Plastic Memories

 

I have been trying all day to upload my scarf design for the Beta Fashion contest. My scarf is named Plastic Memories and was meant to be part of the Heaven's Door project. I think their site is down or just not working. It may have been on overload as it is the last day to submit your entries. So after a very frustrating afternoon I have finally given up and am posting my entry here on my blog.

I did have some SUPER news this afternoon which you will be hearing about on my blog in a couple of weeks time. It is TOP SECRET so I will have to keep Mum for a while. The news certainly was the turning point in my stressful day. :)

Still time to sign up for GBSPS!

You may have noticed my one and only banner over on the right hand side of the page. It is to promote The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap 5. Created and organised by the talented Beth Nicolls it is already in it's 5th edition. Every participant has to make a postcard, the only design rule being that it has to include stitching of some sort and be relative to the theme chosen, which this time is DISCOVER. After registering you will be allocated a swap partner and you must send off your postcard to them, then wait patiently for their creation to arrive to complete the swap.

There are still two days left to register, it's fun and free, there is even a free draw and three lucky participants will receive a "yummy parcel of stationery from Japan". I'm in... so what are you waiting for!

Butterfly surprise

A strange thing happened this morning. I saw this lovely butterfly have a fight with a wasp in the garden. Then as if to calm down it sat in the shade for a while just long enough for me to take a couple of photographs. Not very good at identifying different butterfly species I'm unsure if it is a rarity. However I have never seen one like this before and have no idea what type it is or where it might have come from. Luckily for me it passed through my garden... life can be full of pleasant surprises.

Patternbase book project

Patternbase began in May of 2011 and was created by Kristi O'Meara. A great resource and place of inspiration for surface pattern designers it has rapidly gained success and is now about to publish its first book PATTERNBASE: A Book of Contemporary Textile & Surface Design. The good (GREAT) news is that TWO of my designs have been chosen and will be included in the book! You can see my designs below.

Love Leaves © Dawn Clarkson

A big thank you to Kristi or giving me this super opportunity to showcase my work.

A few of my fellow e-course students have also had their work chosen, congratulations to Maria Jose Bautista V, and Jennie Whitham.

BIG SMILES TODAY :)

Birds of a feather © Dawn Clarkson

From Begonia to pattern!

Hi, I seem to be spending a lot of time experimenting with and analysing my work process. From my first sketches through to the final designs. Why do I draw in a certain way...  what aspects attract me when I am sketching... why do I choose a certain element to develop into my final design?  This process is helping me "fill" a lot of sketchbook pages and I have already drawn enough motifs to keep me busy from now until Christmas!

The most important thing is to improve my capability to select strong motifs which I can then use to create original designs or patterns. It is not an easy road to take as it makes me constantly question what I do and why I do it.

I am sharing a project which I have worked on for "one day and a bit". I started by sketching a Begonia which I have in the house, it has lots of beautiful delicate lemon flowers. I then chose some flowers and a couple of leaves to begin to work into my patterns. My colour palette was also inspired directly by the plant. After creating two seamless repeats and endless placement prints I applied the designs to different stationery items. The result is a fresh, bold and modern collection. Hope you like them?

You can check out the whole board on FLICKR.

Swimwear Geometrics

I have had a busy weekend  designing a collection of prints suitable for Swimwear. Here are three of my designs and you can see the rest on Flickr. Hope you like them.

P.S. I would love a swimsuit with the first pattern on it :)

My thought for the day

Well I think that says it all folks... it would be nice to have time to post more often xx