Lauren leaps into SURTEX 2015!

This week, I am counting down the (5!) days until SURTEX by featuring sneak peeks of each artist's work. Sharpen your pencils - this is a good one!

Tuesday is for Lauren and her snarky sensibility, inborn humor, fantastical lettering and scrumptious line work. Clients are eating up her work, with all sorts of licenses and commissions for editorial maps, suitcase fabric design and greeting cards galore. Once again, I am tickled pink (shades of indigo, actually) to represent this über-cool, super-fine talent! I'm thinking temporary tattoos next! What about you? Something tells me, your product would sell better with a little Lauren mixed in! Visit Lauren in Booth #559 or contact me for to see the more than 150 illustrations in Lauren's archive! - Jennifer

Bee buzzes into SURTEX 2015!

This week, I am counting down the (6!) days until SURTEX by featuring sneak peeks of each artist's work.

We start with Bee, her delightful wit and innate design sense. Clients are eating up her yummy color palettes., with licenses and commissions for wall art, stationery, books, little girl's dresses and *maybe* even fabrics! Once again, I am counting my lucky stars! This girl is on fire! I am thinking product development is next! Here's some eye candy for you! Visit Bee's updated portfolio today!  - Jennifer

GUEST BLOGGER: Kathy Bean shares her embroidery of Lauren's work!

What a thrill to hear from embroidery artist Kathy Bean! Kathy liked a piece of art by our own Lauren Lowen so much, she rendered it with needle and thread. So cool! Here's the story in Kathy's own words: "I learned the basics of embroidery as a child but only picked it back up again recently after seeing so many beautiful things others were making on Instagram. When I began teaching myself some specialty stitches, I wanted to challenge myself further than the samplers and patterns that were already available on the Internet. Last summer I began following Lauren Lowen's Instagram feed. I don't remember exactly how I stumbled upon her work but I fell in love with the whimsy and playful colors right away. 

So when I decided to try my hand at a more intricate embroidery pattern, I thought of Lauren’s artwork. I chose the girl because of the movement in the composition and the color palette. Plus, she makes me smile! I messaged Lauren to ask if it would be okay if I used elements from her images as a template and she agreed!

In the photos you'll see my process, which I think is fairly standard. I chose selected elements from Lauren's painting and transferred them onto tracing paper. Then I cut them out and rearranged them into a somewhat smaller composition. I used the window as a light box to trace the images onto my fabric with an embroidery marker. The fabric I used is from Cotton & Steel basics.

Then I selected a color palette in DMC floss that complemented Lauren's original work as well as the fabric I chose. Since I was using this project as a way to practice certain specialty stitches, I tried to repeat the same motifs throughout the piece. Some of the specialty stitches I used are burden stitch, blanket stitch, satin stitch, leaf stitch, double chain stitch and French knots.

I quite enjoyed making this delightful little piece! I appreciate Lauren's enthusiasm about the project as well. Now I have to decide just how to finish it so I can hang it up!”

- Kathy Bean (you can follow Kathy on instagram as: emi.roos

Pin to Win!

We are doing something a little different this week on the blog! We are celebrating our very first product out on the shelves with a giveaway! Enter for a chance to win Audrey Shulman's tasty book, Sitting in Bars with Cakes - beautifully illustrated by our very own, Jennifer Orkin Lewis. I am calling it "Pin to Win" - so do just that, add this image to your Pinterest and link back to us and I will randomly select a winner on April 21st!

You can have even more chances to win if you share this with others on your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! The more I see, the happier I'll be! So, happy birthday to me - you CAN have your cake and eat it too! - Jennifer

I scream, you scream, we all for scream ICE CREAM

I was working in a coffee shop in the summer trying to make the perfect latte. I think the boss of that little shop wouldn't mind being called insane. He really was. It was like being in a surreal sitcom. I loved it. And the people that bought the coffee became little gems in my world. 

At the same time as I worked there I got commissioned by the amazing eeBoo to make an ice cream game. Today I the finished product was delivered. The quality is fantastic and both my kids immediately bagsied the strawberry ice cream one whilst I really favour the lime one. I feel truly lucky to work with such lovely people. Will do a lucky dip giveaway soon, so keep your eyes peeled! -Monika

Stepping away from the computer - for a little while.

I've been using a sketchbook recently.  For many years I've worked straight onto the screen rather than sketching before hand.  And that's great - it's fast, efficient, good for flat, vector designs in Illustrator and also painterly, loose work in PS.  I'm very much looking forward to investing in a huge Cintiq tablet to continue doing just that.  But I've been DYING to get back to painting and drawing in REAL life too. 

So I bought myself a massive pile of sketchbooks and pens and started.  There's something different about the way your brain works when you're drawing on screen versus when you're creating something in the 'real' world.  A different bit is being used.  

I can chat, watch telly, be simultaneously engaged in something else when I'm drawing, painting or sewing.  When I'm at the computer I need to be almost silent.  I think it's a right brain/left brain phenomenon.  I love the fact that I can be present with my children while fiddling around with bits of paper, scissors and pens during the evening.

I started my career before computers were in general use for design and now I'm remembering the problem-solving aspect of not being able to edit everything.  If a blob of paint accidentally landed in the center of something, it became a flower!  And suddenly the picture became something else.  With sketching and doodling this can be particularly interesting because no-one needs to see what goes into a sketchbook and mistakes can lead you down an unexpected path.  

Now that I can design digitally, I'm finding that combining these spontaneous, flawed, 'real' life experiments with the possibility of limitless editing is making exploring particularly exciting!!!  I'm definitely enjoying heading down a new route.  Here's a pic of a very casually-slung-together collage I did - while watching telly (might have been Italian X-factor - very inspiring!!!).  Lots of elements from it (and others) have since found their way into my work!! - Victoria

The Snow Queen

Back in the summer I received an email from a woman in Copenhagen who works for the Denmark based magazine ENFANTS TERRIBLE  MAGAZINE and throughout the summer Inger Marie and I emailed back and forth and eventually our email conversations turned into an interview. Read all about it in ISSUE#6, beginning on page 152!  

We had so much fun together and I was asked to contribute and do a banner for the November/December issue with the theme HC Andersen's "The Snow Queen" in mind. Here is what I came up with.
Enjoy! - Monika