a print on inkjet paper, and the color is accurate and saturated.

I decided to use the piece in an art quilt. I backed the lutradur print with soft batting and did some free motion stitching around the abstract lines, using a few different colored threads.  Here are two closeups of some of the stitching:

Egret in flight closeup

Closeup of stitching

For the frame, I chose an elegant dark gold silky fabric. The lutradur print is about 7.5 x 11 inches, and I added about 2 inches to each side for the frame.  I added another layer of batting to the back of the gold fabric, and did more free motion stitching to adhere the backing to the lutradur print.

I decided to use a simple pillow-type technique to finish the piece.  I chose a patterned sturdy off-white fabric for the backing, and sewed them face to face, leaving an opening to turn the piece right side out and small openings on both sides near the top for my hanging apparatus.  This is the finished piece:

Egret in flight art quilt

To hang it, I painted a wood dowel with dark gold paint, and slid it through the openings at the top.  I wrapped a length of wire link chain around each side. Here’s a closeup:

The hanger

This is the finished piece as it hangs from the chain:

Egret in flight art quilt

A word about inspiration and motivation! I printed this piece months ago, but it had been lying in my “to make into something” pile since then. I’ll be teaching a workshop on using lutradur at the New Pieces Quilt Store on January 23rd, and I wanted a piece to show their customers how lutradur can be used in their quilts. This was the result ….

Lavender and rust art quilt

George found some wonderful french lavender and has been growing it for me in the back garden.  I took some photographs of the stalks in bloom.  Lavender’s not the showiest flower, but the scent and that incredible saturated color really make up for that …

Lavender in bloom

Later in the day we went on an adventure, and I took some photos of an old piece of rusted machinery.  The images were so different I couldn’t resist trying to blend them, and came up with a blended collage that I really like:

Lavender and rust

I printed the image onto pretreated cotton.  I was very happy — the colors turned out beautifully saturated, very true to the original file.  I backed the printed fabric with two layers of batting and quilted with different colored thread, mostly at random, outlining the elements of the image. The sturdiness of the cotton and two layers of batting make the quilting really stand out.  The piece is only about 7.5 x 11.25 inches (18.5 x 28.25 cm).  I’m thinking of framing it within a wood frame that I’ll adorn. More later about that. For now, here’s a photograph of the quilted piece:

Lavender and rust art quilt

This is fun. The sun was streaming in my window as I was taking photographs of the quilt, so I taped it to the window and shot some photos — you can see the sun shining through the needle holes.

Here’s one last shot of a part of the quilt, you can really see the sun shining through it…

Now the hard part for me, how to frame it. Stay tuned …..

Inkjet Fabric Printing – step by step instructional ebook

I just finished my very first ebook, on my most favorite subject: inkjet printing on fabric.  After writing an extensive booklet for the workshops I’ve been teaching, I decided to put it into ebook form so people who can’t come to my workshops could get the same information.

I take you through the entire process to quickly and successfully begin printing fabric on your inkjet printer. You will learn about types of inks, differences between treating fabric yourself or printing on pre-treated fabric, how to prepare fabric for printing, printing the fabric, post-printing treatments, and more.

The information and tips I’ve learned over years of printing on fabric will save you hours of time and much wasted ink and fabric. I have included many illustrations, questions and answers, and trouble-shooting tips.

Illustration: peeling off backing

There’s even a gallery of my original fabric creations to spark your imagination and creativity.

Gallery: butterfly art hanging

There are many books on the market about printing on fabric, but because the technology is moving so quickly, a lot of them are outdated. My guide is up to date, and I will revise it as often as needed to reflect changes in the field of inkjet fabric printing. Also, most of the books give general information that might not apply to your personal printer/ink setup. I tell you how to figure out what kind of inks your printer uses, and I can also answer by email personalized questions about your setup, or other problems you run in to when you print fabric. I also discuss the pretreated fabrics that are available commercially, and share the results of my extensive experimentation with printing using the different inks.  In the second edition of the ebook, now available, I added information about using two great products with fabric, inkAID and Golden Paints Digital Grounds (both coatings that make any surface inkjet printable.)  I’ve written a lot in this blog about Digital Grounds, and I wanted to expand the book to include these coatings – most appropriate for art fabric uses.  I also deemphasized the use of Bubble Jet Set 2000, a liquid solution that is the most common product used by people who want to treat fabric themselves for inkjet printing.  BJS contains formaldehyde, and I know a lot of people are concerned about any potential danger.  If you’re interested in the subject, the manufacturer addresses the issue in an article (read it by clicking here).

My ebook is in the format of a PDF file, which you can open and print using Adobe Reader.  I’m offering it through my etsy shop or lulu.com for $10.  Click here for the link to my ebooks section on etsy. If they are sold out and you would like one, please let me know and I will post more copies.  Or click here to see a preview and get it through my lulu shop.