Today a new customer who lives in San Diego, California has ordered a chiffon scarf and satin zip bag, both made with the popular Paisley Rats printed design.
Both items are currently on display at the Beecroft Art Gallery,
Southend-on-Sea, Essex so I will visit the art gallery today, collect
the items and post them to San Diego.
I drew the Paisley Rats design by hand on paper originally in 2014 and
since then I have sold hundreds of hand-made products with the unique
pattern. These include cushions, pillowcases, framed artwork, hats,
clasp bags, tote bags, aprons and greetings cards. The are all designed
and made in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK
Here is a photo of photographer Niki Cornish modelling the scarf. She
not only modeled the scarf but she took the photo herself. She is very
talented. She is the official photographer for the Southend Film
Festival, a major annual event on the Essex social calendar.
3 fabrics are used to make a Paisley Power zip bagA Paisley Rats zip bag. Part of the Paisley Power fashion accessories collection.
All the products are available to purchase from the Paisley Power Shop at Etsy or from the Beecroft Art Gallery,
Southend-on-Sea, UK. Please visit the art gallery to see my collection
of fashion accessories and home decor items, made with my exclusive
textile designs.
#handmade #paisley #textiledesign
Great work last night by Jo, Ali, Karen and Lauren at the Designing Printed Textiles evening class at METAL Art School, Chalkwell Park, Southend-on-Sea, Essex. I enjoy teaching students each week at the classes and it is very rewarding to see their designs develop. They also quickly learn the Photoshop techniques that I teach them. Jo is designing a fashion print collection based on forecast fashion trends for 2019/2020. Ali is learning new Photoshop skills to covert her artwork into repeating patterns. Karen is planning to make some unique prints for her established fashion business. Lauren wants to boost her portfolio with new textile prints for university applications in 2019. Patrick Moriarty (owner/designer/tutor) PaisleyPower.com
artwork and patterns created by students at the Designing Printed Textiles class
Do you enjoy creating your own gifts for friends and relatives at
Christmas time? If you like to use a sewing machine to make clothes and
home decor items, then take a look at my collection of unique printed
textiles. I draw or paint my designs on paper in Southend-on-Sea and
then I complete the designs using Adobe Photoshop. I use Spoonflower
digital printers to print my fabrics. Here is my “Organic Linear”
design. I originally entered the design for a wallpaper competition
organised by the Ideal Home Exhibition. I was inspired by the wallpapers
of famous British designer William Morris. This fabric is ideal for
home furnishing projects including cushions and wall hangings.
Textile design by Patrick Moriarty, which was inspired by William Morris wallpapers
My favourite historic textile pattern is
the paisley pattern. I like to design my own paisleys. Here is one I
designed with photographs of Hibiscus flowers incorporated in the
design. This fabric is perfect for making fashion garments and home
decor items.
Hibiscus Paisley textile design printed on linen cotton canvas
I like to add animal silhouettes to my designs. Here
is my Paisley Elephants design. I filled the elephant shapes with the
texture to make them look like stone. I drew the paisley pattern like a
doodle to give it a playful look. You can make so many different
Christmas gifts with this design; it’s so versatile. Everyone loves
elephants!
Paisley Elephants printed fabric designed by Patrick Moriarty
If you like these fabrics and feel inspired to make your own Christmas presents, you can order them from my Paisley Power online fabric store. You can order the fabrics by the yard or just a small test swatch if you prefer. The choice is yours!
Hand-made Christmas gifts are always appreciated. I draw my designs by hand on paper and then have them printed on different fabrics. I usually make several different colour versions using Photoshop software. My most popular design is my Paisley Rats pattern. Silhouettes of rats are incorporated in a swirling paisley pattern. I make cushions (= pillows in US) with the fabric. Here is a photo of the contrasting pair of cushions, one with white rats and one with black rats. Customers often buy them as a pair as they compliment each other nicely, for example, if they are placed on a sofa.
contrasting black and white Paisley Rats cushions
I also make scarves with the design printed on chiffon. I also make the scarves with a white background and a red background. A customer in Scotland bought all 3 versions! Here is a photo of the black background version. The model is photographer Niki Cornish who took her scarf on holiday to Japan and took some excellent photos of herself wearing the scarf.
