Fabric8 Design Contest

Today I entered my competition piece for Fabric8.  Fabric8 is a collaboration between Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics to discover eight fabric collections from emerging designers, based off of a chosen theme.  The theme this year is 'Cosmic Voyage!'  Out of the eight collections, one overall winner is selected for the ultimate prize of a contract with Robert Kaufman to develop a fabric collection for them!  

I decided to go with a cute space scene of critter-nauts harvesting stars with mischievous space creatures joining in on their fun.  I would love to see a whole children's room based around these characters!  Before I can even think about what I would design as this fabric's coordinates, I have to make it through to the first round of 100!  Wish me luck!

Make Art That Sells - Week 5

Last week concluded the Make Art That Sells e-course that I've been spending so much time on over the last five weeks.  I'm feeling sad that it's over, but have a renewed sense of love in my art making!  The final project was a personal one.  We were instructed to take one of our personal collections and create a hyper-lush zipper pouch for the gift market.  I'm a girl who loves collecting and arranging my treasured objects into little groupings, so this project was right up my alley!  After some debate, I chose to illustrate my vintage taxidermy collection (and add in a couple pieces I don't have yet... but hope to, someday).  I knew going into it that this personal project was not going to be as marketable in subject matter, but since Lilla said to make something for us, that WE enjoyed... I decided to just go for it!  Who knows, there are some awesome boutique companies that take more risks, so maybe there is a chance that this taxidermy pouch may someday find it's way into stores.  I played around with a color palette that I don't usually use, but was good for me to step outside of my color comfort zone!  It gave me a fresh perspective on a favorite subject matter.

Looking forward to taking part in the second half of the course (MATS B) next spring!

Make Art That Sells - Week 1

Most of you only know me for the creature work I do for my 'Horrible Adorables' line.  What you may not know (though I post on and off about it) is that I also have a love for surface design.  I've been working as a freelancer for various toy and textile companies for the past five years.  Sometimes I make soft toy prototypes, sometimes repeat patterns that get molded into hard plastic... it really varies!  Something I would love to do is get more involved in the various design fields and license my art.  Maybe a line of Jordan Elise textiles are in my future???  

I was thrilled to find out about art agent extraordinaire, Lilla Rogers', online class "Make Art That Sells," and promptly signed up!  I've only been through my first week of the intensive five week course, but I'm already loving it!  Everyone is extremely encouraging and kind.  The environment sort of reminds me of my days as a fiber student, sitting around a table of ladies on major day, drinking chai tea and talking about feminism and how we can make the world a better place.  Yes, we were the free-spirited hippie types of our school ;)  

The first week was all about bolt fabric; something that comes a little more naturally to me.  Our subject of vintage kitchen ware with exotic fruits challenged me to move away from my normal cutesy critter designs (though as you can see in my name logo, I had to insert at least one silly beast).  I'm excited to learn more about how to immerse myself into the different industries, step outside of my comfort zone, and better understand my art style (something I struggle with from time to time).  FIngers crossed that this class can prepare me for exciting opportunities in the not so distant future!

Vintage Finds

I went antiquing with one of my friends on Friday.  The shops we went to are a bit of a mixed bag on what sort of items you might come across.  Sometimes I leave with multiple bags of goodies, other times one silly item that I regret purchasing as soon as I step foot out the door!  However, they never seem to be on short supply of kooky objects!  Here are some curious things I came across.  I ended up taking home the little bow-tie deer and a vintage bed set with the most fantastic animal print!  

Side note - It has to be said that the last image of the marionette looks like she's channeling Cindy Sherman's Untitled #96, no?

Sock It to Me

I submitted a few designs recently to funky legwear company, "Sock It to Me," for their annual 'Design-A-Sock' competition.  It was a ton of fun to figure out what imagery would look cute on a knee sock.  Though I did not win, or even place in the competition, I was completely surprised and excited to hear that they still wanted to produce my design!

I named it "Paper Chain Gang" and it features sweet boy and girl chain dolls that will stripe around the sock.  I can't wait to see these when they come out!