Black hole of "busy"ness!

Just lately I have fallen into a black hole of "busy"ness is which stopping me from spending time with my favourite pastime of surface pattern design. I have an in-house freelance graphic post at the moment which has totally mucked up all my short term plans. I hope to be free again at the end of March so in the meantime you will find this blog a bit short on exciting content until then. Unfortunately I can't turn off the old grey matter so loads of ideas are piling up on my desk and filling my to do lists!
Luckily I continue to do lots of doodling on envelopes of an evening so at least I can leave you a little bit of Efuto loveliness to keep you happy for now. I hope to post soon until then don't give up on me please? 

A morning on the slopes!

This morning I was lucky enough to have a few hours skiing before going back to Turin to get ready for the busy week ahead. It had snowed in the night and was extremely humid and frosty, about -10 degrees. Perfect for a quick ski and a hot coffee at the bar. I also managed to capture a bit of pattern inspiration too!

P.S The results of my little draw for the Efuto envelopes are as follows, Miranda, Majo and Flowerlady, please send me an e-mail with your address so that I can send them off as soon as possible. Thanks to all of you to who left a comment. If you were'nt lucky this time round don't worry, I intend to make and send lots of Efutos so there will be other chances in the near future.

 

 

 

 

 

Would you like me to send you an Efuto envelope?

As you can see I am becoming a bit obsessed with Efuto envelopes. The thing is I find them just the right size to have a doodle on of an evening, even when I am watching a film or just relaxing. Someone says (with a smile on his face!) that it's an excuse for me to work all the time but it's not really work I say. It is quite delightful to think about posting them off to different people knowing that when the postman calls they bring a bit of joy and a smile to the recipient.
So here are some of my latest envelopes and I am going to send them to three people who leave a comment after this post. I ask only that you state which of the three you like the best, A, B or C, it's a simple as that.  

The winners will be chosen in a random way and not related at all to the comment you leave so feel free to say what you like! The draw will take place on Sunday so you have a couple of days to think about it. Here's hoping that I get more than three comments! Enjoy.

 

Designs for Valentines

To celebrate Valentine's Day you can see a whole bunch of Valentines designs on the Tigerprint blog homepage carousel here. If you wait a while my design comes round too. Wait a while longer and it comes round again, and wait a while... and wait a while, it's quite hypnotic. Thank you Tigerprint. 

Oh, and by the way have a lovely Valentine's Day!

Dream Designs 18 - Carrie Tasman

Today I have a very different and original Dream Design post. Carrie Tasman is a talented painter and designer living in Oregon, USA. Carrie is also a recent graduate of the groundbreaking course The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design, where she has further nurtured her passion for pattern and colour. Her Dream Design feature piece is an experimental 'painting with pattern' and she explains to us how she created this design.

 

The name of the pattern is "Retro Dotty". I love chairs and dogs, and I paint them often. I've had the thought I'd like to create patterns from my paintings, but then I had the idea why don't I try filling my paintings with my patterns? So I decided to "cover" a favorite chair/dog painting with my one of my favorite prints that I created. It was SO much fun...hmmm...possibilities!

I have examined Carrie's work closely and her paintings are very distinct both in style and subject matter... she paints 'dogs and chairs' wonderfully and creates some lovely mixed media collage work. It is also true that her work is full of patterns and although I think until now they have perhaps taken a back seat there has always been a strong decorative element within her style. Her new interior design patterns have an illustrative feel to them and she has begun to create patterns using motifs and elements taken from her paintings. 

Furthermore I am so happy that by creating a piece for Dream Designs she has explored the possibilities of digitally adding pattern to an existing painting. I believe this is a completely new approach for her and hope it will prove to be a success. The overall result is quite beautiful. The painting is richer and more striking because of the additional patterns, I particularly love the patterns on the chair and especially the leaf and tile details on the floor. It will be exciting to see if this experiment will lead to a new era in her work.

Please take a peek at Carrie's lovely 'new' website here and read about her interesting career to date as a painter and designer.

P.S. Carrie sent me her lovely Efuto envelope before Christmas as part of The Little White Book of Surface Pattern Designers project and although I believe I mentioned it I don't think I posted an image of the envelope. Just to prove I am the proud owner of an original handpainted artwork created by Carrie! Thank you so much.

Dream Designs 17 - Emma Hawman

Our guest today on Dream Designs is Emma Hawman of Emma Frances Designs based in Leeds, UK. A recent Textile Design graduate from Leeds University and ABSPD graduate too she is now looking to begin a career in surface pattern design. Emma has chosen a very pretty pattern to share with us and she explains below why it is her Dream Design.

 

My dream design is Evergreen Wreaths, I absolutely love the layout of this design, it feels like a contemporary design because the motifs are hand drawn and not perfect. The colour palette is crisp and fresh and the motifs are a fairly large scale so this design is perfect for wallpaper. I'm dying to get some printed and put up in my house! One day hopefully.

Emma is from North Yorkshire and having grown up on a farm she claims to be inspired by the wonderful outdoors, sometimes we can catch a glimse of this background in her work. She has many floral and organic patterns that 'flow', some of her repeats are lovely, I am a big fan of studying a pattern to discover the repeat and in Emma's work that is quite an enjoyable task. Her style is sketchy and hand drawn, an abundance of pretty designs and delicate colour palettes fill her portfolio, she also has some winning patterns which I know would be suitable for the children's market. It is easy to see that Emma has an inquisitiveness to experiment with different approaches in her work so sometimes her style changes to incorporate a new theme or design challenge. 

I really love the pattern Emma has selected for this Dream Designs feature and I can imagine it on wallpaper but also on fabric for homewares. I'm sure we will see more of her lovely work as she begins her career in the exciting world of surface design.
You can see her varied portflio here or catch up with her blog here.