Egyptian Patterns, a New Venture and International Tax Treaties

   

One of my Screen Prints from the late 1980s!

Sadly, it's been next to impossible to do anything remotely creative this month, thanks to the ongoing debacle with Zazzle who are threatening to withhold 30% of our earnings for the IRS taxes.

 

Egyptian Fish, Crocodile on Red Ringer Coffee Mug by poshandpainterly
   

It's really unusual, practically unheard of, for me to lack any enthusiasm for 
creating. But if creativity is about 'ideas' and 'imagination', maybe my creativity 
has been channelled into coming up with ideas for how best to oppose this wholly unfair tax. 

 

Egyptian Red Green Yellow Arrow iPhone 6 Plus Case by poshandpainterly
 

I think the best way to explain the complicated situation that we 'International 
Zazzlers' find ourselves in, and what we are doing about it, is to post the link to my email to MAP (Mutual Agreement Procedure) who deal with double taxation problems.

 

Egyptian Red Green Black Tribal Small Gift Bag by poshandpainterly
 

Other members of the International Zazzlers Facebook group I set up also wrote to MAP and yesterday one of them received an encouraging email telling us that our complaints have been handed over to the Tax Treaty Team who deal with generic issues affecting the application of the Treaty and that they will be taking up the issue with their US counterparts. So it looks as if we have found help at last!

 

Egyptian Lotus and Papyrus on Black Lumbar Pillow by poshandpainterly
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In spite of all this time-consuming campaigning, I have created some products with my Egyptian patterns but only a few compared to my normal 'output'. And these are patterns I made last year, based on one traditional Egyptian pattern with Lotus Flowers and Papyrus (above) that began life as a screenprinted fabric to be used in a fashion show I was involved in, way back in the 1980s! (Never throw away anything to do with Art and Design!)

 

Egyptian Patterns
by helikettle

One good thing that has come out of all of this - apart from making new friends in the International Zazzlers Group! - is that we've all put our heads together to share our experiences with other PODs. 

And one of the online stores that took our fancy is the new UK one, Zippi - you need to click on the patterns to see the products I've created and you'll see that their prices are much more affordable than some of the other PODs. It's based in Southampton, not far from where I grew up. (Being in the UK is significant because of this horrendous tax business!)

So I've opened an account there and when time has allowed, I've begun uploading some of my patterns for sale on a range of products. The site has a far smaller range of items available at the moment but the staff are very open to suggestions for future product lines from those of us who are now considered 'old hands' in the PODs business. Here are just a few - 

 

We're all hoping that the ITIN issue will soon be resolved so that we can get on with what we enjoy doing - painting, designing, photography etc! - now that we've at last been able to contact a body that will probably be able to help. 

But wheels often turn excruciatingly slowly and we may well find ourselves in for the long haul. So please bear with me if my 'Work in Progress' centres more around Tax Treaties than new designs. 

Everything WILL get back to normal one day - but we're having to work on it!

Repeating Patterns for Painters #1

Floral Repeating Pattern made by the 'cutting up paper' method

Six months ago I began an online course in Surface Pattern Design. 
I had wanted to learn how to make repeating patterns from my floral paintings for a very long time. I wanted to make patterns that had a hand-painted look, similar to so many of the Liberty prints and the fabrics used in Monsoon clothing and accessories that I love.

I had to some extent succeeded by the ‘cutting up paper’ method, combined with some tidying up in paint.net. But I felt sure there was a better way and when I saw that making ‘technical repeats’ in Photoshop was included in the course, I thought it would be the answer. Sadly, it wasn’t.

But I did learn a few things about Photoshop – apart from the fact that it's a tremendously finickity program! – and with lots of help from fellow students, online tutorials and forums, plus three books that were Christmas gifts, I’ve finally found ways to do all the things I wanted to, ways that work!

So, with a very big thank you to all who have helped and encouraged me on this sometimes very frustrating journey, I’ve decided that over the next weeks and months, I’ll pass on what I’ve learnt.

First of all, perhaps we need to sort out what is meant by a ‘pattern’. 


The phrase ‘surface pattern’ is often used to describe any sort sort of ornamentation that decorates a plain
surface. But as I pointed out in ‘Hard-wired for Pattern-Making’,  the dictionary definitions often suggest an element of repetition. 

This is the first definition that Google provided:

pat·tern  

/ˈpatərn/

Noun: A repeated decorative design.

Verb: Decorate with a recurring design.

And I shall use the word ‘pattern’ to denote a repeating pattern or recurring motif.

We’ll begin by looking at the various types of patterns and next time I’ll give some instructions for making some of them, beginning with the simplest so that you can build your skill, post by post. I’ll be available to answer any queries and if I don’t know the answer, there’s a good chance I’ll know someone who does!

A watercolour painting that I'll use as a motif to demonstrate how to make a repeating pattern in Photoshop.

I shall assume that you have painted or hand-drawn motifs that you would like to make into a repeating patterns and that you notice and record in your sketchbook (or with a camera!) the patterns that surround us – in Nature, in buildings and so on. I shall also assume that you can’t wait to get started with learning how to make some of them into patterns for a variety of uses – fabrics, wallpapers, giftwrap and a million others!

The first thing to say is that there are many different kinds of patterns. 

There are the obvious categories, such as 'floral', 'geometric', 'ethnic' . . . some of them overlapping. And there are three classifications you may come across, with which you may not be quite as familiar. These are ‘organic’, ‘graphic’ and ‘conversational’.

A 'Geometric' pattern - but also an Islamic one, therefore it could be classified as 'Ethnic' too.

