Lace and Celtic Knots Tutorial: Chapter 1

Introduction I was thinking about fractals the other day while doing my calculus homework and came to a realization. Fractals are so cool because they are repeating mathematical formulas. So, being the total nerd that I am, I thought to myself, "What other patterns are there in the world? What other things can adhere to a strict mathematical formula no matter how you flip them?" And my devious little mind came up with the answer: Words. So, at three AM, I haul my butt down to the basement and plop down before the computer to mess with words in photoshop. And this is the result, which I shall share with you all because I think it's spiffy.

 

 

 To start, draw a text box and type something, like a name. I’m going to use my name, Reina. Make sure you’re using a script font, or something more complicated. Fonts like “Times New Roman” and “Comic Sans” don’t work too well.

Right click the layer you’ve written the name in and select “Rasterize layer.” Duplicate the layer and then go to “Edit” => “Transform” => "Flip Vertical." Merge the layers. You now get something like this:

 

Duplicate your funky looking text again. Go back to the “Transform” menue under “Edit.” Now, select “Flip horizontal.” If you want, you can pull the text around a bit. I’m leaving mine on top of itself, like so.

 

 

Duplicate your layer again. You have a lot of options now. You can either make the test into a pretty chain, or you can make it a circle. To make it a chain, drag the new layer so that it lines up with your old one. Hold “shift” to keep it from moving up or down. If you make a chain, you get something like this:

 

 

If you want to make a circle, rotate your duplicated layer 90 degrees. To do this, go to “Edit” => “Transform” => “Rotate 90° CW” or “Rotate 90° CCW.” It doesn’t matter which. Merge down. You’ll end up with something that looks like a plus sign, like so:

 

 

Now, duplicate that layer. Go back to the “Transform” menue and select “Rotate.” You want to set this new layer at 45° to the other layer. Holding shift will help keep all the angles equal. Merge down.

 

 

If the inner part of the circle looks too messy, you can go back and erase sections to clean it up.

 

 

Below are a few variations on my name, using different flips.    

 

 

You can also use brushes to make nifty-looking glyphs, or similar designs to the above.

 

The glyphs and designs below were made with various brushes, which can be found on Miss M.

 

 

To color the patterns above, I just locked the transparency and took a soft brush with varying colors to them. So, there you go! Pretty lace and Celtic knots that are very easy to make.