Studio Sunday and Summer Flowers

Well, we had a heat wave this weekend!  It reached the high 90's yesterday which seems a little extreme following the much cooler temperatures from the week before.  That's New England for you!  All the sun and warmth encourage beautiful things to happen like flowers blooming.  I was down in RI yesterday working with Barbara from Joggles and we took a little break to walk around her beautiful yard.  I love this time of year when there is growth everywhere and the green grass and leaves are so saturated with color it's like stepping into the perfect photograph.

I love, love, love flowers and haven't taken any pictures for a few years now even though I have a huge stash to refer to from prior photo shoots.  I am always mesmerized at how such complex layering exists first in a very neatly wrapped little package!  

I will linger and study the overlapping and shedding of these layers in different phases of the growth of a beautiful flower from perfectly round buds or a larve-like transparent sheath from which the very tip of a bud emerges. 

Now if only I could draw as well as I can see!  I think a little tracing and digital manipulation will be required to incorporate a stylized version of these beauties into some surface and pattern design.  The first part of the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design has ended and the next module won't start until August.  I thought for sure they were lined up one right behind the other but this reprieve will be great as I will totally be designing up a storm between now and then.  

Surtex in 2014 is a very challenging goal and maybe completely unrealistic due to the financial requirements to be ready to show at this significant trade show but I am so willing to try and reach it!  I recently read that I should be prepared to layout at least $6,000 between the trade show booth, pre-show marketing, professional website design, and products, copyright, banners and more from my designs.  It's going to require more work than I have ever tried to accomplish on a deadline, but it is a year and I've proven before I can get a lot ready in a short period of time.

Through this process, I will be finding my "voice".  I believe my first designs/collections will truly reveal my design style as I try to pull together the different types of elements and styles that I'm inspired by and give birth to the eclectic mix I anticipate.  

Happy June everyone!

Margaret