Vision & Inspiration
Inspiring: Barbara Gilhooly {maker/artist}
Barbara Gilhooly's work is seductive in its multilayered colours, its bright patterns and flowers, its hints of mid-century style. And she amazes with her variety of mediums and breadth of skill - painting, printmaking, wire and wood sculpture, just to name a few ......
Inspiring : Emily Julstrom {surface design}
Emily Julstrom says it's good to get as many terrible ideas off your chest as possible so you can get to something interesting. I think she must have done an awful lot of work, because what I see is utter skill and total clarity of vision. I first came across some of...
Inspiring: Julie Emmerson {surface design}
Based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Julie Emmerson is making her mark in the world of pattern. And just like her location, her patterns are filled with sunshine too - bright colours, simple shapes and warmth. After a long career in graphic design,...
How to Color Patterns in Illustrator
(How to Color Patterns in Illustrator: Guest post by Sew Heidi. We've been working on colour this month, so I thought this would be a fitting one to finish with! Heidi always writes such great posts, and this is no exception. Enjoy.) I've watched many designers fight...
Inspiring: Laura Olivia & the Mekong Delta {surface design}
Laura Olivia has a long-term fascination with Vietnam. So much so that she has designed her latest collection around it - from the floating markets where the locals trade from boat to boat, to the lush tropical flora and fauna of the area - especially around...
Inspiring : Laura Mysak (2 years on) ~ florals with romance
laura mysak - roses "It's funny how sometimes, the thing which daunts you the most is the area that you should be pushing yourself towards." Two years after I first featured Laura Mysak's surface designs, she took a brave step into the unknown world of...
Inspiring : Ben Conservato {illustration}
"I did struggle with taking photos at first; for someone who studied photography, it kind of baffled me that I couldn't get it right." So says Sydney-based Emma Kidd, artist, illustrator, printmaker, zine maker, and photographer, and the face behind Ben...
Inspiring : Marijke Arkley {surface design}
Marijke Arkley counts her experiences in the traditional textile workshops of India as one of the most inspiring things she has ever done. Surprisingly then, at first glance her own textile designs sit in remarkable contrast to the intricacy and flamboyance of those...
Inspiring : Elizabeth Halpern {surface design}
One of the biggest struggles for freelancers, as designer Elizabeth Halpern and her freelance photographer husband know well, is the financial uncertainty of being independent artists. As she says, it can be "incredibly stressful at times." But she's been working at...
Inspiring : Sarah York {surface design}
"Hand painted florals are my favorite, as well as research and coming up with new color palettes. Isn't that the most fun part!?" I'm inclined to agree with San Francisco-based surface designer Sarah York on this - looking at pics for hours (aka research ;D ) and...
Inspiration : MonicaJ {crochet}
MonicaJ Monica Johnson's friend Jennifer used to visit her house regularly. "She saw me creating paintings one at a time, and stacking them in a corner; creating more and stacking them in a corner. And one day she asked me, what are you planning to do with all...
Inspiration : Zero Pumpkin {Pauline Teng – plushies}
The creatures of Zero Pumpkin Land live in the dark corners of Under-Your-Bed and Inside-Your-Closet, only venturing out to reveal their true selves at night. If you manage to catch one they will swear to be your friend and promise you kisses, but only for so long as...
Inspiring : Lewis Mark Grimes {surface design}
After a high flying career in publishing and launching his own agency, it was not until he was struck down by illness and a prolonged recovery that Lewis Mark Grimes came to surface design. Working solely with molted feathers and designing in digital...
Inspiring: Elly MacKay, TheaterClouds
I can't get over how delicate and lovely these images are from Elly Mackay, the artist behind theaterclouds. They glow like warm memories of childhood, viewed through a magical peephole. Elly is part craftsperson, part theatre-designer, and part...
Inspiration : Ashley Lotecki – surface design
After working as an in-house designer for many years, Ashley Lotecki felt that while it had been great experience and creatively challenging, her identity as an artist was completely anonymous. So when a couple of major clients closed down and the company she was...
