jerseymurmurs

The Spoonflower design challenge for this week was "Scandinavian". This is a simple repeating design drawn in the Procreate app using a white "pencil" and a black background. I took inspiration from a wall hanging in a Carl Larsson watercolor. Larsson was a Swedish painter who often painted the rooms in his house and his 8 children.

Many of the interiors depicted in his paintings were the work of his wife and fellow-painter Karin Bergöö Larsson (apparently, even though they both had the same training in painting and met as students, once they were married Carl "refused" to let her paint). So, she worked as an interior designer and developed a new and modern swedish style for interiors (that lives on today in Ikea). She designed and wove many of the textiles used in her house, did embroidery, and designed clothes for herself and her children. Her textile designs and colors were new: "Pre-modern in character they introduced a new abstract style in tapestry. Her bold compositions were executed in vibrant colours; her embroidery frequently used stylised plants. In black and white linen she reinterpreted Japanese motifs." [Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition catalogue, quoted at Carl Larsson Gården] The wall-hanging that inspired me in one of his paintings was probably designed and woven by her.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, identifies her as "the first designer of what would become known as Swedish Modern." According to a book about Karin by Marge Thorell "His paintings of their home made her interior designs famous." Interesting information about her here and here.

One of Karin's lovely weavings (source):

I was not pleased when I saw this week's Spoonflower design challenge -- "sloths" -- but decided I would work with it and I actually had fun and was surprised that my final design ended up being something I love -- a houndstooth pattern. You just never know.

I looked at some photos of sloths and drew one in the Procreate app.

Then I took my "bow tie black and white" design and put several screen grabs of it behind the sloth. I used Adobe Capture to quickly turn the bow ties into line art and placed the art using Photoshop's new Project Para that lets you design repeats to produce this:

When I tiled the design into a half-brick layout, I saw the rhythm of the houndstooth!

Bottoms up! I had fun with this Spoonflower design challenge for a large-scale black and white wallpaper design as black and white is my favorite combo. A good black and white combination excites the eye... Here I combined two of the glass silhouettes that I've used in some of my Modern Prayer Flags.

This Spoonflower Fair Isle design challenge combines a colorful abstract fair isle pattern with an Alphabet Code pattern. I've always been fascinated by the alphabet charts that show you how to construct letters and words out of stitches for knitting, embroidery, and cross-stitch. Some are very basic and block-like as these letters are; others diagram very elaborate and detailed letters.

Anger and rage are driving my entry for this week’s Spoonflower design challenge: chinoiserie (drawn using the 6B sketching Pencil in the Procreate App)🔹 Inspired by a Chinese tile (circa 1700-1724) from the Rijksmuseum and the unforgettable words of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford that were painted outside the doors of the Yale Law School #MeToo #womensreality #ThankYouChristine

This week's Spoonflower fabric design challenge was for an "illustrated animal tea towel." So, in light of the events of February 4th, 2018 and the resulting joy and pandemonium in Philadelphia and its surroundings, I present "Top Dogs".

This week's Spoonflower challenge was to design a tea towel with a pun ... I found an image from a recent Women's March for inspiration and added a few elements. See also, Fight Like a Girl.

My design for the Spoonflower Retro Bar Cart challenge (drawn in ProCreate). Inspired by these words from an 1894 issue of Popular Science: "Sparkling wine was so far beyond the old-style still wine that the two could not be compared in the same breath. The delicious and original qualities of vin mousseux are a fine color, a snap, a sparkle, and "beaded bubbles winking at the brim," a quick, fleeting taste to the tongue, an almost imperceptible bouquet, and last but not least a subtle, exhilarating effect."

This 1950s Spoonflower challenge design was inspired by the furnishing fabrics of designer Marian Mahler.

According to the Victoria & Albert museum: "Marian Mahler (ca.1911-1983 b. Austria) was a freelance artist who studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna from 1929 to 1932 and then at the Royal State Academy. In 1937 she emigrated to Britain where she worked for various leading textile manufacturers including Allan Walton, Edinburgh Weavers and Donald Brothers."

This Spoonflower 1920s design challenge entry -- Abstract Art Deco Tree motif -- was inspired by an abstract design from the book “Kaleidoscope” by the brothers Adam and Maurice Verneuil.

The designs in Kaleidoscope, were intended as inspiration for textiles and/or wall-coverings. Published in France in 1925, it was produced using "pochoir" -- a highly labor intensive process of printing that used stencils (here is a good overview of pochoir). Artists and craftsmen hired pochoir artisans to produce limited-edition journals, books, decorative and fine-art prints, and illustrated deluxe portfolios. The technique reached its height in 1920s Paris, with the works produced by the firm of Jean Saudé.

This week's Spoonflower design challenge was tacos. I used the colored pencil brush in the Procreate app to draw a taco and added some text: BUILD TACOS NOT WALLS!

This design is adapted from a sketchbook image from the Rjiksmuseum Rijksstudio. I added graphic elements (dots and lines). The image above shows the design as a mod dress (available from Sprout Patterns), sheets, tablecloth, pillow, and wallpaper (all available from Roostery). Fabric with this design can be found at Spoonflower.

My magenta-pink "Girls Just Want to have Fundamental Human Rights" scarf is now available as Fight Like a Girl fabric in my Jerseymurmurs Spoonflower store.

Make it into a dress to wear to marches (Fight Like a Girl Inari Tee dress with bow-tie sleeve detail front and side view mock-ups and fabric swatches shown below) or perhaps a tablecloth (Fight Like a Girl tablecloth; see below) to inspire when you write letters or call your congressperson.

This is a Forest for the Trees fabric consisting of three trees that I drew using the "colored pencils" in Procreate -- I am still being influenced by Gunta Stolzl's graphic Bauhaus designs. There are images online of Gunta's drawings on graph paper and I used a graph paper "background" while sketching.  It would make a great upholstery fabric. Here it is made up as a pillow (available here from Roostery):

And here it is as a customized cut-and-sew Flutter Tunic dress (pattern by Papercut Patterns; project available here from Sprout Patterns):

A snapshot of some of my designs available as cocktail napkins from Roostery which produces unique custom-made home decor items using my fabric designs.

How cool is this wallpaper? ŽIVILI! is the Croatian word for "to life". It would make a great accent wall in any room in your house where you celebrate! Isn't this toast really like a little prayer? To health. To each other. To this moment when we are gathered together. Lift your glass -- ŽIVILI! To life!

Order this custom wallpaper at Roostery.

For fabric with this design, visit Spoonflower Zivili.

Or get a set of Živili cocktail napkins at Roostery:

XENIA is the ancient Greek word for the concept of hospitality and generosity and courtesy shown to those who are far from home. My nephew’s girlfriend spent a year in Kazakhstan and they brought me back a pair of earrings that inspired my “Xenia” fabric design.

Here is the finished repeat design:

And the repeat at Spoonflower:

This fabric design was inspired by the weaving patterns of Bauhaus Art School teacher Gunta Stölzl. Lots of color and texture. I used the colored pencil tool in the Procreate app.

Purchase yardage of this Gunta-inspired fabric at Spoonflower.

Use the fabric to make a Bauhaus fun dress (the Alder Shirtdress pattern by Grainline Studio; available here as custom cut-and-sew fabric from Sprout Patterns):

Or purchase the design on home goods at Roostery.