Top Ten!

As I mentioned a couple of days ago I had the best homecoming ever when I found that I had snuck into the top ten of last weeks Spoonflower design contest. The theme was "Fashion". I absolutely adore the 1940s and 1950s and am especially interested in how designers can completely change trends. One of my favourite examples is Dior and his "New Look" that was introduced in 1947. It is so sophisticated and elegant, influencing fashion throughout the 1950s. I decided to take elements of this look and create a design around them. I so was pleased to get so many positive comments about my design. I hand drew the elements but also collaged with scanned in fabric texture and a vintage tape measure.

Here is a picture of one section showing my use of different layers. This is how it looks printed. I am so chuffed about how it looks in repeat. It is now for sale in my Spoonflower shop:

"A New Look " fabric.

Moyo Directory

My Moyo Profile

As I said yesterday I am just back from a wonderful holiday. When I got back I couldn't wait to get started again. I was really excited to see an email from The Art and Business of Surface Design telling me about their new Moyo Directory- an online home for surface pattern designers everywhere. I wanted to get started as soon as possible and spent most of yesterday putting some things together. I still want to add lots more but I am really pleased with how it looks (see below!). If you want to take a look click on the link "My Moyo Profile" to the left and then click love if you like what you see!

Happy Homecomings!

I am back to blogging after a lovely, restful and much needed holiday. I gained lots of inspiration from my travels and took loads of photos. I love focusing on details in walls, doors and windows!

Some of the shapes, patterns and colours may soon start to creep into my new work because I need to get going again! I think this is my first real test with my designing. I had really built up momentum and had produced a lot before my break and I can't wait to get started again. There are loads of things I want to do but must be mindful not to expect too much in the next few days. I tend to put too much pressure on so I think my philosophy will be to be kind to myself as I build up speed again!

P.S. Something that really made it a happy homecoming was my first top 10 placing in the weekly Spoonflower contest, "Fashion"!

http://www.spoonflower.com/contests/208

Spoonflower.

One of the things that I have been working on is a Spoonflower shop. Spoonflower is an American company where you can upload and sell your designs without having to print them yourselves (although you do have to order test swatches before they go on sale). I have created a shop front and uploaded quite a few designs. They also run a weekly design contest which is really good to stimulate ideas as they provide themes to work to.

http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/slumbermonkey

My favourite designs at the moment are my "Homespun" collection.

I still like to make things!

I have already written about my designs, ideas and inspirations but I thought that I would write about other things that I like to do. I still like to create and make things and have a strong leaning to all things craft. One of my passions is jewellery and I have recently been experimenting with creating my own pieces. I like to try out different materials and my latest discovery has been shrink plastic (remember ShrinkieDinks???). This is slightly more sophisticated but works in the same way. I am really pleased with the results. I have thought about an ETSY shop but that's for another day!

 I have also tried out cyanotype and made some coin purses out of my fabric. I am lucky enough to be able to sell these through The Minories art gallery where I studied for my MA.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Minories-Art-Gallery/181954675205053?fref=ts

More Monochrome Fun!

I am still working on my ideas for the Tigerprint competition, "Black and White." As I play around with ideas I am really drawn to the idea of getting back to basics. It's quite liberating not having to worry about colour, it means that the icons, motifs and patterns you use have to speak for themselves. I have discovered that some very simple ideas really work. Sometimes I feel that I really over complicate things so it's good to think in a more simple way. Here are a couple of more ideas that I have had,

It's hot today!

Today is going to be really hot so it maybe difficult to concentrate on designing! I have lots of competition themes to work on so really need to focus and get them done.

Yesterday I was just using black and white in my designs but today I'm going to talk colour. I love colour. I like wearing it, buying it and using it in my work. I get colour inspiration from lots of places. I am a great user of Pininterestest, (http://pinterest.com/SlumberMonkey/boards/ )and have a board just dedicated to colourways. I store them here and when I am looking for ideas to add colour to a design I look here. The pin are from a variety of sources. There are some really good websites where you can find colour swatches and I repin from other people. I also try to generate my own. When I did Module 1 of the Art and Business of Surface Pattern they had lots of hints and tips about using colour. On one of the sites they mentioned you can create swatches and it's great fun! I love taking photos as well so I went a bit mad creating lots of colourways like this,

This was created at (http://letschipit.com/)

Thought this was a great colourway for hot colours, perfect for today.