#the100dayproject 2017

This year I decided to take part in global #the100dayproject again. After last year’s hand-painted watercolour Daily Moods I am going all digital this time. I got myself an iPad Pro and pencil a couple of weeks ago and have already done my first baby steps on it and have even already sold a pattern based on it.

The project gives me daily time to learn, play and experiment with the apps and see what I like and what could become part of my textile design process. But the main part is fun & play of course. I also struggle with colour from time to time, so generating colour palettes will also be interesting to me.

Here are my first nine days:

I have used the following apps: Adobe Draw, Adobe Sketch, Procreate, Amaziograph and iOrnament. I can see my love for tropics and textures coming through and the beginning of spring. I have also been travelling during these days, so two patterns were created in Switzerland. That’s the very practical aspect of the portable iPad. On the downside it can take quite a huge amount of time longer to duplicate, move and transform objects in comparison to Photoshop and Illustrator, and the number of layers is limited, which can be unnerving. Textural and tiled patterns are a breeze to create though. Let’s see what the coming 91 days bring!

I also am very much enjoying seeing what my fellow designers and artists create during the project, if you would like you can follow my progress over on my Instagram.

Merken

Apr42017Jun 14 2018

Licensed Activewear Designs for FLEO

As some of you might know, besides being a textile designer I am also a yoga teacher. When I first heard the word ‘Athleisure’ at a WGSN trend seminar I was about to jump up and shout “That’s me!”. I wear leggings and some kind of dress/tunic all day long as I transition between yoga teacher, mother, designer, friend, yoga teacher, wife and designer again and again. So my interest in activewear is genuine, professional and personal. I have seen an increase in cool patterns on leggings in my classes and I create quite a lot of activewear designs myself.

That being said, drumroll please … FLEO shorts have licensed two of my activewear designs recently. Fleo is an American company that sells activewear for very strong girls and women – weight lifters! One of my designs was released in January called Lava.

And it is sold out as I have seen on their website. The other design called Extremely has just been released.

Fleo do a great job in describing the empowering effect of their activewear. Extremely: “From extremely dedicated to extremely passionate, you go all in. You love hard, train hard, live life to its fullest and never settle. It feels good to use your brain, muscles and emotions all at once. You need apparel that goes as hard as you do.” And for Lava: “Because H-O-T. Lava is flowy, wavy, and full of fire. Predominately black with magenta and teal waves, this print is subtle yet striking. When you lava something like your workout, your heart and soul soar. For the lava of lifting all the weights and growing your muscles these FLEOs are the key. Designed for your fiery and determined self, Lava is so hot it’s cool.”

The coolest thing is probably what a little Photoshop magic can do in creating these designs. I am brave, I am showing you the original artwork that was the basis for these patterns.

Lava (or Night Surf as I called it) originated from this experimental play of printing with leaves.

Extremely (Rainforest Walk) is basically brushstrokes. With the help of different filters like Solarize and Wave plus adjustments layers I transformed these designs into what they finally look like. I learned tons of helpful techniques and tips for these designs in the Textile Design Lab, especially in their Summer of Creativity course and in the Women’s Activewear e-course. The designs were licensed via my Patternbank account.

And happy news – they have just licensed another one of my designs, this time a floral. I am excited to see how this one will turn out.

Merken

Apr22017Apr 2 2017

Party Nights Collection

Unfortunately like a lot of designers I can’t show you the majority of design work I am doing at the moment as most of it is for my agency and clients’ work. So I am quite happy when there is something that I can actually show. Like for Patternmash’s latest project called Le Freak for Spring/Summer 2018.

I have participated in a couple of Patternmash projects last year and they always come with great moodboards, inspiration and art direction. This one was no exception:

Disco, neon lights, dancefloor lighting, stars, glitter and the vibe of studio 54 … it was hard not to sing “c’est chic” everytime I worked on the Le Freak designs.

I was born in the late 1970s, so I should qualify as a real 70s child, but was of course too young for anything of it to experience. And as I grew up in communist Eastern Germany I am not quite sure how much of the “decadent” Studio 54 spirit trickled through the Iron Curtain. But what I remember for sure is that I danced in school discotheques that had disco balls.

And another memory – the first time I heard the word Pucci in my life must have been my fashion-conscious Russian mother.

That was a fun project and I liked working more on geometric designs that are a welcome addition to my portfolio. You can see all the other participients’ ‘Le Freak’ submissions on the Patternmash website.

