Artist: Howard Pierce

I've passed over getting these quail at least three times, but I've decided not to do so a fourth! The artist, ceramicist Howard Pierce, created too fine of figurines to ignore. The shapes, the glazing, the stylization -- these (and others of his) little pieces deserve to have something else in the house make place for them. I can certainly see why they're highly collectible!

Etsy: Three Sisters Ink

Normally, I'm not such a fan of purple -- or pink, for that matter. Especially in the United States, women get overexposed to these colors, and I, for one, am usually fatigued and annoyed to see them used for anything female-related. I'm generally on the look-out for redeeming uses of these colors, and the print below, "Arrival" by Etsy sellers threesistersink, is a stellar example of one. Relief and joy at purple!

In Progress

It will be a while before these are done, proofed, tweaked, and printed, but they're in the works!

Artist: Eleanor Grosch

I'm far from the only artist inspired by Charley Harper. Eleanor Grosch, of pushmepullyou design is, too, and her work is delightful in its own right!



Grain Edit did an interesting interview with her last year, that gave a peek into some of her work process.

Blog Mention

I was thrilled to see one of my Ornament prints show up in the lovely design blog Paper n Stitch, and in the company of some very attractive home decor accessories and furniture!


The blog's author is an artist herself, and has an Etsy shop selling vintage goods. She has some vibrant collage "paper quilts" up online, as well as paintings. The collage below is especially exciting to me: the colors are vibrant, and I love the use of pattern and different materials -- especially that yellow thread.

Artist: Charley Harper

It still amazes me that I'd never heard of Charley Harper or seen any of his work until a year and a half ago, when my sister-in-law told me the first draft of my squirrel print reminded her of his work. Since then, I've seen reference after reference to him, from the mentions on blogs I follow to items sold at Old Navy!

If you've never taken a look at his work, get ready for the joy of discovering it for the first time! I'm enjoying looking through his work all over again, myself. Here's one of my favorites:

Things that make me go ooh!

Some people are born bloggers. Me, I debate what to put up here, and end up not posting! I've decided to just go ahead and post things that are only indirectly related to my ododo work, like things that make me go ooh: other artists, items that make my little design heart flutter, and that kind of thing.

So, to start that off, here's a picture of a chair generously donated to me for free by a friend of mine! It's mid-century, and still in very decent condition. good things can come from selflessly admiring someone else's furniture, when they decide to get rid of it because it was never quite their taste to begin with! That was my lucky situation, and I decided to make room for the chair in my house, one way or another.



Such good lines! If they still make furniture look this nice, for any kind of decent price, I sure haven't seen it. I just have to clean the upholstery (reupholstering it is more than I'm willing to risk trying, right now) and maybe give the wood a light coat of oil. Maybe when I do, I'll check underneath the seat and see if there's a name attached to this piece of elegance.

Abroad!

I'm in Japan right now, visiting family. No working on prints or patterns for me, while on vacation in Tokyo, but I do get to enjoy picking up a few pretty things and omiyage (souvenirs). Couldn't resist a few small bits of cloth: the Japanese equivalent of fat quarters, some tenugui (non-terry cloth towels), and a few small hand towels.

I'm not deliberately choosing traditional or modern fabrics, just what catches my eye in terms of texture, color, and pattern. Laying them out together like this and taking a picture makes for some fun "photo quilting", if I can call it that.

Spoonflower

You can now find me at Spoonflower, under the profile name ododo! It's exciting to put things up there and notice that even this quickly, a few people are seeing and even liking some of what I've uploaded!



There are a few new patterns there, and no doubt more to come. Whether or not to make the patterns up as (paper) prints for sale on the Etsy shop is something I'm still debating. They'd work well enough as cards, but I haven't yet scouted out a place that prints greeting cards up at the quality I would want -- and at a price that wouldn't have potential customers running away.

As for the fabric prints, I'm going to have to go back and make sure that the patterns are sized correctly. I may have a few of them at a scale that spreads over too many inches.

Fabric

I've longed to print out some of the patterns I've created onto fabric. A good while back I read about Spoonflower, an online site where you can upload designs and have custom fabric printed up. They're still in beta, but I hope they do well.

Right now it costs about $18 to have a yard of quilting-weight cotton fabric printed up, with an added $3 for shipping; a reasonable price, compared to other places I've looked at. Still, that's $21 just in costs to me, and I'd have to pad that price to even begin to pay myself for designing anything. I'm not sure how much someone would be willing to pay for designed fabric, and the usual question of 'how much do I charge' comes up yet again.

On the other hand, once the site leaves beta, someone would be able to order their desired fabric to be printed up and sent to them. (Right now, you can only order your own fabrics.) That means a marketplace in which I don't have to order and keep inventory -- and that's the appealing thing about the service.



I think I will have to order a few patterns up, just for myself -- like maybe this pattern I use on my business cards. I'll post here, if and when I do!

Doodling Pattern

Just a silly little pattern in the style of the doodles I tend to draw.

Kids Patterns

For myself, I tend to gravitate to muted colors and neutrals, but I still appreciate color. Making designs and prints frees me up to play with color without having to plaster it on my walls. I was just at a baby shower this past weekend, and was reminded once again of the fun of color in looking at all the wrapping paper and gift choices available. It inspired me to play around with some cute, colorful ideas in Illustrator.

Surface design or pattern design is something I would love to be doing, so I made up a pattern rather than a single, non-repeating design:



I like the simplicity of just the one little birdie, but I had to try for a version with a worm, too:



With that started, and with inspiration from the delightfully cute gift bag I bought that was designed by Helen Dardik, I'm tempted to try for a few more kid-oriented animals. (Please do check out her blog -- and take a peek at how she perks up photos she posts to her blog with doodles and designs; such a good idea!)

More complicated patterns are sure to come, but I'm a sucker for simplicity and white backgrounds.

Long Time No...

Since my last post, I've opened up shop! You can find me at ododo.etsy.com. It's been fun so far, especially wrapping up the prints for a customer and imagining them opening up the package -- and hopefully being excited by their print and the little extras.

Getting people to actually see the shop and the items I've listed is something I'm going to have to work on. On a good day, I get about 20 views right now -- also known as 'eyeballs'. I need more eyeballs. At the same time, I'd like to just focus on getting some more items up. (More on that, later.)

For now, I feel encouraged by the number of sales for the number of people who have seen the shop, and I still get very excited when someone hearts me or any of my prints. And two lovely people have chosen me as one of their treasury picks; they didn't make it to the home page (the lists expire fast) but it was still thrilling to me to be in someone's handpicked list. Thanks again, localcolorist and elineof!