Paisley Rats scarf worn by Niki Cornish photographer
I also make bags with hand-printed pockets, which I printed in a local arts workshop. Today a new customer in Chicago, Illinois, US bought one of these pink tote bags.
grey rat-print pocket on pink tote bag.
A different type of bag which is popular is the “Rat Bag“. It is a clasp bag made with satin.
satin clasp bag with popular Paisley Rats design
Lats Christmas I sold 2 of these satin clasp bags to customers in New York and LA. I enjoy making my products in UK and sending them to customers around the world. You can buy all these products from the Paisley Power Shop at Etsy.com #handmade #paisley #rats
I enjoy receiving requests from new customers for customised fabrics. A customer in Brighton asked me to make her two Paisley Rats pillowcases. She wanted the colour to be quite natural and neutral. The pillowcases were finished recently and were sent to the customer. She received them a few days ago and wrote: “Hey Patrick, they arrived this weekend and are beautiful, thank you so much”.
Paisley Rats printed cotton pillowcases
It took several attempts to get the colour right; thank you to Southend artist Velda Pond for providing me with superb colour advice. Here are some pics of the colour tests.
Paisley Power rat fabric printed cotton samples
I would also like to thank sewing tutor Zoe Marshall-smith for excellent sewing/making of the 2 pillowcases. She makes nearly all my products. My customers are always very complimentary about the high quality of the hand-made items.
I have created 2 textile designs with Paisley Elephants. The graphic curved shape of an elephant and the winding shape of a paisley symbol seem to work well together in a design. The Indian elephant and the paisley pattern, which was developed in Kashmir in the 16th century, are ideal motifs to combine in a design.
Here is my Paisley Elephant design which I have printed on cotton twill and made into cushions. A new customer bought a pair of them, which I posted yesterday to him in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK.
In this design I included a palm tree, which the elephants look as if they are carrying. This lining fabric is very popular with bespoke tailors who use it to line jackets. You can order yards or metres from their Printed Lining Collection.
Paisley Elephant lining fabric in jacket made by Graham Browne bespoke tailors, City of London
If you decide you would like your own design combining elephant shapes and paisley shapes, contact me and I will help you plan and design a unique printed textile, which will hopefully be as popular as the two in this article.
Elephant pattern fabric designed by Patrick Moriarty
It was great to finally see the finished wax figure of the music legend Prince. It was a real privilege to be involved in the project. I was invited by Tony Webb, who masterfully created the whole wax representation of Prince, to supply one of my paisley pattern fabrics for the lining of the jacket.
Wax figure, created by Tony Webb, of the music legend Prince.
Tony is an expert at making art creations in wax by hand. He trained at Madame Tussauds, London. His wax figures are frequently used in major film and TV blockbusters. Everyone who has seen the pics of the Prince wax figure have said that the resemblance to the singer is uncanny.
The superb costume for the Prince figure was made by Melissa Bowler. She is an expert at fashion designing, pattern cutting and sewing. On her Instagram page you can see a video of her showing the Prince jacket she made. In the video she folds back the jacket to reveal the printed paisley lining fabric that I created specially for this project.
I provided the satin fabric used for the lining of the jacket. Tony asked me if I had a suitable paisley fabric, which would be suitable for Prince. I knew my paisley textile design would be suitable if I recoloured it in shades of purple. I named this new version “Purple Paisley Prince“. Purple was the favourite colour of Prince, he named one of his most famous songs “Purple Rain”.
paisley print fabric jacket lining for celebrity Prince wax figure
Prince also loved the paisley pattern. He name his recording studios “Paisley Park Studios” and his record label “Paisley Park Records“. One of his numerous hit singles was called “Paisley Park”.
Here is a close-up photo of the wax figure. You can see all the amazing details of his face that Tony Webb has meticulously formed from wax.
wax figure of Prince by Tony Webb
If you visit the official website of Tony Webb Creative Services you will see lots of fantastic wax representations of celebrities including: Lady Gaga, Robert de Niro, Meryl Streep, Elvis Presley, Nicole Kidman and Bob Marley.
