Happy Holidays!

Get ready for it... New Years Resolutions!

Obviously, its not New Years yet, but I thought I'd just put in this little update with some serious resolutions, just to keep the ball rolling:

Resolutions:

• Update this blog at least twice a month, preferably once a week.
• Expand my photography and include a whole photo dump portion of the blog AND my website.
• Plan a photo-documentary trip for myself once every 2-3 months, to keep things interesting. Thus far I'd like to find my way onto a lobster fishing boat and a cranberry bogger field trip.
• Post more doodles. Also, make more doodles.
• Find TWO more storefront potential locations in other states for my coasters/saucers. I'm thinking Vermont and North Carolina.

ok, that's what I've got now. In other news...

1. Heading off to Mexico on January 1st with my family and boyfriend, so I'm also planning on creating some new tropical designs and photographs from the trip.
2. Might be featured in the RISD Alumni art magazine for my food-themed work with how2heroes and my personal plates/coasters.

Side Project: Decorative Cowhide Squares

So my next shipment of ceramic coasters is starting the slow crawl of arriving to my office (I'm getting partials orders, as they are ready). So, while that is happening I started another random side project...

Cowhides are pretty much everywhere right now, used both tastefully and not. HGTV uses them as accent "rugs" on most staged modern rooms and houses, but you can also see horrific examples of kitsch gone horribly wrong online. I had eight of these beautiful knotted, rippled wood squares ready for random projects, so I'm varnishing them and affixing some cowhide samples to the backsides (or front? depends what you like) to see what happens.

I don't usually go for a hide or skin look, but the colors and the textures of the hides (found at Ikea for $3.99/ea) are really very beautiful and subtle in their colorings. If it looks cool, awesome. If not, well then project over...

Rive LLC design reveal

Finally had the time to take some good photographs of the two awesome sample bottles that Rive LLC supplied me with. The following two designs are not absolutely final, as the designs will be altered and tweaked depending on the application method.

Above: Japanese Hybrid Design (Ocra + Eggplant) created using pen and ink, plus watercolor swatches for spot colors.

Above: Birds on branches design created using pen and ink and then vectorized in Adobe Illustrator.

Vintage Fabrics

This and much more from my new favorite place (move over Ikea), Zimmons, located in Lynn, MA. Thousands of vintage and retro fabrics for upholstery and other projects. LOVE IT.

October is Adventure Month!

Heading off to NYC for New York Comic Con on behalf of 38 Studios, where we will be located in booth #2257 to show off some really exciting new stuff from Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Visit the official Facebook page for our exciting updates and photos!

Bird's Nest

Working on a potential design for Threadless.com...or to be made personally. I really like this bleeding off of a pillow, shirt, or a tote bag, on clean plain canvas, and with Threadless.com, that could be possible.

New pattern: "There Goes The Neighborhood"

Friendly little screen grab of this humorous new pattern:

"There Goes The Neighborhood"

Still working on the detail stuff--maybe stylize the rabbits more? Undecided. Colors? I did a project back at RISD for an english/science glass on the genetically modified rabbit, Alba, who had her DNA spliced so that her fur glowed neon green under ultraviolet light. Wouldn't it be cute if these bunnies were all neon green, like little Alba decedents? Maybe?