Playing with Photos for Thermofax Screens

This is an edited version of a post from 2016. 

Have you ever considered how you might use your own photos in your art quilts or mixed media work?  There are several products available to create photo transfers.  You can also print photos on sheer fabrics like organza to create a different effect.  Some people use photos as the basis for a landscape or portrait quilt, using it to make a pattern for piecing.   At PGFiber2Art we like to use photos as the basis for Thermofax screens.  We use Photoshop Elements to turn photos into black and white images that are suitable for screens. 

This zinnia image is a good example of how many different ways an image can be manipulated for different outcomes.  Excited by the "what if", we created several variations of the same image that might be used together. 

Photoshop Elements is a powerful program and has many filters that can be applied to a black and white image.  Below is the black and white image of the flower with the background removed.

Once we have gotten an image to this point, we start applying filters from the Filters menu.  There are lots to choose from and it just takes some time playing to see what you like best, but usually we settle on one.  Each filter also has its own options that allow you to adjust things like darkness, contrast, details, etc. so the possible outcomes are many.  Just for the fun of it we decided to apply different filters to this flower to illustrate the options for students when teching this technique.  And that's when the light bulb went on and we realized that this could be a cool design element.  Here are 5 different filters applied to the flower image.

These will be made into screens in a variety of sizes, and then the fun with fabric and paint will begin.  Can you visualize how multiple variations of the one image will work together?  What images do you have that you think would make a good Thermofax screen?

Art is a Bridge

The spring issue of Quilting Arts Magazine included a Reader's Challenge to create a 10" x 5" work with horizontal orientation on the theme "Art is a Bridge".  This of course was open to any interpretation of the word "bridge" - literal or figurative.  Sue is always up for a challenge and decided to give it a try, with a specific literal interpretation in mind.  On her trip to Scotland last year, a stop in Queensferry provided a photo op for several bridges crossing the Firth of Forth, one being the Forth railroad bridge.  

This is the photo Sue took of the bridge, which is the world’s longest cantilever railway bridge.  It was built between 1882 and 1889 and restored in 2012.  The red of the bridge was a striking contrast to the blue of the sky and water.

It was fairly simple to recreate, with only a few elements - water, sky, a bit of land and the bridge itself. The challenge was to create the bridge in a way that would visually allow the background to show through the lines of the bridge.  It appeared the solution to that would need to be a Thermofax screen, but rather than printing directly on the background, printing on something sheer so that the background would show through.  

The first step was to crop down to just the bridge and convert it to black and white.  Then the background would have to be eliminated to get to an image suitable for a screen.

Once that was done, some test prints were made on a sheer fabric to make sure the concept would work.  Then constructing the small piece could begin.

The photo below shows the background elements.

After the bridge was printed on Extravorganza, some MistyFuse was applied to the back.  Then it was cut out close to the shape of the bridge and fused in place on the background.

The last step was adding the quilting and embellishment.  Some yarns were couched to create a wave-like effect on the water. A bit of pen and ink were used to darken and complete some of the lines of the bridge.

Finished piece.  Even though it didn't make the cut for those selected to be published in the magazine, we thought you would enjoy seeing it and the process in making it, particularly creating the Thermofax screen. It will serve as a fond reminder of the trip!

Covid19 Quilt Challenge

Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) is an international organization whose purpose is to support and expand the reach of art quilts and quilters through world-wide exhibitions.  The organization is also broken down into regional groups and local PODS. Sue belongs to the Northern Virginia POD which is part of the North Carolina/Virginia Region.  The pod issues periodic challenges and the most recent was a COVID challenge - to create a quilt inspired by the virus, whatever aspect the quilter chose and any size.  With other projects on her plate, Sue chose to make a 12" square and focus on the frequently seen image of the virus and the stay home orders issued in the first months of the pandemic.

The inspiration came from 2 things - a photo of a globe thistle that reminded her of the spikes of the virus and photos of doors taken several years ago which represented shelter.  The first part of the creative process was to turn the thistle photo into a Thermofax screen.

Cropping down to just the flower portion, changing to black and white, and then applying a filter resulted in this image used to make the screen.

Since this was representing the spikey part of the virus, Sue wanted to print this over top of a circle representing the body of the virus.  For that she turned to a stencil of  circles in various sizes. The plan included 3 different sizes of the screen, so 3 sizes of circles were needed.  The circles were stenciled first in gray, and the virus spikes printed over top in a raspberry color on a dark teal hand dyed background. This photo shows before and after the virus is printed over the circles.

