I have been turning over in my mind how to use this blog, which I regard
as my "design" blog. My other life, of fine art, is described on my
other blog,
laurafosternicholson.
Somehow that is easier to write for: I like to describe my thought
process, my art-related interests, my studio progress on various works.
I began
lfntextiles to write about my
ribbon designs and later added comments about my other commercial work for companies such as
Renaissance Ribbons,
Land of Nod,
Crate & Barrel, and
Monticello's
shop. I would like now to expand into the full creative process that
happens in the design half of my studio (I have, at one end of my lovely
large space, a room reserved solely for weaving; at the otherend is the
room with the computer, the phone, the printers, the sewing and layout
table: basically all of my other activities!).
So today I will begin to tell you more about my own self-directed design work. I have happily been playing with
Spoonflower
ever since they began 2-3 years ago. In case you somehow don't know,
Spoonflower is the first really successful consumer-based digital fabric
printing service. One can upload designs, maintain a public or private
design library,
order custom fabric on a variety of fabric types (all natural fibers!),
order other people's designs, enter contests, and basically become part
of a creative fabric-and-design oriented community. The difference
between this activity, and working for a client like Crate & Barrel,
is, of course, free will. I love designing items with my signature
look for Crate, but as the designs become part of their catalogue they
are applied to items of the company's choosing; they don't take
everything I design (for some reason!) and I have to submit designs
which are not only LFN but C&B in style.
But -- being mainly an independent studio artist -- I like to have my
own way once in a while. So I design my fabrics, sometimes get them
printed, and sometimes offer the good ones for sale online at
Spoonflower. I am gradually picking up a base of followers who "like"
and even purchase fabric with my designs, for which Spoonflower pays me a
very nice royalty. Not a bad way to go! And so I am beginning to take
this aspect much more seriously as a potential public portfolio and
income stream.
 |
| "Bahia" by LFN Textiles for Crate & Barrel, used on apron & oven mitt |
The photos I have posted here detail some of the work I do and how it is transformed by application. I made a design called
Bahia
a few years back, initially designed as a 2-color jacquard weave, then
licensed to Crate & Barrel for kitchen accessories a while later. I
took the basic line design and colored it, showed it to Land of Nod,
and they asked me if I could develop it into a Tree of Life pattern (the
Indian Palampore) in girl colors. To date it is the most complex
pattern I have designed, and it translates wonderfully into other
colors. The "Leslie" version was colored for an interior designer to go
with a specific room setting. There are a few other colorways on
Spoonflower as well.
I will continue to profile my designs here for a while: I have a lot of
favorites ( usually the most recent ones of course!) so watch this
space.
all designs copyright Laura Foster Nicholson, 2000-2012. All rights reserved.
