Computer Generated Designs

I've been fascinated and also thrilled to see what can be achieved with the computer.  I have a very basic version of Word and at the beginning found importing and manipulating my lettering samples a real struggle.  Fortunately my neighbour's daughter showed me a few simple techniques and I was able to take it from there.

 The samples below have been created in such a simple way: stretch and squeeze, rotate, copy and paste and yet the designs are so effective.

The white samples are light and sketchy; the blue ones much more complete, especially samples 5-8. Little surprises are also revealed: a bird's footprint, tiny birds perched on wires, a set of library books; a certain delicacy and ghostliness prevails in some.

All the samples are beautiful and expressive.  They're subtle too and I found the rhythmic results created by the repetition of elements really pleasing to my eye: the echoing of a mark is so much greater than using it singly.  And mirroring, another technique, is a powerful way of integrating a design: compare samples 7 and 8 to understand this observation.

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What a useful tool the computer can be.  It's possible to design, save, print off, undo a change and compare the two.  Although it shows the handmade-design's potential, and reveals some of the nature of the handmade it only hints at its tactile quality.  I suppose what I'm saying is the computer helps increase objectivity, and now I've learnt these techniques I will use them again, though nothing can replace running a hand or eye over a cloth surface, though making designs this way can be quite addictive -- below the first is a child's smocked dress, the second a trail of bird prints, ready to interpret in thorn stitch.

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