Merken

Mar62017

Sacred Ibis – an Australian children’s brand

Today I am very happy to introduce the Australian children’s clothing brand Sacred Ibis to you. But first, I have a little personal story to share how we got to know each other. In summer 2014 our family travelled around Thailand. On the little paradise-like island of Koh Tao we met Carly Jordan and her family from Australia where we stayed at the same resort. We have two little girls, they have two little girls, and despite coming from opposite corners of the world, there is no language barrier when it comes to beach, sea & fun. I was just about to start my venture into surface pattern design and asked Carly a lot of questions about design software like Adobe Illustrator that she knew about. Carly has a background in fashion design and was also transitioning into a new career path. And one thing was obvious – Carly had a style about her, and her girls wore adorable dresses which she admitted having designed and sewn herself. And now let’s Carly introduce herself and her brand:

Hi, my name’s Carly. I make children’s clothing for the label Sacred Ibis. I am very interested in the creative process from a spark of inspiration or a gorgeous fabric print through to a finished piece which then makes its way onto a little individual running around and enjoying life! This is what inspires me. I have a background in the fashion industry, but I do not think of clothing solely in terms of ‘fashion’. Sustainability is important to me, and so I prefer to think of clothing in terms of the natural lifespan of clothing, which is actually quite a bit longer than the fashion cycle would allow. Therefore my aim is to create clothing which has longevity and is a little more timeless in style. Children need clothing which is comfortable so they can be free to play and I love it when their clothing can grow with them a little, so for the younger ones I like to use elastic for waists and necks for comfort and fit. I have two amazing girls and they love to be involved and very much inform the process of creating for Sacred Ibis. They remind me constantly that children have different preferences in terms of the type of clothing and colours they like to wear, and also the colours that suit them so I try to cater to this with the clothing for Sacred Ibis. They are both very much involved in the choice of fabric, particularly the print designs… if they squeal when the see the fabrics I know I am on the right track!!

Please tell us about the beginnings of your business and how you have come to be where you are now?

Sacred Ibis was born out of the process of making clothing for my own children, and my unstoppable urge to design and sew. I often had people comment on my children’s clothing so it was a natural progression to make a few more and to put them out there for others to enjoy too! I make short runs using quality fabrics, all play-tested on two very active and often messy girls!

Sacred Ibis began when I decided to make a few dresses for a retail gallery in December 2015. I had the patterns, I had WAAAAY too much fabric in my sewing cupboards and so I though “why not?” I loved that I had an excuse to sew… and they sold, so I kept going! I was encouraged by some friends more knowledgeable than me about the online world to take it online and so I opened the online shop in November 2016, and now here we are!

What is the story behind your brand’s name ‘Sacred Ibis’?

We have recently purchased a property which forms part of a “green wedge” in an otherwise suburban area on the Mornington Peninsula. We love that our property can be a sanctuary for migratory birds and one of those is the Australian White Ibis, also known as the Sacred Ibis. The Ibis was revered by many cultures throughout history including the ancient romans and Aboriginals. In modern times they get more press as an urbanised bird which is considered a pest and much like the Pidgeon has developed a taste for human food scraps. The Ibis which visit us are as wild as can be… and I love to watch them grazing in their big flocks whilst I sew.

What have you been focusing on lately?

Towards the end of 2016 I set up the website and the instagram account to take Sacred Ibis online and there was lots of sewing to be done for all the summer stock!

I am currently enjoying the slower pace of summer holidays with my family… we like to catch up with friends and to get out and enjoy everything the Mornington Peninsula has to offer for young families… the girls love the beach, but also now that my youngest is confident on her bike we have loved exploring all the local bike trails.

Your girls’ dresses and clothes are just wonderful, how is your design process? Do you design everything yourself? Who sews the clothes? Who designs the patterns?

My design process begins with a sense of what I want for the season. Then I begin my fabric search, so I meet with fabric suppliers and get totally excited over all the possibilities and all the amazing designs! When I find the right fabrics I can begin to pull together a range. Each fabric has qualities which make it suitable for some garments and not others, like a little personality, so it is natural for it to be made into a certain garment. Sometimes if I love a fabric, I will design a garment just for that fabric.

I am informed by decades of working with fabric, so I always have in my mind how a fabric needs to move and drape and feel. I started sewing very young and made many of my own clothes as a teenager, I actually come from a long line of dressmakers and designers, so maybe it’s a bit innate and it’s certainly very natural for me.

