If you want some inspiration check out our Pinterest boards – packed with inspiring quotes and beautiful images!
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PS Module 2 of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design begins on Monday! If you want to learn how to Create Your Professional Identity, and promote and protect your work, this course is for you. It will not run again until August, so sign up now!
Make 2013 the year your design business flourishes!
Today I would like to introduce another of the talented graduates of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design. Faye Brown is a UK based designer with over 10 years’ experience in the design industry including graphic design, illustration, motion branding and surface pattern design. Faye said, “The course proved an inspiration and relit my passion for bright, beautiful pattern design.’ Faye also has a keen interest in photography and travel. You can see some of her photography here.
In the process of painting everywhere white to start afresh
When we went to live abroad for a few months last year we had to clear out our house for the tenants. We decided to put everything in storage, although ended up getting rid of a huge pile of things in the process (especially out of the big black hole that is the attic!) Now we are back we have unpacked our luggage, put away everything in the boxes we shipped (mainly books, stationery and more books) and repainted. We have taken a few things out of storage, but more than 70% of what we stored is still in there, and I have hardly noticed. Compared to before our house seems much emptier, but in a really good way. It is lighter, more airy, more us.
Having culled my wardrobe and given many things to charity shops when we went away, most of what has been stored is beautiful, useful or precious to us. But I have come to realise that we don’t need to have all of it on display, or within reach, all the time.
From time to time I pine for some of my books packed away at the back of the unit, or for my easel, tucked away behind some chairs, or for this jumper or that skirt. But mostly, I like having a whole lot less stuff around me. It is easier to make things look beautiful when there is less clutter. It is easier to think when there is less to distract you. And it is easier to clean when there is less to move around! Not to mention that paying for a small storage unit is cheaper than getting an apartment or flat big enough to have everything on display. A blessing on many fronts.
The beginning of the year is as good a time as any to declutter your house, your creative space and your mind.
Why not try it?
Make space for new good things.
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Have you decluttered recently? What difference did it make?
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PS If you want to think more about this topic you might like to check out the blogs ‘Unclutterer‘ or ‘Zen Habits’
There are big changes coming around here. And while we are preparing, we are in a little bit of chaos. But that’s OK. Deepak Chopra said so. And it’ll all be worth it. Stay tuned!
Cute patterned motifs in ‘Frutti Collection’ by talented course graduate Wendy Kendall
Are you a designer who is struggling to sell your work? Do you wish you had access to industry insight on freelancing, licensing, selling outright and manufacturing? Are you ready to make it as a surface pattern designer? If the answer is ‘yes’ then ‘Monetising your designs’ (Module 3 of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design) is for you.
Don’t miss it – this is your last chance to join Module 3 before class begins online TOMORROW (Monday 14 January). (This course will not run again until April!) Find out more and register here.
From the moment he proposed I knew that I wanted to make our wedding cosy, handmade, special. And one of the most exciting parts of that for me – a paper lover and stationery addict – was the design of the wedding invitations.
We have opted for a very tiny wedding – only around 35 people – which is hard in one way (as we’d love to have all our friends there) but perfect in another – because it can be intimate and friendly, and because we can enjoy spending time with everyone there. And having just a few guests leaves room for more unusual invitations, and more time to spend on each. Although I wasn’t quite expecting it to take me two months…!
Adventure is a massive part of the life my man and I share, and it was one of our years for 2012 when we got engaged (in the middle of a big adventure in Japan), so it seemed appropriate to use that as inspiration for the invitations. In the end we decided to make each one a message in a bottle, with the invitation wrapped up inside the glass.
The invitations can be pulled out of the bottles using string with a key attached – a key which looks medieval, like the building where we will get married later this year. I made the invitations using paper I made myself at the Awagami paper factory in rural Japan.
The front of the invite itself is an illustration that I commissioned from talented designer Libby McMullin, using one of my favourite quotes: “In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities”. I hope we continue to believe that every day of our married lives.
Wrapped around each bottle was a mini paper book, hand stitched, containing details of the day’s logistics. The cover of this book was a piece of exquisite paper from my favourite paper shop in Paris.
I loved every moment of making them, and never stopped to think that the RSVPs might also be made with care.
Here is the one my parents sent back to us – a gorgeous tiny envelope reply tied with ribbon inside a delicate bird cage. What a precious gift.
Ahhh weddings are so special…
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Are you married? What were your invitations like? What did they mean to you?
We are always super proud when we get feature one of our successful graduates of ‘The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design‘. Today we are showcasing the work of Jennie Whitham, the name behind JensLittleT.
Jennie graduated from Leeds College of Art in 2012 with a degree in Printed Textiles & Surface Pattern Design. She recently joined us on the e-course which ‘allowed her to expand her portfolio as well as push the boundaries of Surface Pattern’. Jennie’s love of florals and geometric pattern lead her to combine the two to create designs that are ‘bright and inviting’.
