Book Review: Fabric Printing at Home

First, thank you to everyone who braved the cold, rainy day on Saturday to attend the Artistic Artifacts Holiday Open House. And special thanks to several of our Artistic Artifacts teachers, who were on hand to demonstrate techniques and share examples of their upcoming classes: the PG Fiber2Art team, Sue Price and Elizabeth Gibson (Printing with Thermofax Screens and the new class Beyond Basic Screen Printing); Theresa Martin (Mixed Media Eye Token), Linda Cooper and Julie Booth (Fabric Printing at Home: A Kitchen Sampler ). Julie has recently written her first book, and had an advance copy with her during the Open House that received a lot of attention...although perhaps not as much as her paint-covered corn cob!

I am happy to provide a review here, and Artistic Artifacts will be hosting a Book Signing Reception with Julie on Friday, January 30 2015: plan to join us!

A Must for Your Surface Design Library: Fabric Printing at Home by Julie B. Booth

Photos used with permission from Quarry Books

I am very excited about this book! Fabric Printing at Home: Quick and Easy Fabric Design Using Fresh Produce and Found Objects by Julie B. Booth is packed with a ton of useful information, both for a new fabric printer and the experienced alike.

I will definitely be adding a copy to my personal library!

The layout of the book is easy to read, and there are a multitude of wonderful photographs illustrating Julie’s very concise directions.

I have been around long enough to remember the potato printing craze, but it never raised enough interest in me to want to print with a potato. But Julie’s book makes me want to run right out to the grocery store produce section and buy! And I think you’ll agree after reading the book that you will want to get your hands on as many carrots and corncob holders as possible!

I consider myself an experienced fabric surface design artist. Even with those years of experience though, throughout the book, I kept saying to myself: “I didn’t think of that!” and “I will have to try that!”

Julie reminds and instructs you how to prepare a printing surface, which is so necessary to successful printing. I appreciate the reminder concerning the amount of paint to use in printing your fabric in each of the step by step instructions. A little paint is enough. And that layers of paint and pattern create a more interesting fabric.

AND this whole idea of wax paper and sealing plastic to encase string or other objects for a rubbing plate (below) is just brilliant!

Reading the section on Fabric Resists Using Kitchen Ingredients, I kept asking myself: “How does she do this?” But again, great step by step instructions from creating the resist, applying, and removing the resist from the fabric, so she instills the confidence in you that you will be able to achieve the same great results.

Many of Julie’s tips and techniques will be added to my printing “toolbox.” I encourage anyone with a desire to learn (or enhance their own) fabric printing skills to consider this book. Preorder your copy from Artistic Artifacts and we will ship it just as soon as it arrives from the publisher!