Here is the finished design that was used to print the lining fabric:
Purple Paisley Prince textile design, coloured especially for the project. Designed by Patrick Moriarty
A few days ago, a new customer ordered 2 yards of the “Purple Paisley Prince” fabric from my online Spoonflower shop. Today a new customer bought 45 yards of the design printed on sport lycra.
purple paisley printed fabric designed by Patrick Moriarty
If you would like to order the fabric, visit my Paisley Power online fabric store. There are lots of other designs to choose from, including lots of unique paisley patterns. I originally draw all my designs by hand on paper.
Make sure you visit the website portfolio of Tony Webb to see all his fantastic and hugely popular wax figures of famous celebrities.
Excellent creative output by Lorna, Louise and Neil at Wednesday’s “Designing Printed Textiles” evening class. The classes are a great way for people to express their creative ideas and produce printed fabrics of their unique designs. The classes are a combination of hand-made art techniques and the best computer-aided design software, which is Adobe Photoshop.
Lorna is designing a unique printed fabric using her holiday photos of mussel shells as inspiration. The paintings she made in the class will be perfect for making the textile design. Louise and Neil made their stylish designs in one evening and ordered their free fabric samples.
In the pic below you can see mussel shell paintings and photo by Lorna Withers in preparation for making a printed textile design using the scanned paintings. This is the technique she used to produce her paintings: She enlarged the mussel shell photos in Photoshop, then she printed them on A3 paper. She placed them on the lightbox and placed a plain sheet of A4 paper on top so that she could see the image below it. This enabled her to use paintbrushes to paint her own interpretation of the shells.
mussel shell paintings and photo by Lorna Withers
Louise Rushen attended the course for the first time. She followed the mosaic collage technique devised by Patrick Moriarty, which involves painting a hand-painted background. Then a collage is made to a specific size using a special template. The finished design is scanned and then completed using Photoshop.
Mosaic collage printed textile design by Louise Rushen, METAL art school, Southend
Here is her original hand-painted background. You can see how it was used in her finished design.
Here is the finished design by Neil Lands. It was also his first time at one of the classes.
Mosaic collage design by Neil Lands Designing Printed Textiles evening class, METAL Art School, Southend.
Here is his original artwork that he painted. You can see parts of it in the finished design. It’s an important part of the whole process, from hand-painting, collage and Photoshop.
The venue for the classes is METAL Art School, Chalkwell Park, Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Everyone is welcome. The atmosphere at the classes is fun and productive. Hard work with a smile!
One of the main aims of Patrick Moriarty’s course is to achieve high quality artistic output from all students.
The finished designs produced to date have received very complimentary reactions, comments and feedback from the students themselves and hundreds of people on social media. Enthusiastic comments from artists, textile designers, ceramicists, surface pattern designers, bespoke tailors, fashion designers and dress-makers prove the success of this new innovative technique to produce unique new printed textiles.
Contact Patrick using the contact page of his Paisley Power website to book a place at one of his forthcoming classes.
One of the most satisfying aspects of designing fabric is the positive feedback from customers. People make all kinds of different garments and home-ware items with the printed fabrics. 2 musicians, one in US and one in UK, have even used my designs printed on paper to cover instruments and musical equipment. Next time you go to a live concert, look for the Paisley Rats design.
Paisley Rats fabric with large white rat silhouettes
A new customer who lives in New Mexico ordered a yard of my rat-pattern printed cotton from Etsy.com. I wasn’t aware she had bought the fabric until a few weeks later when I saw a very positive review she had written. I contacted her online to thank her for the review and we began a conversation. She told me that she had used the fabric to make a cushion. Here is a photo of the cushion.
Paisley Rats cushion hand-made in New Mexico
She enjoys making lots of different craft items so I decided to send her some free samples from my Paisley Power fabric collection.
fabric samples from the Paisley Power collection designed by Patrick Moriarty
I sent them to her from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK to New Mexico, US. I posted a pic of the samples online and she commented “Your fabric is the perfect fit for my project!“.
She also asked me if I could make a new colour version of my Paisley Cats design. She asked for the design to be recoloured in shades of green. I will create some green versions for her and then ask her to choose her favourite. When she has made her choice I will upload the JPEG file to the Spoonflower website so that she can order the fabric.
Here is the Paisley Cats fabric.
Paisley Power cat design. Printed cloth by Patrick Moriarty
