Pysanky

The Spoonflower design challenge this week is Pysanky - Ukrainian decorated Easter eggs. Using wax-resist to create the folk art based patterns, each egg is an intricate work of art

Decorated eggs can be found all over Europe.  I visited Budapest, Hungary and purchased some eggs as gifts. A Polish friend made me this one many years ago.

Hand made decorated egg from a Polish friend

For my Spoonflower pattern, I intended to paint a variety of eggs but completely ran out of time. So I decided I didn't have to be so literal and painted folk art inspired designs that might be found on the eggs. I used one of my books, Folk Art of Europe (by Helmuth Bossert) for inspiration. So while my designs may not be traditional Ukrainian designs, I tried to give them a folklore feel.

Art painted in gouache

I painted in gouache on Bristol board, then scanned to my computer to put together the repeat pattern. I added eggs in the background, as though the birds and flowers had popped off them. 

My final design

The voting ends tomorrow, February 19. You can see all the submissions (and vote) here.

Spoonflower Color Challenge

The Pantone "Color of the Year" for 2019 is Living Coral. Spoonflower, the website for custom fabric, presented this week's design challenge with Coral at the core. We were given 4 specific colors (Goldenrod, Midnight Blue, Coral and Gray) and had to include all 4 with no black, white or variations of the color. I drew the circles in pen and ink, scanned them and created my design in Adobe Illustrator. My first design looked great but I had a white background and after double-checking the rules, had to do a re-design. Here's what I ended up with.

Spoonflower Color Challenge entry

The voting is now open and there are over 700 entries! I was amazed at how many awesome designs there are and how many similar design themes. You can place your vote on the Spoonflower website here.

Scandinavian Design

This week on Spoonflower, the design challenge is Scandinavian Design. My submission is in blue, orange, yellow and green with stylized birds and flowers. I drew the shapes in pen and ink, scanned them to the computer and completed the repeat pattern in Adobe Illustrator.

Scandinavian inspired birds and flowers

You can vote here for your favorite Scandinavian inspired design until December 18.

Holiday Treats on Spoonflower

This week's challenge on Spoonflower was "Holidays around the World".  I chose Holiday Treats - mugs of hot cocoa (or hot toddy?) candy canes, and gingerbread cookies because nothing says the holidays like lots of yummy food! You can vote for this week's challenge here.

hand painted in gouache on bristol

the final repeat design

Since Spoonflower not only prints fabric but also gift wrap, I ordered some for the holidays.

Fair Isle Fashion

This week, the challenge on Spoonflower is "Fair Isle".

Growing up, back in the day, I had Fair Isle sweaters in every color. Some were purchased in Scotland with beautiful patterns, some were cardigans, some pullovers. These were the inspiration for my pattern. And who better to model the sweaters than a family of bears!

You can vote for your favorite Fair Isle design on the Spoonflower website, here.

Bears in sweaters drawn on smooth Bristol board

painted with gouache

a cozy cardigan

the final repeat pattern

All the tea in China

With extra free time, I've been working on my design skills by doing some challenges from Spoonflower.

Spoonflower is a print-on-demand fabric company and every week, they have themed challenges. The submitted designs are voted on by your peers. I managed to make the top 25 on the last challenge but it's tough because there are some pretty awesome fabric designers out there.

This week's theme is "Chinoiserie". I submitted a tea-themed design. I watercolored my tea cups and teapots, scanned the illustration, and then designed my repeat fabric on the computer. This was quite a challenge for me because I figured out the repeat for the cups and pots first, and then had to make sure the background pattern also repeated. To set off the blue and white teacups and teapots, I used a dark peach background. And then I tried it with a blue background. Now I can't decide which I like best.

You can vote for your favorite Chinoiserie design on the Spoonflower website, here.

I drew my images in pencil on bristol.

added some shading with watercolor paint...

added the detail.

Option 1 - Peach background

Option 2 - Blue background

The designs on the tea pots and cups were inspired by Chinese batik designs
from a book my sister gave me.