Next was adding the door to represent home and shelter.  The original photo was slightly altered in photoshop and printed on fabric, then fused to the center of the square.

You'll notice another element was added here as well - some phrases often heard from the medical professionals - "wash your hands, wear a mask, 6 feet apart, disinfect, flatten the curve, social distance, stay home".  These were also screen printed onto the background. After adding the backing, the piece was quilted.

It looks like this little quilt can serve as a reminder of cautious behavior for the near future and maybe even longer. Has the pandemic inspired you to create a quilt or other fiber art?

Turn Your Photos into Thermofax Screens!

We are looking for a couple more students to make this class a "go" for next Saturday.  Check your schedule and come join us!

We are again teaching this class at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria on Saturday, January 28, from 10 AM -1 PM.  We will show you how to use Photoshop Elements to convert a photo to a black and white image suitable for creating a thermofax screen that can then be used in your art quilts or mixed media work.  You will practice with some of our images first and then work with your own to see how you can incorporate your own unique imagery into your work without any concerns about copyright.  We'll also give you tips for taking photographs to make this process easier.  Soon you'll be looking at things with screen images in mind.  If you're in driving distance of the metropolitan DC area, come join us on Jan.28!

Note: While your own laptop and copy of Photoshop Elements are most beneficial, you can share one of our laptops if you don't have one, and download a trial copy of Photoshop Elements to try for 30 days before purchasing. Send us an email at pgfiber2art  @ gmail dot com.

Playing with Photos for Screens

Have you ever considered how you might use your own photos in your art quilts or mixed media work?  There are several products available to create photo transfers.  You can also print photos on sheer fabrics like organza to create a different effect.  Some people use photos as the basis for a landscape or portrait quilt, using it to make a pattern for piecing.   At PGFiber2Art we like to use photos as the basis for thermofax screens.  Yesterday we taught our class on how to use Photoshop Elements to turn photos into black and white images suitable for screens. 

When using this pink flower as a sample image for our students to work with, we were reminded of how many different ways an image can be manipulated for different outcomes, excited by the "what if"....what if we created several variations of the same image and used them together?  

Photoshop Elements is a powerful program and has many filters that can be applied to a black and white image.  Below is the black and white image of the flower with the background removed.

Once we have gotten an image to this point we start applying filters from the Filters menu.  There are lots to choose from and it just takes some time playing to see what you like best, but usually we settle on one.  Each filter also has its own options that allow you to adjust things like darkness, contrast, details, etc. so the possible outcomes are many.  Just for the fun of it we decided to apply different filters to this flower to illustrate the options for our students.  And that's when the light bulb went on and we realized that this could be a cool design element.  Here are 5 different filters applied to the flower image.

These will be made into screens in a variety of sizes, and then the fun with fabric and paint will begin.  Can you visualize how multiple variations of the one image will work together?  Hope to get to work on this idea in the next couple of weeks and will post pictures of the results.

Turn Your Photos into Screen Images

It's not to late to register!  Once again we are teaching this class at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria this Saturday, Feb. 13, from 10 AM -1 PM.  We will show you how to use Photoshop Elements to convert a photo to a black and white image suitable for creating a thermofax screen that can then be used in your art quilts or mixed media work.  You will practice with some of our images first and then work with your own to see how you can incorporate your own unique imagery and own the copyright.  We'll also give you tips for taking photographs to make this process easier.  Soon you'll be looking at things with screen images in mind.  If you're in the metropolitan DC area, come join us on Saturday!

Note: While your own laptop and copy of Photoshop Elements are most beneficial, you can share one of our laptops if you don't have one, and download a trial copy of Photoshop Elements to try for 30 days before purchasing. Send us an email at pgfiber2art  @ gmail dot com.

From Photo to Thermofax Screen

Have you ever wanted to turn your own photo images into thermofax screens?  We are happy to make custom screens from your images.  A lot of the screens in our Etsy shop are from photos we have taken.  We use Photoshop Elements to convert our photos to screen images.  While not all photos may fit the exact same process, there are some basic steps for  converting a photo to a screen image.  If you can take the object out of its natural environment and photograph it against a white or black background, or take photos with a single color background such as water or sky, it makes the task a bit easier.

The first step is always to save your original photo under a different name so the original remains unchanged.  That way you always have a copy to go back to if you need to start over.  Here's a photo of a ginkgo leaf against a black felt background.  Once you've saved it to a new file name, you want
to crop your photo to get rid of the excess background.  Come in as close as you can to the object - that way your dimensions will be the object itself, not the object plus background.

