Images October 2019 Digital Edition

www.images-magazine.com OCTOBER 2019 images 53 KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES Erich Campbell is an award-winning digitiser, embroidery columnist and educator, with more than 20 years’ experience both in production and the management of e-commerce properties. He is the programme manager for the commercial division of BriTon Leap. www.erichcampbell.com the number of times I’ve counselled digitisers who have been struggling with large pieces and who were stuck on one of these ‘common-sense’ steps. The only real medicine to make you less likely to struggle with large and difficult pieces is repetition. Each attempt generates experience, knowledge, and confidence. Take the risk, revise and repair, and use the lessons you’ve learned to fuel your next large- format embroidery adventure. A subject I've digitised repeatedly, the pizza man appears here in a full-colour rendition. This piece is actually slightly smaller than the original I had done for them, made to accommodate and allow for the text under the design. At this new size, I had to re-evaluate the 'engraving style' rendition of the design, eliminating every other shading line in the art to make sure the design didn't become too dense or too dark. Measuring and analysis were critical here to keep densities correct and to remain true to the spirit of the art rather than slavishly following it and ending up with a poor result. Defining this 'every other line' rule before I started the design gave me a frame of reference that kept me from having to constantly question my measurements as I digitised The initial art for Gilly Loco had an insanely detailed, multi-coloured and photographic texture insert in the body of the lizard. During the initial interview, the customer had expressed a desire to come up with something very unique and different from what she had seen in other decorated apparel – something her designer had accomplished though the addition of the complex textures. With a quick turn-around time, we had to innovate. Looking at our obstacles and opportunities, we decided to explore unique appliqué materials as a way to add interest without extra stitching/digitising time. Though unconventional and requiring some additional hand-work, this faux reptile-skin upholstery material appliqué added all the interest without the difficulty, making the process of digitising and execution much quicker and satisfying the customer’s unique request to the tune of an unplanned re-order This exceedingly simple design was all opportunities. With large, flat areas of colour, it was a perfect candidate for appliqué. However, after some play and experimentation in the execution phase, I chose to render the smaller area of the mouth and teeth in full embroidery to add visual interest. Without that structure, the teeth lacked depth, but with the addition of the ‘carved’ satin stitches, the teeth became dimensional, subtly separated, and prominent encounter areas that make you reverse earlier decisions, but these new obstacles become side-trips on the established road map put in place by your analysis. When encountering such a reversion, save to a new, separate file before you make changes. Stop and define the new obstacle, decide on your solution, and plough forward. With your back-up file in place you can experiment: digitise throw-away elements to test theories, separate an element from the design and tweak it, or return to your earlier work if you find yourself on the wrong path. Take advantage of the digital nature of your work by saving multiple versions of your file and allowing yourself to play with new solutions. Don’t be romantic about the work you’ve already done — if you have to re-work or eliminate an element to move forward, just save a new file and go. If you remember your overall path, you’ll be able to pick up the trail once you’ve solved a problem. Save often, take breaks as needed, and dive back in. Replay and revise Whether you’re digitising a sub-design or the entire piece, it makes sense to replay your design. Sampling monstrous designs is time-consuming – don’t forget to engage in slow-replays in software to quickly evaluate issues in sequencing and to check important transitions between elements. This is the time to find accidental copy/paste errors, poor placement of start and stop points, and to identify places you could travel under a later element with stitching rather than stopping to trim and jump. Gross errors are easy to see at this stage: take notes and identify areas you need to address. Review, identify, repair, and repeat. It’s better to catch these flaws now rather than in hour two of a four-hour stitch-out. Stitch and evaluate With all this careful work, it can seem like stopping even a single-head’s production for a full sample is a waste. That said, wasting a multi-head load of garments and half of a very long run-time is far more devastating. Always run your design on materials that are comparable to the intended garment, especially with something that is expensive and time-consuming; match the colour, fibre, weave, and stabiliser in your sampling material as closely as possible to the piece you’ll be stitching to ensure your sample accurately predicts the final garment results. Evaluate the first stitch-out and go through the same editing and sampling process if you find major flaws. Do it again Much of the advice in this article is common sense. Yet I’ve lost count of Images on this page courtesy of Celeste Schwartz