Spoonflower fabrics for Hawaii and San Jose Students

Many yards of fabric!

I was so excited to return from Sweden and see a big box from Spoonflower. In it were all the initial textile patterns of the Alum Rock, San Jose students and the Hawaii students in the You Are Here Street Banner Project. Some of the fabric will be cut into square and hemmed to create furoshiki wrapping cloths. I will be teaching the students how to use their custom fabrics as eco friendly carry bags. The Japanese Ministry of Environment has been promoting the tradition on their website: http://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/attach/060403-5.html

The remainder of the fabric will be used for an art installation at Montalvo Art Splash, a showcase of student art. The purchase of the fabric has been made possible by a MERIT mini grant from the Krause Center for Innovation. The project site for the You Are Here Street Banner is at this link: http://youareherefabrics.weebly.com/

Project Selvage Voting!

Spoonflower's Project Selvage textile contest is under way. Vote here: http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters/new?contest_id=78

The winner will receive a design contract with Michael Miller Fabrics.

Project Selvage

I just received an email notice that Spoonflower is teaming up with Michael Miller Fabrics to present Project Selvage, a competition in which the winner will go on to sign a contract with Michael Miller and produce a collection of fabrics to debut at the Fall Quilt Market in October 2011. The theme of this competition is baby boy prints. They are accepting entries from today through March 24th. On March 31st, they will announce the 75 finalists chosen by judges from Michael Miller and Spoonflower and you'll have a chance to vote for the designs that will go on to the final round.

Michael Miller Fabrics has nice contemporary designs, but the contest site does not reflect the artistry or sophistication and whimsy of their collections. It was kind of a turn off to see the goofy illustration on the project site. The project homepage would look a lot better without this image. At any rate, having conducted an online textile project last year, I am interested in seeing how this project goes. I think it may be a wonderful opportunity for artists to enter in the profession of textile design.