Jennie’s work has been selected for ‘PatternBase’, a new pattern source book due for publishing early 2013.
Jennie is currently looking for Freelance and Licensing opportunities to work around her family lifestyle. You can keep up with Jennie on her website or shop her designs on Etsy. You can also connect on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Noren are beautiful, functional curtains traditionally used outside business premises in Kyoto to show that they are open, and also to provide a simple divider between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. In yesterday’s post I shared a glimpse into the special 1-1 workshop I had with kimono designer Miura-san, who taught me how to make my very own noren for Do What You Love.
Today I want to share the finishing touches – which were added with the help of an artisan who makes her living adding the gold and silver flourishes to hand made silk kimonos (see above), from her attic studio at the top of her narrow wooden Kyoto house. It was a true privilege to see inside this cottage industry, and be shown the ropes by a veteran of 50+ years.
Firstly I was shown how to create a stencil of my design using sticky back plastic…
… then we added a kind of glue and carefully laid the silver leaf in place.
This was hoovered off…
and left my design, precisely outlined in silver. The long strip of linen was then cut into the original three panels which were sewn together and looped at the top to allow the curtain to hang from bamboo.
And here is the final result! The two birds flying towards the moon represent possibility, support and freedom.
In the bottom right hand corner the letters ‘DWYL’ are written in the style of a Japanese hanko-seal.
It is my very own handmade noren from Kyoto and I love it!
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Making my own noren in a Kyoto studio
One of my most precious experiences in Japan was designing and making a ‘noren’ curtain under the watchful eye of the brilliant designer Miura-san in Nishijin, the traditional textile district of Kyoto. I started writing about this some time back in this post (‘Behind the scenes’) and this post (‘Sketching out’), but did not get round to finishing my story. However I really want to show you the rest of it, so here we go…
A noren is a fabric divider which hangs across the entrance of businesses all across Kyoto, providing a layer of privacy when the door is open, as well as protection from the sun and wind, and advertising space to announce what the shop or business sells. They are hung up at the beginning of the day to show a shop is open for business. Often made of linen and strung from bamboo, they usually feature delicate ink paintings or beautifully drawn Chinese characters. They are at once mysterious and inviting. And I really wanted to learn how to make one. So I asked Miura-san if he would teach me, and I made one for Do What You Love.
First I sketched it out, then I stretched the linen onto a genius contraption (below)…
We mixed up some rice wine ‘neri’ (a gluey solution which isn’t actually glue, but blocks the colour penetrating the fabric)…
…spread it over the areas of the design I wanted to keep the colour of the linen…
…and then brushed a sandy substance over it
Once that was dry, we brushed off the excess sand and were left with a perfectly masked version of my design…
The next stage was the part which saw the most stunning transformation – dyeing the linen in indigo dye. We cooked up the dye in the little kitchen at the back of the studio…
Painted it on with a wide bristle brush (note the bare feet – no shoes allowed inside in Japanese studios!)
These bamboo spreaders helped keep it taut as the linen dried. Love the stunning kimono backdrop – such an inspiring place to work.
We then covered it in a kind of resin to make the colour stay fast….
… and then left it to dry again.
The curtains are now nearly ready – they just need a bit of sparkly Kyoto magic, courtesy of an artisan who works from the attic of her tiny wooden house. Pop back tomorrow to see what we got up to, and what the final product looked like!
Don’t you just wish there was a magazine which shared business insights from creative women, along with practical advice, real stories and inspiration… as well as being beautiful? Well now there is!
Where Women Create Editor-in-Chief Jo Packham and Stampington have just launched Where Women Create Business. I am thrilled to have been invited to co-author a column with Kelly Rae Roberts (featuring gorgeous photos from Tracey Clark). The first issue is out now, and our first column is in it!
You can download the first two pages of our six-page article for free here: hellosoul_WWB0113
In this first of our four-part series we talk about the importance of understanding WHY you are doing what you do. As it says in the opening paragraph:
“Just as our individual lives become soulful when filled with purpose and passion, we believe businesses are also living, breathing things that thrive when infused with these powerful elements. We believe in abundance — that you can achieve your dream, and when you do you’ll inspire every inch of your life and all those touched by it. Nurturing a successful, soulful business — however large or small — can transform you into an influential leader and make you a force for positive change in the world. It can be one of the most exciting and rewarding things you will ever do; however, it can also be one of the toughest. It can be stressful, complicated, frustrating, and risky, especially if you take a traditional approach. We are proposing a whole new way of building a smart, soul-based business, which is the opposite of how most businesses are shaped.”
The magazine is available from Barnes & Noble, Costco and other major magazine sellers across the US, or via international subscription direct from Stampington. This first issue features all sorts of fascinating articles, insight and entrepreneurial inspiration – from Amy Butler talking about working with your husband, to Nancy Soriano guiding you through the book publishing maze. I think you are going to love it!