Using AI to design face paint designs and an amazing technicolor dreamcoat
On a recent visit to Gozo, a neighbouring island of Malta, I visited the Chrysalis Studio which was hosting a Gozo Cats Art Exhibition. The event included artwork by local artists, Christine Mizzi, who founded the studio, and Shaun McGrath, a talented photographer of cats, and whose name reflects his Irish descent. A collection of Gozo Lace was also on display next to some of Christine’s creative tattoo art.
Traditional bobbin techniques were used to create the authentic lace by hand. It was a reminder of my registration for the Cassandra Hand Lace Summer School in Clones, which was being hosted by Maire Treanor and accompanied by tutor, Catherine Smith from Drung.
On June 25, with temperatures soaring to 28 degrees, I attended the 34th Clones Lace Summer School in the Ulster Canal Stores Visitor Centre. I had missed the first three days of tuition as I was holidaying in Gozo. My thoughts while driving to Clones included my late arrival and how difficult it would be to learn how to create a piece of Clones Lace with its distinctive Clones Knot since I had no crocheting experience whatsoever.
Twenty-five women congregated in a room next to the Clones Lace Museum with some of the more experienced ladies opting to sit outside on the benches. The group included ladies from; Armagh, Wexford, Antrim, Mayo, Suffolk, Coventry and Phoenix, Arizona and the Netherlands. Also present were two guest tutors from Lyon, France and Bangor, NI, with the latter just recently nominated for an MBE for her services to ‘Bobbin Lace’ making.
On mentioning my background in Artificial Intelligence (AI) during the first few hours of lace making workshop I was introduced to a lady called Hyke Van Der Meer from Heerlen in the Netherlands. On her mobile phone she demonstrated an AI-driven app called ‘Happy Color’ which she had used to generate mandelas. The software used an AI model to facilitate the colouring of any template chosen from a large library of images. Hyke’s interest in the app was to use it as a tool to design lace patterns consisting of complicated drawings in the form of mandelas. Hyke also showed images of her work to include a very colourful coat consisting of sections of handmade lace work, sewing and crocheting. It would have been a perfect coat for the musical ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.’
She also explained how she had used ChatGPT to create the design for the face painting which was a perfect AI generated match for the handmade dreamcoat.