Inspiring : Claudia Owen surface design (revisited)
I first came across Claudia Owen's work about this time last year (I featured her here), and was attracted to her elegant geometrics with their vivid, clashy colours. Just recently she contacted me again because she has just launched a new shop selling accessories and...
Inspiring: LEMONNI {Annie Chen – surface design}
Annie Chen aka LEMONNI is about to exhibit at her first Surtex - and she's a bit excited about it. If you're a surface designer, Surtex is an enormous opportunity to get your work in front of the people that matter to your business - licencing executives, interior...
Inspiring : Nouveau Bohemian {surface design}
With a "background that is ridiculously unrelated to what I do now", Esther Fallon Lau produces gorgeously diverse patterns, full of whimsical creatures and fairytale people in soft textures and colours. Under the name Nouveau Bohemian, she spreads her designs...
Inspiration : Laurie Poast {ceramics}
Laurie Poast grew up in a little farming village in Wisconsin, dreaming of the far-off places of her ancestors and pondering the magic of craftsmanship in the workshop of her father, the master luthier Ron Poast. It was the architecture of her heritage in...
Inspiring : Sarah Bagshaw {surface design}
It was while studying at art college that UK designer Sarah Bagshaw had her first serious encounter with pattern love. It all started when her Mum gave her some patterned 1960s bath towels that she'd had as a child; and Sarah's work abruptly altered direction....
Inspiration : Carmel Debreuil {painter/illustrator}
Carmel Debreuil says that one of the greatest things about having been drawing and painting so long is that she doesn't have to worry about whether the nose is straight or the eyes match. "I can spend more time thinking about the story. That's a good...
Inspiration : MeanderWorks {Marilyn Brogan, jeweller}
Marilyn Brogan's jewellery exudes peace and beauty - her gentle lines put me in mind of clouds drifting by in a bright blue sky. Perhaps it's a result of the workspace that she has surrounded herself with - a sun-filled rooftop studio with displays of cacti and...
Inspiring : Ruchika {ceramics}
Ceramicist Ruchika Madan learnt to say no the hard way, but it was one of the best realizations she ever had. "I was initially so eager for work, I found it very hard to refuse projects that I didn't want to do, or wholesale production orders....
Inspiring : Whimsy Milieu {craft}
Jacqueline Chan finds inspiration everywhere, from the curiosities of the natural world to delectable French patisserie and everything in between. Wooden rings with painted diamonds, colourful leather concoctions of necklaces with names like "Sweet Success" and...
Inspiring : JulesAndInk {Julia Pellizzari}
Julia {aka JulesAndInk} Pellizzari's favourite piece of advice was given to her when she was first venturing out into surface pattern design for herself. "I was reminded that no matter what, always keep moving forward with your passion and what it is you want, each...
Inspiring : Anny Schoo Clothing
Trying to choose my favourite piece of clothing from Anny Schoo is an impossible task - it's all those flowing lines and classic shapes reinvented in crispy natural linen - not to mention the delicious choice of colours to be combined at whim... Her aim...
Music + pictures 4 : alt-J ~ Hunger of the Pine
Music + pictures {or even more simply, "music pictures"} is a collection of beautiful from around the interwebs while I'm on holidays for January - at the beach, camping, with my family. Have a fab New Year, and I'll be back on the 1st February. {p.s. I've just joined...
The best of 2014
Oh. My. Goodness. There goes another year..... in all its chaotic, mind-bending glory. Disappointments, epiphanies, and serious amounts of hard slog. I'm older and wiser. And clearer on what I need to do. And that's awesomeness right there, even though I didn't...
Inspiring : Frances Boyd {surface design}
It was at the suggestion of a friend that Frances Boyd fell into surface design."She suggested that as I was good at drawing and useless at sewing to delve into the world of surface pattern." After graduating with a degree in Textile Design, Frances had...
Inspiring : karoArt {ceramics}
"Karolina Grudniewska discovered ceramics almost by accident. It all began one Christmas when she found two bags of clay under the Xmas Tree... and once she started playing with it she could not stop." So begins karoArt's introduction to her Etsy shop. ...