From Art Journaling To Fabric Design

My new website has been published and the blog has moved to the new address.

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The location of the new blog:

www.peonyandparakeet.com/blog

And a new blog post is up!

Go to the new blog to see it:

From Art Journaling To Fabric Design

Handmade Collections

I like to keep things organized. Art and crafting supplies included. I like neat compartments and piles and putting everything into its own place. This summer has been really rainy and cold in Finland. So I have got a lot of time for organizing!

I browsed the photos that I have taken the past couple of months and I see grids and piles in most of them. Even the cards that I have made are showing the strict order. Another things that I see there are collections, all handmade. I have grown the flowers from the seeds, picked the berries and potatoes from my garden, dyed the yarn, carded the wool ... The pictures from summer are like well organized shelves in my house.

There was a time when I was desperately avoiding grid patterns in my art. The free and flowing line surely is the sign of creative spirit. I wanted nothing to do with symmetry or squares.

Now that I have found some of the freedom I was seeking for, I get the permission from myself to space the small circles evenly instead of throwing them to the background. It is like in knitting I tried not to knit simple patterns to learn the complicated ones. Nowadays after tens of years of knitting I enjoy simple projects the most. Sometimes it's laziness but most often it's being able to do something more from the less of stuff. 

The last picture is a simple neckwarmer that I made. I started with the carded roving, handspun the yarn, then dyed it, and finally knitted the piece using a simple pattern. It's not like the most ingenous knitwear ever but it has a story unlike many store-bought items do.

Sorting Out

I just started the summer vacation from my day job. I am going through files that I have made during the winter and try to find seeds for the new projects. Here's something that I had made in May but never really finished. I am trying to find motifs that work with t-shirts, maybe I could pick something from here?P.S. Did you notice that I have a new product: a mouse pad!

Make Art, Reuse, Simplify!

When I made this handmade card I did not think of fabric. But the way I create art leads often to design. I love to reuse my illustrations and make new products from them.

I am so pleased with this fabric, made from the doodling. I thought this would not work as a repeatable pattern but it does! If you have followed my blog for some time you know how I hate simplified stuff. But I recently I have begun to turn more to simple things. And I have started to look my own work differently. These two designs don't really look complicated.I find it both funny and bittersweet to to be so excited about simple designs and simplifying! You will see some projects with a new twist in the near future! 

Nature's Symmetry

I wanted to make an ornament that could be used as a starting point of fabric design. I usually begin to make an ornament by defining it's structure. The idea I had in mind this time was to create a long ornament where various elements are lined symmetrically. Symmetrically! I am not a big fan of symmetry, most of the times I find it a bit too conventional and boring.

Here's my end result. It is symmetrical but still not quite. I think it goes well with the plant theme. Even if the plants grow symmetrically, there's still some variation.

I made this card few days ago (available at Etsy) and its also a good example of rough symmetry. I especially like the black random plots on blue petals.

5 Tips to Choosing Colors

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People often comment the colors on my work. No wonder as my design process is very color driven! Here are some guidelines that I have developed for choosing colors.

1) Start with the color

Whether I am about to dye, paint, knit or make a new design, I often start with the feeling that I want to express. I see the feeling in color, there's often the exact hue that comes to my mind. Sometimes it's a combination of two or three colors.

I have learned to interpret abstract things to colors by observing color in everything I see. Try to omit the functions, shapes and patterns of the objects and concentrate on colors. Do not worry about what you are going to make, choose the materials by their hue and start creating!

My paper designs often start with the idea of color. This lime yellow represents the warmth of summer for me!

2) Mix the colors you hate with the colors you love

The one mistake you can make is that you only give attention to the colors that cause positive reactions. I often go deep into hues that I absolutely hate. I have noticed that by combining them with the colors I love create great impressions that are more real than if I use only my positive colors. And within the time I learn to see the beauty in every color.

Like I used to hate pink. Nowadays one of my favorite color combinations are muted orange red and pink. I get really emotional when I see them together. They represent something about my childhood that I cannot put in words.

Alku yarn in Eleanor colorway, the hated pink and the loved orange red!

