Eclectic Discoveries: June 2007

Natural Inspiration

I love nature and am always inspired by it. I am naturally drawn to art with nature themes.
I found a wonderfully talented designer recently whose products caught my eye. Tobi Wood of Tobi Wood Designs has a bright and bold artistic style.
She carries paper goods, magnets and prints that feature her art. She has 8 series of designs including bloom, bulb, flower, grass, leaf, stem, tree and vase.
Her designs are bright with colors that really pop!

Mod Pod Tote

Today I screen printed my first tote bag. This was so much fun. They are perfect for keeping in the car for grocery trips. I hate collecting all of those plastic bags that I can't manage to throw out. Now I can use my tote to carry my items in.

I love patterns, especially those found in nature. I created this funky pattern from pod flowers that I drew. I used bright summer colors for the print and then printed my logo on the inside.

They come in bright green and blue as well as bold red and blue.

I rolled them up in little bundles with some matching raffia ribbon. I made some pod flower buttons to match for each set. I listed them for sale in my Etsy store and will be coming up with some new designs soon!

Softies

Cynic the Lamb is an artist from New York, now living in Cambridge who creates adorable softies. These cushion like dolls come in all sorts of animal shapes. She sells a popular pocket squirrel that comes in all sorts of modern patterns.

These are a few of my favorite patterns she has used. They make a great gift and are very affordable. You can get to know the artist better by reading her blog here.

Summer Sailing

The theme this week seems to be nautical. I was delightfully surprised to find I had been featured in Big Daddy Sea Shell's blog.

She chose my fish and whale prints to feature, as well as some really cool fish prints and ceramic dishes.
Later on this afternoon, I was even more surprised to find my At Sea women's long sleeve top featured on the front page of Etsy.

This fabulous list was currated by phantomwise.

I checked out her shop and just fell in love with this print.

Rainy Day Lovebirds is a mixed media painting that can be purchased in print form from her etsy shop. She has a July birthday coming up just like me :)

Create your own color palette

I have found just one more addiction to occupy my free time. Thanks to a few forum regulars on Etsy, I have discovered a new web site that allows you to create color palettes. You can name your palettes and even name new colors that you use. Other users are then able to comment and vote on your color choices.

The website, Colour Lovers, is very user friendly. It was quick to sign up with a user id and password. I immediately began my color hunt.

My first palette creation, named Hot Buttered Rum uses warm tones of red, yellow and green.

It has already recieved one love vote!

My favorite color palette I created is called Cous Cous.

It features earthy tones from ochre to olive

I named 4 of the colors in this one.

It begins with cous cous, then sienna (this had been named already, but I would have called it baby poop), steel rod, ash and finally martini.

This palette reminds me of the desert with a moroccan flair. I am waiting for my genie to pop out of her bottle and grant me my wish!

I think I'm turning Japanese

I am so excited to have a few of my clothing items being sold in Japan. Los Gatitos, an online boutique in Tokyo, has my items up with descriptions in Japanese.

They are carrying my lotus top. It features a large lotus flower on the front and 2 smaller ones on the back of the shirt

They are also carrying both the asphalt and grass green dandelion tops.

Here is the information translated to English, but I'm pretty sure some of the meaning has been lost!