Below is a portion of the toolbar that shows the tools we'll use for this image.  Be sure the foreground color is set to black - this will make a difference when you apply a filter.

After cropping, the next thing to do is change your image to black & white.  Thermofax screen images need to be black & white (no gray) in order to burn a satisfactory image.  Go to the Enhance menu and choose Convert to Black and White.  The dialog box below will open up.  You have several styles to choose from and can also adjust intensity.  Try them all - what works best for one image may be totally different for another.  In this case, I chose "infrared", but quite often I use "newspaper".  What you are trying to do is create a high contrast black & white image that shows details.  In this case, infrared seemed to show more texture in the leaf.  When satisfied, click OK.  (We should note however, that sometimes we remove background before changing to black & white.  It just so happens that with this particular image, it's easier to obtain an outline in the image by changing to B & W first.)

Your image file now looks like this.  It's good to save your file at this point, again with a new name, so that if succeeding steps don't turn out exactly as you want, you have this step to go back to rather than starting over.

There are several paths you could take next, and a lot is trial and error to find the process that works best for any given photo.  One option is to get rid of the background first, and then apply a filter to get the effect you want.  Another choice is to apply a filter and then remove the background.  Typically we remove the background first, but found that with this image, applying the filter first gives the image a stronger outline.  To apply a filter, go to the filter menu; there are lots of choices!  The filters we have found we use most frequently are in Sketch, either photocopy or stamp.

This is what it looks like with the filter applied.  (Note - as mentioned previously, the foreground color needs to be set to black to keep the filtered image black & white.)

Next we'll get rid of the background.  Again, there are several ways you might do this, and it also depends on what version of Photoshop Elements you have.  The eraser tool has both a background eraser and a magic eraser.  However, because the background is mottled instead of solid, the basic eraser works best.  (Again, try the various options to see what works best.)  There is another option if you have Photoshop Elements version 11 or earlier - that is a tool called the Magic Extractor which is found in the Image menu.  (If you have a later version, we'll cover that next.)  When you choose the extractor, the window below opens.

You use the red marker to identify the areas you want to keep, and the blue to mark areas to remove.  Choose the preview tool (circled) to see the results before clicking OK; that way you can still edit. The preview looks like this.

You can see that the image, including the outline, remains intact, with just a bit of clean up needed around the edges.  That can be done with an eraser after closing the extractor.  If you're satisfied with the preview, click OK.  If not satisfied, you can do some additional editing.

Before (above) and after (below) cleaning up the edges with the eraser.

What if you have a newer version of Photoshop Elements?  After version 11, there is no more Magic Extractor.  Well, here's an alternative method.  After applying the filter, you can remove the background with the eraser tool.

Start with the Magic Eraser and click in the background spaces around the leaf.  It should take away most of the mottled background; just be careful - if you see dramatic changes to your leaf such as the outline disappearing, go to Edit > Undo (or Ctrl Z).  Remove the remainder of the background with the "regular" eraser; you may have to zoom in on the image to erase close to the outline of the image and use the size slider to change the size of the eraser.

Another alternative to the magic extractor in version 12 and newer is the quick selection tool, although that is more challenging for this image than the eraser.

If using the quick selection tool, click & drag over area you want to select.  Use the add/subtract tool at the bottom of screen to add/remove additional areas.  Then click Refine Edge; adjust the edges as desired.  Click “Output To”; select New Document.  Go to File, Save As to save & name this new version of your image.


After you have removed the background, save your file again, adding height and width to the file name - this is your original size.  This way your file can be adjusted to various sizes depending on the project you have in mind.  To resize an image, go to the Image menu and select Resize > Image Size.

Type in one of the dimensions you want; the other will adjust automatically as long as you have constrain proportions checked.

Again, save your image as a .jpg (image) file with the dimensions as part of the name.  You will end up with multiple files through this process, both photoshop files and image files, so being specific in your naming convention helps avoid confusion.  I would name this ginkgo4x3.7.jpg.  It's also smart to organize all the files for one image in a folder. Finally, your image is ready to be made into a screen and then the fun begins when you can start printing!  Here is this particular image printed on fabric.

Although this tutorial may seem very long, the process itself goes faster, so don't let the length deter you.  As mentioned earlier, there is not one specific process that works for every image.  But once you've had some practice with a variety of photos, it is easier to know what will work best without as much trial and error.  In future posts, we'll add some tips for other types of images.  Give it a try and see what you come up with!

Copyright pgfiber2art 2015. You are welcome to print out this tutorial for your own personal use but please do not share printed copies. We ask that you refer others to this page who may interested in learning about this process.  Thanks!