Hi everyone! It’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote a post because of the busy summer holidays. We went away for a week to Cornwall, which was really lovely and an enforced rest from work, in all forms. I painted everyday and took plenty of photographs. I’m now feeling refreshed and full of ideas for a patterns.
Since I returned, I have completed another design. This was a little more complex than anything I had attempted in Adobe Illustrator in the past. I wanted to use a watercolour painting of lemons that I had done but also include a background. This was something I puzzled over for a while but eventually produced Watercolour Lemons – gingham (I talk about scanning watercolour into Adobe Illustrator in a previous post) :
Pattern
I am clinging onto the last vestiges of summer this week with my lemon pattern and this weeks theme: sunshine. Take a look at this lovely selection of patterns to warm your heart, whether you’re in the nothern hemisphere and heading into Autumn or the southern and heading in Spring:
Clockwise from bottom left:
Starting with this fabulous Boho Sunshine Medallion by Micklyn.
This one comes in a few different colours: Boho sunshine palm leave on mustard green by Julia Schumacher
B Kaylene Alder’s Sunshine Tote Bag. You can get this lovely right pattern on other Redbubble products here.
Jill Byers Shibori 13 yellow. Jill has more beautiful shibori designs here.
Annie Montgomery Dotted Watercolour Sun. I really like the minimalism and small-scale of this design.
Golden Sunshine Art Deco by Zahra Gaitskell. Take a look at Zahra’s Spoonflower page.
Listen
I discovered Mimi G through her dressmaking pattern designs which are licenced through the Simplicity Pattern Group. She appears absolutely open and generous with sharing her life and business stories and secrets in the name of empowering women from all backgrounds to become independant business owners. I began listening to her podcast Business Shet when it was first released, as a (mature) art student and without any ideas for a future business or career. I found her tips and stories really motivational. Her suggestions have positively impacted both my design business and other aspects of my life for the better. You can find the podcast here and her Mimi G Style website here, which has free dress patterns!
Tutorial
I have been painting daily lately, both with gouache and watercolours. I have noticed a huge improvement in both my confidence and skill in a fairly short time period which must be down to the consistent practice. My recommendation this week is for a YouTube video by Makoccino. Her videos always demonstrate high quality production and she manages to convey a lot of information without the video being overlong.
Tip
As a UK-based print designer, I am interested to find out more about Print On Demand (POD) websites which are based in the UK. So this week, I have a question for you, alongside a tip. I am pretty familiar with using Spoonflower, who are primarily based in the US but also have a Europe-based production site in Germany. This means us European customers don’t have to pay the import tax, as we would with goods coming from the US but I do tend to wait a while (approximately 7 days) for delivery of my prints. Aside from the practical points I would also like to support UK-based businesses. I am familiar with Woven Monkey and have ordered both samples and yardage/metreage of my designs through them. The quality was excellent and delivery fast. (You also get loyalty points to spend!) I have ordered samples from Contrado, who are based in London but as yet do not sell my designs with them. They have a very professional and high-end looking website and a portfolio is required.
Do you have a recommendation for a UK/Europe-based POD website? I would also be interested to hear about other POD websites not in Europe.
I hope you have a great week and as ever, if you have any questions please get in touch.