I am participating in the Print Invitational Exhibition at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art this month (through November 15th). The show is an ingenious fundraiser for the gallery: each artist donates an edition of 20 prints, which are sold for $20 each.

It was fun to be included as I don’t consider myself even remotely to be a printmaker, but in fact I realized I have been making digital editions — both woven and printed — for some time now. I had particularly been looking for a more serious application for the digital fabrics I have been investigating, so I jumped at the chance to participate.

My edition consists of 20 hand sewn needle books. The interior page is a digital print of a pseudo antique textile sample book, and there are wool felt pages sewn in to realize the sample swatch image and, practically, to fill with pins & needles for a traveling pincushion. I invented my own sample page when I was inspired by seeing the old sample books of wool fabrics manufactured by the Harmonists, here in New Harmony, circa 1815. The fabric names I used in my pages come from old names for woolen fabrics such as that which were produced here: as we might speak of worsted or gabardine, the old names were things like “Bombazine” and “Druggett”. The names took my fancy (thanks to the book Textiles in America: 1650-1870, by Florence M. Montgomery)

Here is the book, interior & exterior.
Also shown is the original Harmonist sample book (from Old Economy PA, where the Harmonists settled after leaving New Harmony)
My prints are available for sale ($20 each) at New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, 812-682-3156.