3) Control the quantity of each color

I like to control the quantity of each color. I often have a few colors that cover the most of the surface and some that I use in small amounts. When making the color palette for your design, keep in mind that you do not need large quantities of the color you want to get attention to. Small colored areas that locate in the main focal points can create great impact. The colors interact with the composition of your work.

You can practice this by taking photos and analyzing them. Analyze why the certain colors in a photo draw your attention.

A photo that is black and white for me. The focal point is the place where the light hits the road. It emphasizes the darkness of the shadow.

4) Make your own colors

I try to avoid colors that come straight from the jar. Even if they seem beautiful. In the end they usually look artificial. Probably because it's so easy to use them in too large quantities!

If you mix your own colors you get exciting variations of the same color which makes your work look more natural. You can also use the same components in many different colors which makes them go better together. When you start with the blues, yellows and reds, you can create huge amount of colors and hues with less cost and with better controllability. And if you end up creating ugly colors, see step two!

I often add a hint of black to create a muted tone but you might prefer pastels and use white instead.

Mixing the black to the yellow to achieve the right hue for the hall (the result is shown in the first photo of this post). / Using white to create soft pastels in knitted fabric.

5) Put the color theory into practice

With this blog post I do not want to underestimate the value of color theory. I have learned Josef Albers color theory during the designer studies. For Josef Albers the color was everything, see this inspiring video of him and his works! Whether you learn the basic color theory or dwell deeper into Josef Albers experiments, it's always good to experiment too. Get your safe color combos and then move to the more dangerous ones! You can never know too much about colors!

Here's a snapshot of the library room where I like to create most of the color combinations. I am surrounded here by colors, textures and patterns and I find it so inspiring! One of my newest fabrics is on the chair and I think it's suits the room perfectly!

The Fabrics!

They are now available! My newest batch of fabrics!

There are some from my previous line, and some new!

This one is my favorite. Old design but new color. See more photos!

Thanks for following my blog! I really appreciate it! Remember, I have a page at Facebook too!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's day! I have sent few fabric designs for printing. This is one of those. I am hoping to see the real fabrics within week or two!

New Year, New Purples

Here's my newest fabric design. I began with this print, made a repeat and then added some little details that break the symmetry.

I have been dyeing spinning fiber too, purples again! Available at Etsy.

Happy New Year!

Thank you for following my blog, hopefully you'll come back in 2012 too!

Where My Heart Is

I have always wanted to learn how to draw. After getting a bachelor's degree in design I was not satisfied with my illustration skills. Then I started to draw circles. You know this "repeat 10 000 times and you'll learn it". I have made more than 10 000 circles I'm sure. I do not know if I have become much of an illustrator but I have definitely got passion for using my pens. Keep me away from them for few days and you get a very angry and frustrated woman! It's where my heart is, truly!

A glimpse of what I've just made: more handmade business cards. (Look at my treasure box of handdrawn papers, it's pretty full!)

Back to Fabrics

I had to take a break in fabric design to prepare the home for Christmas. After the break the previous designs looked too conventional, too stiff and too far from my style. So I started working with a new design, much more complicated, colorful, including several layers of hand drawings.

I also tested if the pattern works with less colors, here you can see the pattern repeats too.

My word for 2012 is the same as the word for previous years: Color!

Getting Closer

I feel very relieved. This is the direction I want to go, what do you think?

After previous sketch I knew I have to turn around my idea of showing texture inside the motif. Here I let the rug type texture lead and got ornaments in the background.

I still have to think about the pattern repeat though!

The Next Sketch

My sketchings for the new fabric line continues.

I find this too old-fashioned, too christmassy, too everything. Clearly this does not really go along with the vision I have in my head.

Close-up:

For me it is important to get to the bottom. The worse I make the better I see what's wrong. I have a plan for the next step now and it is totally different than it would have been if I had not make this sketch!

Moodboard

Here's my design moodboard for the new fabrics. I have included the color swatches as well. My goal is to interpret the history of arts and crafts in a new way. Very challenging!

