From Art Journaling To Fabric Design

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

Check it out: www.peonyandparakeet.com

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

New Site, New Folk Bag and Other News

My new website has been published and the blog has moved to the new address.
Check it out: www.peonyandparakeet.com

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:
New Site, New Folk Bag and Other News

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! 

Waiting for Summer

My blog is featured at Best of The Web edition of Be@Home Decor Blog. See the article!

Another exciting thing: a couple of new fabric designs! I have just sent these designs out for printing with some of the older designs.

The yellow fabric on the left is designed from one of my most popular design in paper products and it is called "Summer". The design on the right is based on my recent collages, like this card. It is always exciting to see new fabric for the first time. This time I will be so excited to see how Summer turns out!

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:

Ornaments All Over The Place

The Rise of Ornaments

I have been making this collage piece by piece and it's finally finished. What can I say, I am hooked in ornaments of all kinds and new ones burst from my mind every day.

My next goal is to design a new line of fabrics. I have prepared for it by signing up Rachael Taylor's pattern design course. I hope that the course will keep me motivated to do the task! Not that it's unpleasant one, but even if I love designing patterns, it is also hard work and requires a lot of thinking.

I have got a lot of new visitors this month. Thank you! It means a lot to me to share all this with you!

Sales Table

I am going to a small crafts event tomorrow and here's the most of my sales table. Fabrics, cards and decorated papers. It has been fun to gather them all together and it will be fun to attend the event, sales or no sales!

Feelings About Fabric

Sometimes I think that the life is about fabric. It is like a the mother of all materials. Those who sew collect fabric. Those who prefer knitting to sewing make their own fabric. And you can even make fabric from fabric, by quilting that is.

The fat quarters of the fabric I have designed from my hand knits were sold out for a short while, but now I have added them again to my Etsy shop. I could not resist taking a photo of them, they looked so bright and so Scandinavian.

Some may remember the hedgehog bag I made quite a long time ago. I got a request of the hedgedog bag and had just enough fabric to replicate it. I do not buy huge quantities of fabric in time, so it is often difficult to fulfill requests where an old bag should be replicated.

My next project is to design a bag inspired by Sirkka Könönen, a Finnish textile artist. If you do not know her, I can tell you that she is a real artist in stranded knitting and colorwork. I would call her Finnish Kaffe Fasset! Have a look at one of her cardigans. It is going to be so much fun to get inspiration of her work!

Speaking of fabric, check out the recent post in my papercrafting blog Peony and Parakeet where I have used pen as a needle and paper as fabric. Happy sewing, everyone!

Spoonflower contest and Karelia fabric

My fabric design Karelia is chosen for Spoonflower's fabric of the week contest.

Vote for the fabric of the week

I have been extremely busy writing my bachelor's thesis. Therefore I have been forced to take a short break at blogging like most of the things I usually do on the regular basis. My apologies and happy easter holliday for everybody!

New fabrics!

I received an exiting package on Friday! My newest fabrics!

My favorite from these is the one in the middle. I call the design Silverbell. It looks like a big warm knitted blanket even if it's cotton fabric! The other two are experiments in using paper collage in the first phase of planning a new design. I love designing fabric!

There's more fabric than those three. I ordered some new versions of the previously designed fabrics and also some previous versions that I like.