Making Patterns From Nature

One of my favourite hobbies is to take photographs in nature and transform them into beautifully complicated patterns which I occasionally print on a basic colour printer and arrange into a frame. I am quite old and not particularly tech savvy so this is a quite simple process that I have worked out on my iPad.

Supplies

I took the photos with my iPad

I used PS Express to tweak the images

I used iPad pages to arrange my pictures

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Basic colour printer

I use thin card to print the pictures as they are highly coloured and use a lot of ink and are easier to paste onto a board as they do not wrinkle.

I use spray mount to arrange the pictures as it is not absorbed and will not affect the print.

I use a large poster frame to collate the images together and display them.

Brown paper tape to surround the completed image

Step 1: Preparing the Image

After running my chosen photograph through PS Express to sharpen the image and ramp up the colour, I used iPad pages to arrange the images and flipped three of the pictures to create a pattern ready combination as you can see in the images above. I also used pages to arrange the images into a pattern which I can store on my iPad.

Step 2: Arranging the Images

This is what the images look like as I arrange them. I first arrange them on my iPad pages to see what they look like. If I am happy with the combination and I want to frame them, I can then print an A4 completed pattern or if I want to fill a large frame I print individual pictures of each segment onto thin card.

Step 3: Creating a Large Framed Picture Using a Basic Printer

To create a large framed picture, I first purchased a secondhand poster frame. I took out the original poster and used it as backing for my pattern. I printed out a load of pattern segments onto thin card and cut them all out using a paper guillotine. I arranged them onto the back of the poster starting in the centre and working outwards. To make this look nice and level I first folded the poster into 4 to make sure I knew exactly where the centre was. I used spray mount adhesive to place my pieces which allowed me a little time for manoeuvre and has the advantage of not making the card too wet.

Step 4:

To complete the picture I edged the pattern with brown paper tape. I did this because the pattern didn’t quite come to the edges of the poster backing paper and I think it finished it nicely. I fitted the completed pattern into the poster picture frame and hung it on my wall.