About the design process:

It is funny how I was not ready to make a moodboard before I made the first sketches. I had structural issues. I was worrying about how I could construct the design. Even if I am still not quite sure, I am more confident and know where to start the actual sketches and what source material I must gather. Then I became worried about the target group, the interiors the fabrics should fit in etc. Now after thinking about it by working with the moodboard, it is much clearer for me.

Sometimes it is really good to put words on paper too. I wrote few sentences describing the design idea. (If you are interested you can read it at Flickr.) I also like to talk about the ideas, that way they develop too.

I find it really important to keep track of my own style. One tool is to have a general style moodboard. I have that at Pinterest. When I feel uncertain or unhappy for whatever reason, I go to see the pictures and say: "Yeah, that's what I am fond of!"

Fabric Sketches

My big goal for the rest of the year is to design a new collection of fabrics. I have been searching ideas and thinking about it for many months already but have not actually started sketching. Now it's about time. So here are the first sketches, made quickly in Photoshop. Not final but I want to open more of my design process so I am bravely publishing these here and want to hear what you think.

Close-up:

This is the very first one:

Close-up:

A Nature Inspired Pattern

This is my second pattern on the pattern design course.

We were given instructions to take certain kind of photos on one day. Then on the other day we picked one favorite photo and started sketching based on that.

The instructions for making various kind of sketches were pretty good. Here's my photo where the inspiration for the pattern came from. I think the similarity is quite noticeable.

The process was very fast for me. I haven't been feeling fell and had a flu, so I just did barely what was asked. I really feel that the pattern design is something where I want to develop though! I try to put more energy into the next assignments.

Starting with Simple Things

Here's my first exercise for the Pattern Design Course: die cut circles on a painted background. This is terrible simple for me, it felt awful to leave it like this!

Where To Find Inspiration

This little piece of collage is an example of how the less obvious things can really be inspiring. It is all about the interpretation.

Here's what I do.

When I find something that gets my attention, I analyze it into pieces. For example, if I see a photo in the newspaper that I find attractive, I try to find the reason why I do so. It can be a color combination, an atmosphere, a composition, a small detail that looks nostalgic for me etc.

Let's assume I have now found that very thing that caught my eye. I then start seeking for analogies, the stuff that has that same factor. Soon I am filled with ideas that I am really enthusiastic about!

The story about the insect? I was thinking about the curtains of our library room (Compton by William Morris) and how I love them. They have very detailed floral ornaments that I absolutely adore. Actually, they reminded me of botanical plates. And I never had thought before how ornamental old botanical drawings really are! I went to a local library and browsed some botanical books, then accidentally found the book about insects and was totally hooked: I wanted to draw insects with ornaments, sort of go back to the concept used in the curtain. I would never have thought insects being so ornamental without deriving one thought from another!

Hopefully my method is useful for you too!

Budgie Pages and Style Talk

I have had pet budgies for almost 20 years. So when I started scrapbooking in the beginning of last year, it was natural to make some pages of them too. Here are my budgies pages so far. Now that I look at them, there might be a maybe a slight style change in my scrapbooking.



This is my latest layout. It is made for the LOAD scrapbooking challenge. The first day's prompt was about making a basic layout with a photo, a title, some journaling, cardstock and patterned paper.


Well, there's really not much basic or simple in my style but I honestly tried. Ok, I did not succeed in making anything plain but I quite like the result, very unplanned but turned out ok in the end. Now I wonder, why do we use so little hand drawing in scrapbooking, I am definately going to try to include that more in the future.



This and the next one are my newest budgies and I have used baby colors for their pages. I love little bits and pieces of embellishments and I used them generously here.



The last layout is about my very first budgie. This page was made during the Amy Sorensen's scrapbooking course called Textuality. It focused on writing and I really enjoyed writing my budgie's story.



There has been a lot of talk about style in scrapbooking. There are even courses about how to develop your own style. When I see something that I like, I try to analyze why I like it. There are often the same elements that really catches my eye. When I repeat them in my own work, I get pleasure creating them.

The funny thing is that the more I learn about my own style, the easier it comes to play with the style. It also enables making something in a totally different style when being aware of the elements that affect the style in general. I have began to maintain a moodboard of my style at Pinterest to have pictures that I love all in the same place. If you have tips about style, leave a comment!