No pattern, No party!

At this moment in time, due to a couple of unfortunate coincidences, my life has become a whirlwind, or as my mom says, like living in a washing machine and someone turned the cycle on to spin! Some things that are happening are enjoyable and others are a bit stressful, but all are things that I cannot control so I just have to sit them out. 

I would love to turn this trend around, however, the spin cycle may not ease off until Christmas and as usual the one thing that gets thrown by the wayside first is my pattern making! So no serious designing is going on at the moment, just a lot of doodling and jotting down of ideas, keeping things on the boil until I have more time to dedicate to patterns again. 

At first I thought 'No pattern, No party'... but I am now back to a bit of enjoyable cutting, sticking and doodling in front of the telly in the evenings, and it is not such a bad idea. This week I have been producing handcrafted envelopes known as 'Efuto' which I shall be posting off to some of my surface pattern friends. 

It is always enjoyable to create 'little' patterns and projects just to keep my creative juices flowing until better times. Here are a few close-ups of my designs without showing the whole of the envelope. I like them to be a surprise when they arrive in the post!

If you leave a comment after this post I will be drawing out one name to find a winner for an Efuto that needs a new owner! I hope to hear from you :)

31st March - A pattern a day.

After one month of "A pattern a day" I must admit I am looking forward to a day off tomorrow! 

However I am so glad that I had the idea to begin this project as it has really been a great experience for me. A few days ago I came across THIS by Matt Cutt on Twitter, without realising it I had been doing what he recommends!

I have worked really hard and quite a few of the patterns I have created will be developed further and some will make it onto Spoonflower. My last pattern is a patchwork mix of all the patterns that I have done over the past 4 weeks. I do hope you like it, I think it is super pretty!

FLICKR HERE

30th March - Maxi Fish

This completes the trio of my fish patterns. I have changed the scale and the colours again to make a completely new design. Everyday my colour palette has improved. See the seamless pattern on Flickr.

I am tempted to try another version and do a Mix Fish which would include all the scale designs in one pattern... but as you might have noticed my "A pattern a day" is coming to an end. Hooray you might say, but me no, I have enjoyed myself and created loads of new patterns. Tomorrow is my last day... please come back and have a look at my final pattern. :(

29th March - Midi Fish

My Mini Fish design has become a "Midi Fish" design. I have changed the scale of the pattern and added two new colours. Look on Flickr here. I think tomorrow might be fish again folks!

28th March - Mini Fish

This is a very simple design element and a very simple repeat pattern. However I find them very effective as an overall pattern which could be adapted to cover a wide variety of products. As an example I have applied the pattern to a pink beach bag!

More mini fishes on FLICKR... and more fishes tomorrow!

27th March - Scanned flowers 2

Well, much the same work process as yesterday. Scanned in images from sketchbook and coloured them in photoshop, created background using brush strokes, worked out a seamless pattern, and there you have it...  Scanned flowers 2. See repeat here on Flickr.

26th March - Scanned flowers

My current experiment was to scan in a couple of flowers from my sketchbook and try to create a seamless pattern from them. The original pencil drawings were in black and white so I coloured the different flowers in photoshop. Then I added a few brush circles to the background and my design was finished. See the repeat pattern on Flickr here.

25th March - Squares (7 colour palette)

I have been trying out new colour palettes as I have identified this area of my work as a bit "hit and miss" so I need lots of practice. (Not that my colour palettes are'nt good, just that they are not always consistent and the ones I really like are often fruit of a bit of "Good Luck"!) My seamless pattern was created by using a simple square motif and my colour palette has 7 colours. Just by changing the colours I have tried to create 4 different "moods". My favourite of the four has been put on Flickr.

24th March - (More) Feathers 3

Sorry more feathers... but I like them sooooo much! 

See repeat on Flickr.

23rd March - Feathers 2

My feather design made into a lovely "swirly" flower shape. The colour palette remains the same as yesterday because I LOVE these colours so much! Hope you like them too. See the repeat on Flickr.

22nd March - Feathers 1

I have lots of drawings of feathers and I love the way they swirl around the page. I think I might be experimenting with them for a few days as they lend themselves completely to repeat pattern designs. See more on Flickr.

21st March - No post today 2

Today has been one of those days that happen every now and then. Although I had a busy schedule I had also intended to spend time on my computer and doodle another pattern. However that was not to be as we have had a little emergency in the "posh gift shop"... Easter windows just HAVE to be started today! So as I don't feel like working after dinner tonight my "pattern a day" will be up and running again on Thursday (that is, TOMORROW!). :)

20th March - Repeat butterflies!

To be honest I was at a bit of a lost end today as to what I could post for my pattern/repeat. I designed some butterflies a while back but they never got worked into a real repeat pattern. So my easy post today was to work them into a simple repeat. I think they would work very well as a large scale print so that you can appreciate all the detail on the wings. Take a look at the overall effect on Flickr here.

19th March - More flowers?

Today's pattern features "vector flowers" again! Pink and purple flowerheads in a linked half drop pattern. I enjoyed working the pattern through I hope you like it too! Check it out on Flickr.

18th March - Mother's Day pattern

Today is Mother's Day... so this post is dedicated to my Mum. The pattern doubles as a background for a card, but then turns into a repeat on Flickr. 

I hope you have a great day Mum XX

17th March - Random (non) random

Today's experiment was to create a design which at first glance looks like a random dot pattern... but of course it is not! I like my colours too... for a change.
Flickr here.

16th March - Flower railings

It is quite obvious where I got my inspiration for these two designs... if you looked at yeaterday's post that is? It just shows that having a day off taking time to just stroll around with no definite ideas in mind CAN be very useful. I love these patterns they remind me of mosaic tiles.

Take a look at the repeat on Flickr.

15th March - No comment!

In contrast to the incoherent rubbish I managed to write yesterday today's patterns are posted without a caption! Just enjoy... :) and Flickr here.

14th March - More stripey trees!

I have been experimenting with the same design as yesterday. After identifying three main grafic elements that I really like, I have then used them to create a repeat. The three elements being, the trees, the flowers, and the circular pattern motif which I have used to define certain areas of the design.

The colour palette is reduced to two colours plus black and white. I had envisaged the final result as negative design on a full background. However, I continue to like bright colours with the addition of black on a white background, it gives the design a very pretty feel to it.

Take a closer look on Flickr.

13th March - Woods full of stripey trees and flowers

 

Ever since designing my "Hiding from the Fishermen design" for a Spoonflower Competition (see post May 2011) I have been wanting to create a "Stripey Wood". Today I have been experimenting with stripey trees, flowers and a bright colour palette. Although it is far from being a finished design I love the way the colours stand out from the white background, the use of black creates a good contrast and it gives a very pretty feeling to the design.

Maybe tomorrow I may push the design a little further, for now take a look at the repeat on Flickr and see how cute it is!