I make all my own patterns, and grade them myself. This means I begin with a size, then once I have a fit I am happy with I create patterns for all the other sizes I think will be needed for that style. The sizes I grade into depend on the style, for example some styles are more suitable for certain ages. Currently my range covers sizes 1-7, but I’m very keen to add some styles for older girls soon… and I’d love to do some things for boys too!

Do you follow trends? Shibori and Party Animal look like great trend interpretation for children’s clothes.

I would say I am influenced by current trends, but I don’t necessarily follow them. I am a visual person and I am always looking. In terms of the visual, I find I crave something, then I tire of it and crave something else. I think trends are really interesting, like there is something we are all tapping into that many people share, like a ‘mood’. What I try to do though is to avoid those things which become tiresome too quickly, trends which will be short-lived. I always hope to create a piece that a child will love and want to wear forever.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration all around me. I often see a detail I love, something that catches my eye or a certain ‘look’ or ‘feel’ I want to explore. I think it always comes from something which pulls my attention which I then want to take to a certain place, or see where it takes me!

What are your plans for 2017?

I am so excited for 2017! My youngest begins school this year so as she settles in I am looking forward to having some more time to dedicate to Sacred Ibis. I will be adding new styles to the range. I plan to have both summer and winter available on the website at all times so styles are available for all climate zones! Also, I would like to source some good-quality fabrics which I can use to print my own designs, for me this represents greater control on the quality of the fabric and the print process. Sometimes I find a fabric with a print I love, but the fabric is not what I’m after, other times I find a nice fabric but the print is not right! I am looking forward to the opportunities this will create to work with some of the very talented textile designers and artists out there! Know any??!!

Where can we find your brand?

The website is www.sacredibis.com.au so you can see all the styles and purchase securely here, I ship worldwide. You can find me on instagram @sacred.ibis, followers on instagram will be getting peeks into the design and thought process and see styles as they become available. I also have a facebook page @sacredibisclothing.

Carly is so generous as to offer my readers a free handband of their choice with any purchase with Sacred Ibis. All you need to do is put the item in your cart and then use the prome code HBAND. The offer is valid until the end of March.

Thank you very much, Carly! It’s a pleasure having you here on the blog. I can’ t wait for warmer days to come here in the Northern Hemisphere when I see these cute clothes.

Merken

Feb112017May 13 2017

Philodendron Love

Call it Philodendron, Monstera, Split Leaf or Swiss cheese plant – I simply can’t get enough of this tropical plant. And I was happy seeing them during our holiday on Lanzarote abound. I photographed them, I drew them, I painted them – and turned them into patterns, of course.

These patterns are now available for licensing online with the Patternbank Agency. I can’t wait to see what kind of products they will give some tropical holiday feel.

Merken

Jan212017Jan 22 2017

Lanzarote Moods

It was wonderful. Spending two weeks around Christmas and New Year on the Canary island of Lanzarote, enjoying mild spring-like temperatures, sunshine and a volcanic landscapes like out-of-this-world.

We visited caves, little idyllic towns and villages, a cacti garden and beaches.

I relished all the views and the beautiful flora.

And I painted my Travel Moods, of course, which are so much more fun when on holiday with all the new impressions, landscapes and adventures.

Merken

Dec312016Apr 4 2017

The December Collection

Here we are, on the last day of the year, and my 12-collections-in-2016-project is coming to its end. We are taking a sunny (and windy!) break from winter in Northern Germany on the Canary island of Lanzarote over the Christmas and New Year season. I am rounding up my design-project with my third Patternmash-live-brief-inspired-collection in a row called Wavelength.

Science, technology, X-rays, brain scans and its imagery translated into textile design were the main focus of this AW 17/18 brief. Layering, translucency and textures were means of achieving these effects. I started out with watercolour and pen sketches, as usual, as I find them a great way of warming-up and I never achieve the same effect or feel in my designs when I start out digitally right away. I think, the human touch is always showing through.

I called my collection ‘The Lab Files’ and designed my way through a bleak November with it. Can you see the naked trees in this pattern?

I like using given colour palettes, like in this project, because I would hardly come up with these myself and I think these pops of orange in an otherwise rather neutral colour palette are just cool.

