Painting with patterns

This week I have begun looking my patterns in a new light. Moving back and forth from paper to fabric, I have accumulated a large palette of textures. I have begun to think of each of my patterns as paint and I am beginning to work with them as raw materials. It is kind of exciting. This week I created three new compositions. Instead of working to card sizes, these fresh creations, are frameable art. The originals are 8 x 10 for easy framing.

I hope to have my etsy site up and running soon. In the mean time, if you love one of these, and can't wait for etsy, email and we will work something out.

enjoy!   PS: check out my updated library at spoonflower.

Lovli Day—Fresh ideas I can relate to

I get part of my daily dose of inspiration from the "Etsy Finds" email I receive in my inbox. Yesterday an item from the Lovli Day Etsy shop caught my eye. I tried to find out who Lovli Day was, but her Etsy profile was blank. Luckily on her face book fan page, I was able to discover who was responsible for this amazing fresh idea. Jessie Steury is a graphic designer who has recently entered the Etsy world. She creates very unique and different wedding invitations—but that is not what caught my eye.

One of her wedding products is a Wedding Tree.
here is how she describes it:

Having your guest leave their thumbprint and signature at your wedding day will leave you with a beautiful piece of artwork to display. Instead of storing a traditional book, which you may never look at, you can frame this finished piece and enjoy it for many years.

What's included:
• printed 24" x 36" poster and 4" x 6" instruction card
• 4 ink pads (2 light and 2 dark green)
• general customization, any of the wording or colors can be modified
 

Brilliant! She also has baby shower trees and I am sure there will be more to come. Apparently I am not the only one taking notice. Eco Vintage Weddings posted a blog entry about their Wedding Tree, on March 19. If you take a look at her Etsy sales, you will quickly see that this wedding tree is a huge hit.

I know that this was not intended as an idea for a ketubah, but it fits so well. What could be more beautiful than a tree of life with signatures of all of the guests at your wedding. Very inspiring. I wish Jessie much success with her Etsy store. Looks like she is off to a great start.

From pencil doodles to spoonflower

I spent most of the afternoon working on roughs for Tahneer and Jon's Ketubah (can't share just yet, but it will be worth the wait!). After making great progress on that project, I was dying to get back to my doodled pencil flowers. Previously I scanned and colourized the doodles (see my last post) and created some fresh notes for Aunty Sandy (a big hit!). What to do next? Creating some repeats seemed to be the logical next step. Once I got going, it seemed like an opportunity to create a family of coordinated swatches based on the design of the flowers. Once I finished creating the repeats, off I went to spoonflower to upload and create new fabric designs—and voila! check out my spoonflower fabrics here. Although I have created fabric swatches, I am seeing paper goods as well with these designs. Gift bags and wrapping paper could be fun.

from pencil doodles to fresh notes

I spent Wednesday and Thursday invigilating medical exams with my husband. The doctors taking the exams were using these great HB pencils to fill in their multiple choice answer sheets. I haven't really drawn with a pencil for many years. The feel of the pencil in my hand drawing on clean white paper was intoxicating. I started working on some new flower designs that I hoped I could later adapt to a new series of Fresh notes, or repeat patterns for spoonflower fabrics.

When I got home, I scanned my drawing and started colourizing a couple of the flowers. Then I started adding stems and leaves and before long I had a couple of compositions I was quite happy with. I printed these and a couple of other variations and put together a set of Fresh notes to give to my Aunty Sandy for her birthday. Lots of fun! I took a couple of the pencils home with me after the exams were over...I see more pencil drawings in my future.