I recently had the privilege of attending a printing party at the studio of textile designer extraordinaire Lotta Jansdotter. It was beyond fun, and I was in craft heaven for the evening! She set up a large table with all the tools: strips of cotton fabric, fabric paint, linoleum block stamps, stencils, stippling brushes, sponges, and carved potatoes (yes I played around with potato printing!) All in all, the experience opened my eyes to how easy it is to create your own patterns on fabric. Really, truly, you can do it. The party brought to life a few of Lotta's incredibly inspirational (and doable) ideas in her new book, Lotta Prints. I just adore the simple, organic vibe of Lotta's aesthetic.
Here I am with Lotta at the printing party!
We hung up our finished swatches on the wall to dry. It was so cool to see the wall fill up with squares of fun patterns that people had created!
Here is the table in action with printing magic! I moved around the table to try out each of the different methods. One method that she talks about in her book (which we didn't do at the printing party) is printing using leaves and other natural items. I love the look of leaf printing and I'm planning to incorporate it into my wedding somehow. I think I may use the technique to dress up some linen fabric for the table linens. I'm thinking of using gold paint -- so I'll have the botanical shapes of the leaves paired with one of my wedding colors, and gold's a bit more drama. Check out these photos from her book showing the how-tos and finale projects with leaf printing -- don't they just make you want to host your own printing party?!
Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books
This book captures for me something I don't see everyday -- crafting brought up-to-date for people just like me who want to stamp their own style (and have fun) with decorating. I will also say that there are few things more fun than slabbing paint on a potato and printing a pattern with it. Forget the fancy toys and Xboxes: Someday when I have kids, I hope to have many potato printing parties!
Posted by Jen
Redbook
* Tips for Growing a Garden
* De-Junk Your Life
* 5 New Ideas for Chicken
* Light & Easy Suppers
* Get More on Love, Family & Fashion - Subscribe to Redbook & Save up to 82%!
Reprinted with Permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.