My 12-collections-project is just a small part of my textile design output of 2016 and I am very happy about all the doors that opened for me this year – finding a textile agent, designing a loooooooot, selling and licensing my patterns. I am excited to share my ongoing design journey (and the travels) on these pages in 2017 with you. I worked at some really cool (and summer-y!) projects behind the scenes of social media recently and can’t wait to share them soon. Thank you very much for your support, interest and time. See you then!

Merken

Nov222016Nov 22 2016

The November Collection

My November Collection begins where my October Collection ended – at the ‘Botanicactus Garden’ in Mallorca. And it is another collection designed to a Patternmash live brief, called Defence Mechanism. The special thing about this brief was, that it was a weekend brief in contrast to the usual month-long-projects.

When I got the brief for the project on Saturday, I was spending the last day of our holiday on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca with my family. I am endlessly inspired by all things flora and was more then happy to see that the project involved cacti and succelents. During our fortnight on the island I had drawn quite a collection of cacti in my sketchbook as I was fascinated with them in their natural habitat, even when it was just around the hotel. I had spent one inspirational morning at the Botanicactus Botanical Garden, presumably the largest botanical garden in Europe with thousands of big cacti and mallorquin flora. These sketches became the basis of my collection. As I was wondering how I would ever be able to finish the collection in one weekend travelling back home, we learned at the airport that our flight was delayed by 10 hours. My laptop, Illustrator, Photoshop, a coffee and I was ready to work on my ‘Botanicactus Garden’ collection. That must have been the most enjoyable flight delay I have ever had!

So I could go home with my finished pattern collection which is also a great souvenir of my time in Mallorca. Even though the holiday was more an escape from autumnal October in Northern Germany and was filled with happy sun & sea & last of summer Mediterranean colours, the collection is geared towards autumn/winter which is also reflected in the muted colour palette of the pattern collection. The collection blends my travel experiences together with the project brief and definitely helps me to settle into autumn in a pleasant, gentle and a bit nostalgic way.

And I would have never thought before that I could design something suitable for men’s apparel, but it is.

This design is now available for licensing with my online agency Patternbank in their Premium Section.

Merken

Oct192016Apr 4 2017

Mallorca Moods

My travel moods are back! Our family spent the last two weeks on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca and that was just the energy lift my body, mind and Daily Moods needed. As you might have read previously on my blog, my Daily Moods started as a 100-day-project in April and have since then evolved into a 365-day-project. I did them everyday before my holiday, never missed a day, but I have kind of lacked some motivation and joy most of these days. They are still a great experimenting place, and what started out as a watercolour project has now also seen acrylic, ink, oil pastels, collage and more.

But travel moods are better. All the new sensations, inspiration and lazy sun-and-sea days made them a daily practice I looked forward too. All watercolour again and you might see that most of the days the weather was just fine, fine, fine and the Mediterranean sea just blue, emerald and sapphire. There is one mood from a day trip to the capital Palma de Mallorca and one day there was a thunderstorm and a 14-hour energy blackout. We went to see the Botanicactus botanical garden with thousands of cacti and succulents, that inspired a whole pattern collection later on.

My Daily Moods started out as morning moods like a meditation practice, but on holiday I prefer painting them in the late afternoon, when I really have a feel for the day and what has happened to me and what I have seen.

Merken

Oct102016Oct 10 2016

The October Collection

While I have escaped autumn for a fortnight soaking up the sun and mediterranean beauty on the island of Mallorca, this month’s collection ‘Prairie Flora’ heavily focuses on the autumn and winter season.

I have signed up for a couple of projects with Patternmash and the first one was a theme called Praerielands for AW 17/18. It is based on a trend that has been emerging for a while now, evoking the feeling of a romantic Wild West with sun-washed-out colours and hues, with some kind of retro-feeling à la ‘Little House on the Prairie’. I liked the femininity and dreaminess of the project, even though it was quite a stretch from my usual tropical love.

My love for flowers, plants and all things flora was still strong in my conception of the collection. What stood out for me from the inspiration boards, were the beautiful shadow effects that were created by plants, so I wanted to incorporate shadow drawings. I was also intrigued by textures that were created through rust and peeling paint through time.

The colour palette was given in the project, so I wanted to make it feel cohesive with my patterns. Being such a Photoshop girl it is also good practice for me to work in Illustrator to achieve exactly the right colours.

You can see my whole collection featured on the Patternmash blog here, and all the other wonderful entries here.

To round up this blog post, here are two photos I took yesterday in Mallorca’s ‘Botanicactus’ Garden surely giving you a Western feeling.