Sundancers, Wild Women and DreamWeavers

Break an old Gestalt today

I find myself returning again and again to danny gregory's weblog Everyday Matters. It makes me chuckle in the most unladylike fashion, and, even worse, muse for 15 minutes and think.

I get all too comfortable with a theme, techniques that I know work, colors I like, using them over and over. "Like" is fine, but at some point, my "likes" become walls. How comfy and safe! It's time to break a few of my Gestalts - those patterns of perceiving that have become so automatic that I really don't see creatively at all.

Everyday Matters nudges me gently to get on with it. I haven't discovered all the fabulous fabrics, threads, colors of the world yet. Yesterday, after reading February 22 - "Counting Blessings", I went on a small journey of discovery to hardware and craft shop, and came home with a fistful of new toys! Pencils that change color, interesting bits of paper & materials to actually start that experimental ideas journel I've been going to start for years.

Fonting around

A hugh number of "dingbat" art fonts are available as freeware or inexpensive shareware. These are simply fonts that are patterns instead of "abc's". Most people have at least a "gazillion" of them.


The main problem for the ardent "bat collector" is remembering what they look like and which design belongs to each letter. Ahh... There's a nifty little freeware program that solves the problem utterly. "The Font Thing" is the child of Sue Fisher (of About.com). You can read about it and download it  here. I rate it as a 10.


Some of the best dingbats I've found for use in creating virtual fabric and fiber looks are: "Dementia" A and B Regular, "Bit Blocks", "Soen Squares", and "Knot Maker BRK". What I look for are small motifs with a heavy face so that they will produce a good displacement map or texture.



There is also a class of ding fonts that are "alien" or mythical scripts. The names of some of these are a bit wierd and fun: "Babylonian Centuar", "Borg", and "Drazi". I wonder what their quilts look like! Below is "Babylonian Centuar".





I used one of the above Centuar designs, as a small displacement map, to change this graphic to this.


The strange ding scripts are worth checking into as a source of unusual patterns. There seem to be 25 or more easily found. The following are sites that have large collections of "dingbat" art fonts:

Moss Valley Dingbat Links - a huge assortment

Font Garden many "unusual scripts" & many conventional designs

Font Freak nice selection of all font categories

Virtual Fabric 1

I use virtual fabric for retail quilt web graphics and "Virtual Spirit" dolls.

These are created in Corel PhotoPaint 8. My favorite effect for making fabric with small scale patterns is a "displacement map" usually in combination with a ripple effect. Both are basic effects that are, I assume, available in most large graphics programs.


All 4 of the examples at right were first rippled as in #2.  #s 1 and 4 were then "displaced" with a tiny displacement map. #3 was displaced with a busy 135 x 135px map. This routine will create a set of coordinated mini patterns.


To be a successful subject for displacement, the base graphic color combination needs to: (1.) be an asymmetrical design and (2.) have at least 3 or 4 steps of grey scale difference. Displacement shifts color on the basis of grey scale contrast rather than hue.
If the "fabric" needs to be a seamless tile, that should usually be done before using a displacement effect. However, this isn't a fact cast in stone.


You can make your own unique displacement maps using black & white and / or a midgrey. Dingbat art fonts are a rich and easy source for simple patterns.


Another source is seamless black and white tiles available on the web. A one good place to collect suitable tiles is: