Speaking of which, 2015 is already shaping up to be an exciting and challenging year ahead for myself and for Liliflora Pretty, too. I've chosen to enrol in Rachel Taylors The Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design course, after looking at the blogs of others' who have done both this and Lilla Rogers' Make Art that Sells. Not because one is better than the other, but it just seems that this is a better introduction, with the Lilla Rogers' course being a little more intense. Might look to tackle that one next year! ABSPD (as it's called for short), starts on Monday 12/01/2015 and I can't wait to dive in! (btw, as you can tell from that, I didn't get the scholarship, oh well!)
After what seemed like forever (and was actually 3 weeks, so close enough to forever), the swatches for Coy Blooms arrived from Spoonflower! I really have to start splashing out on priority shipping, or waiting for fabric is going to drive me mad!
So pleased with it! These samples are on Spoonflowers' basic combed cotton, and the colours are great. When I received the swatches, I realised most of the patterns are quite large, so I've developed a few coordinates, and offered some of the original patterns in smaller versions as well. Check out this bad boy:
Yup, that's right. Pinstripes, chevrons AND polkadots all in the SAME DESIGN. I'm so good, I even amaze me.
I've been developing a few sewing projects to make up using my fabrics, and now that I'm convinced of the colours, will get some yardage of this collection to start making and sharing them. I'm hoping to have some samples of fabric jewellery, bags and purses finished by February. (yup, definitely needing priority shipping on the fabric for that!).
Why so soon? Well, it's all about the next challenge: Hustle & Scout, which I've mentioned this in a previous post. It's a twilight fashion market, held regularly in Canberra (in an air hangar!). They're coming to Hobart on the weekend of 27- 28 June this year, and the market will be held in the Long Gallery at Salamance Arts Centre on Saturday evening and during the day on Sunday. Applications open in February, and my application will be likely to be more successful if the items I'm planning to sell actually exist to be photographed, hence the hustle on getting some things made.
I was originally thinking of developing a range of bowling shirts and accessories in the SoulStrike line to sell at the event. However, after reading this ABSOLUTELY AWESOME blog post, I realised that I was taking on too much. Not that SoulStrike isn't a good idea, with some merit to it, but creating a whole sub-brand when Liliflora Pretty doesn't even exist fully as a brand yet, was a big step too far! So, I'm going to focus on Liliflora Pretty first. This means that I'll be looking to put together a collection of lovely sewn things, as described above, to present at the Hustle & Scout market, (and to offer on Etsy!) made from Liliflora Pretty fabrics. (Seriously, if you're creative, read that awesome blog post, it helps to clarify whether your plans will assist your main aims, or if you're just running away with your creativity! The rest of Regina's blog is pretty damn awesome too!)
My most immediate challenge, and the one not being attended to because I'm writing a blog post, is to respond to this wonderful brief: The Spoonflower/ Urban Threads Steampunk Valentines contest! Such a cool opportunity! If you're not familiar with Urban Threads, they are an online store of embroidery designs, for both hand and machine embroidery, and offer an incredible selection of the most amazing embroidery designs. From steampunk, to geek, to hipster and even some more classic designs, they're just amazing! The contest starts out like the normal Spoonflower weekly contest (voting opens 5/02/2015, don't worry, I'll remind you!), and the brief is to design a fabric pattern in the theme of Steampunk Valentines that has elements that can be turned into a matching embroidery pattern. The top 10 vote getters are then passed on to Urban Threads to pick a winner who they will work with to develop the matching embroidery patterns! The deadline for entries isn't until 03/02/2015, but given everything else that's happening in the next month or two, I better go and get stuck into it!
Hope your 2015 is shaping up to be challenging, inspiring, motivating and full of fun!
Blessed Be,
Emma
