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