.arashi.

this has to be one of my favorite patterns so far this year. i really love it. and i don't often say that about stuff that i make/design. i can see this as a linen table runner on a beautiful antique farm dining table. or as a border on gorgeous linen bedding.

where do you see it?

do you like it?

.progress.

working on my senior thesis. these will be printed on silk organza with the inkjet printer. the white parts (untouched by ink) will be stitched over with white thread (i may add subtle color, haven't decided yet, would love your thoughts). i think i'll end up stitching multiple rows of simple running stitch within each path/shape. eventually i'll do a whole post on the meaning/theory/concept behind it and what has inspired me all of that, but i need to put it all into writing first.

.lace.

This is one of the first patterns I made this semester. I used a photograph I took over the summer, manipulated it in Photoshop, then repeated it. I like the lacy feeling a lot. The top is the digital version, to show the repeat better. The bottom is the final painted version. I used gouache. I think that I would like to do what my teacher thinks I should do and paint very thin lines inside the jars so that they aren't just big giant weird shapes. The lines would be the stems inside the jar. I knew it was a problem when I made the pattern but I wasn't sure how to fix it.

.smock, stripe, repeat.

I made this pattern for the digital half of my pattern design class. I used an image I had of fabric in the smocking machine and manipulated/repeated it in Photoshop to create stripes.

What do you think?

.pumpkin patch.

I went home to Grand Haven last weekend and relived one of my favorite childhood memories: the Bethke pumpkin patch. We used to go every year to get our pumpkins. My mom, sister Erika, her boyfriend Caleb and I all went together. It was "so, so, very, very nice," in my mom's words.

.experiment.

So, I signed up for a Tumblr account yesterday just out of curiosity and to maybe try it out. Well, I've posted kind of a lot today. And it's been really easy to "get" the interface. It's not really any quicker than Blogger is, but I think I might use it as a place to store/share art & design inspiration, among other things. What I might do is keep this as my blog for personal work: photos (even the mundane ones) and textile/other art. I always want to share things that I find along my world wide web escapades, I just never get around to it. I think Tumblr is proving to be a good way to do that.

Please let me know what you think?

.toronto.

We went to Toronto so that Eric could visit the Union train station for a project. Turns out, he's not using it anymore. But, it was still fun. And the upper part of it (not the subway platforms and everything) was gorgeous. Check out all of the patterns and the brickwork and the wonderful light. It was fun to photograph.

Check out the pigeons on all of the metalwork outside.

Toronto was really cool, and all of the gardens and vegetation was so nice in a city. I wish Detroit could do something like that; it was so refreshing.

.spiral.

for Matt.

at the DIA.

mildred's lane

I happened upon the New York Times article and slideshow about J. Morgan Puett and her property a couple weeks ago. Her home is incredible. She views it as an ever-changing work of art. There are so many beautiful objects and so much attention to detail. She also does summer artist-in-residencies and workshops. This looks like such a beautiful place to visit.

Here's a sliver of the article from the New York Times:

"Along with her 8-year-old son, Grey Rabbit, and a changing cast of friends and romantic partners, she has built a home that is an ongoing experiment in art, design and aestheticized living, an artist colony conceived in the communal spirit of 20th-century institutions like Roycroft and Black Mountain College, with her own house, just now being finished, at its heart."

.shop and header photo.

sneak

peek.

.collect.

In the Wednesday half of my pattern design class, we're drawing our patterns and painting them with gouache. I love how the hand-drawn process alters the patterns, so that none of them can repeat as "perfectly" as they do/would on the computer.

I collected these leaves with the intent to use them to create textured grounds. I didn't end up trying the fern, I felt that the leaves were too close together. But, the tomato leaf worked so well. When I painted the leaf with just water and and pressed it onto the already painted ground, not only did it imprint its shape, but it also left its own green color on the paper.

Using natural materials this way is really fun to do, as each leaf behaved differently. I need to collect some more tomato leaves before they all get ucky with the cold.

When I have the chance, I'll scan in the sample I made with these, some parts of it look like they have potential... I would like to maybe even create a pattern simply using these techniques, rather than delegating them to the ground, destined to be covered by more flat paint.

covered.

i love this coat.

wait til i have a better picture and show you the whole thing. the bottom half is amazing, too!

forever 21.

haha, i am 21 right now. i should probably buy as much stuff as i can before i turn 22.

how utterly ridiculous!

time stood still, yet all was blurred.

I saw these paintings by Alyssa Monks on Diana's blog and could not resist posting them here. I truly love them. Water has such a transcendental quality and is historically, evolutionarily and socially intensely important to humanity. I suppose there isn't a single organism on this earth to which water isn't intensely important. Our interaction with it is definitely a wonderful thing to see portrayed.

I can't even imagine what it must take to create these paintings. I love seeing work that blurs boundaries.