This pattern, named 'Jungle', is not truly 'Ethnic' in that it came from my imagination rather than an ethnic source. But I think it has an 'ethnic'/'tribal' feel about it!

Organic simply means a pattern that contains elements from Nature, generally with flowing, curving lines. Florals could be a sub-category of Organic but because they are so popular, Florals have a category of their own.

'Seaweed' - an example of an 'Organic' pattern

Graphic, on the other hand, indicates clean, more likely straight lines but could include curves if a floral motif is treated in a graphic way. It can often be very similar to ‘geometric’.

Although the motif for this 'Jungle' pattern was hand-drawn and the motifs are arranged  to represent flowers, it is the nearest I have come to a 'Graphic' style.

'Conversational' is a strange way to describe patterns that use motifs that don’t really fit into the other categories. It could be a little ‘character’ or object, anything from bunnies to boats to buses!  It’s not an area I have explored much as yet but here is one that I did as coursework:

I put two motifs together for this exercise in 'Conversational' patterns - both the frog and the water lily stand alone as hand-painted greeting cards.

In the next in this series of ‘Repeating Patterns’ posts, I’ll cover the most common types of repeats, together with instructions for how to create the most straightforward one in Photoshop.

Meanwhile, here’s a list of basic things you’ll need to know how to use or, at least, how to find in Photoshop:

1. Open/Close File. Open New File to the size you want. Resize: canvas size.
2. Show/Hide Grid, snap to grid. Guides – how to use them, Snap to guides.
3. Colour palette – how to swap background/foreground colours.
4. Cascade Windows. (Windows > Arrange >Cascade) Show Layers, History, Colours.
5. Change the % view of your open window. Fit to screen.
6. Layers – hide/unlock. Send to back/front (under Layers > Arrange)
7. Adjust Tolerance/Opacity/Brush Size
8. Tools: Move, Rectangle, Crop, Clone Stamp, Paint Bucket, Magic Wand, Gradient Tool, Ink
        -dropper tool, Text tool.

And please, don’t be afraid to ask if you don’t understand something I’ve written or if you have a question that I haven’t covered. 

Together we’ll make some glorious painterly patterns!

As an experiment, I've made this post into a .pdf file that I'm hoping you can download if you're interested in keeping these 'how to' posts -

Click

HERE

to download a .pdf of this post, 

condensed into 4 pages

 in case you want to print it out.

Hard-wired for Pattern-making!

As a small child in the 1940s, toys were in short supply, frequently hand-me-downs and often very unsophisticated, compared to what was available by the time my children came along in the ‘60s and ‘70s. 

But there was one toy that I loved and it would keep me happy for long stretches – a box of little coloured wooden tiles. Some were diamond shapes, others triangles so they offered endless possibilities for making mosaic patterns.

In recent weeks I’ve been reminded of that little box of well-worn tiles as I sit, completely absorbed, creating my patterns! I’ve looked for them on the Internet but didn’t succeed in finding them, in spite of them being such a good value toy!

PS Just found some - though I think mine were smaller:  http://www.toyjeanius.co.uk/pattern-mosaic-nova-by-haba-4282-p.asp



It reminded me of something I read when I was learning to teach reading and spelling, using Synthetic Phonics. Somebody had written that 'the human brain is wired for patterns’. I certainly feel the truth of that these days; click here for an article about teaching literacy that explains it – note the section on ‘Spelling Patterns’.

If you look for a definition of the word ‘pattern’ – you’ll find several. There are more than enough here!

But I think we most often use the word ‘pattern’ in the sense of there being an original plan, design or model, which can be repeated over and over – such as a ‘dress pattern’ or a ‘knitting pattern’. And then there are ‘patterns of behaviour’ in humans and in nature – again, there is usually an element of repetition that leads us to detect a ‘pattern’. And ordering things into a pattern or discovering a pattern appeals to most of us because it makes things more predictable and that all helps us to feel more secure.

The sun rising in the mornings and setting in the evenings is a pattern – imagine how it would feel to live in a world where that didn’t happen with some regularity!

'To understand is to perceive patterns.' Isaiah Berlin

Noticing patterns and creating patterns does seem to be deeply embedded in the human psyche and it’s been there for a very long time!

Until recently I believed that the cave paintings in Europe were the first evidence of human ‘artistic’ expression but I was wrong. I read in this newspaper article that patterns have been found in Africa  on the shells of ostrich eggs that are much older, probably 60,000 years old!

One of my main objectives in signing up for the Surface Pattern course was to learn to make repeating patterns properly. And I’ve been rather disappointed that it was only lightly touched upon in Module 1. To me, the essence of pattern is repetition. I would prefer to call surface designs without repetition ‘decoration’ or maybe ‘ornament’, as in ‘The Grammar of Ornament’, by Owen Jones, first published in 1856!

I was lucky to pick up a copy of this literally ‘weighty tome’ by a Victorian architect quite cheaply some years ago and I always enjoy browsing through it! It begins with designs attributed to ‘Savage Tribes’ – the Victorians had no idea of 'political correctness'! And it continues on through every major civilisation and movement, right up to the Renaissance and beyond.

(I did a 'Google Images' search, hoping to find an image of my huge hardback copy but instead I found images of the patterns contained in the book. So if you are interested in Ethnic or 'Tribal' patterns you’ll find plenty of eye-candy HERE!)

Not being at all excited by the current interest in ‘Mid-Century’ retro design,  I fell back on that parallel trend, known as ‘tribal’ for this set of patterns. 

I made the two typically Egyptian motifs from painted tissue paper, cut out and stuck to a sheet of white card. And then I made the repetitions digitally.

Module 2 of ‘The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design’ begins in a few days’ time. I’m hoping to learn more about making repeating patterns that really work!