How About Orange

Seven-nine

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:26:00 +0000

Andy Sargent, fellow orange aficionado from Australia, sent over a link to see his artwork painted on salvaged wood. I like! See more at his site Seven-nine.

Cold-brewed iced coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:57:00 +0000

On my desk today, and more attractive and tasty than the fly in the last post, is a yummy glass of iced coffee made with this recipe. My usual method for making iced coffee is to brew some super strong stuff in the drip coffee maker, dump in some sugar, let it cool, and keep it in the fridge. When I want to drink some, I pour half a glass and fill the rest with milk. But the recipe for this one doesn't involve any appliances whatsoever. My verdict: straining the grounds through a coffee filter takes a long time. But the resulting coffee has a slightly less acidic, smoother taste. It's good. (Oh, and I didn't add more water to the concentrated mixture like the recipe instructs. I just added milk. Creamier! And supports the dairy industry!)

By the way, if you want to know how much coffee you can get away with before it's fatal, see here.

Caution: image may be disturbing to some viewers

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:08:00 +0000

This happened just seconds ago. There I was, innocently making teapots in Illustrator, minding my own business, when a giant fly landed on my monitor right in front of my face. My first thought was to squash it, but I didn't want guts on my monitor. My second thought was how funny this looked, and since my camera was right next to me, I took his picture. Just a little window for you into the life of a designer. I will probably delete this post soon because it is disgusting.

Okay, maybe I won't, since I see it was a big conversation starter. Who knew?

Starched fabric decal experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:45:00 +0000

I've been wanting to stick some fabric on my walls ever since I saw this project using starch. I figured I should start simple and keep it small in case something went haywire, so here's my experimental door decoration.

I started by sketching out my plan. And then I ignored it when I cut out and assembled my pieces, apparently. I used a disappearing fabric marker to sketch out the shapes on fabric, then cut them out. The thinner the fabric you use, the easier this project is. I used varying weights left over from making pillows (that tan stuff there is canvas, but it still worked).

After cutting out pieces, I laid them out to make sure they looked okay together. Then I used one or two pieces of double stick tape to attach them to the door in the same arrangement.

Somewhere in the middle of the cutting, it occurred to me I should be mixing up the starch and letting it cool off so it's not boiling hot when I want to use it. You can use liquid fabric starch that you buy at the store in the laundry aisle. Or if you're too lazy to go to the store, like me, then you can make your own. I used this recipe:

Stir 1/4 cup corn starch into 1/2 cup cold water. Then pour in 4 cups of boiling water and mix it up.

That produces a ridiculously huge bowl of starch for what I was doing, I learned. I poured some into a plastic cup to use on the door. When all was said and done, the level in the cup went down a half inch. Now I have over a quart of starch left. I guess I will be making a lot of gravy sometime soon.

I painted the starch onto the back of the fabric pieces, soaking them thoroughly. After you stick the pieces on the door, smooth more starch onto the fronts of the pieces, squishing out any air bubbles with your fingers. Starch will probably drip onto your floor, so if you've got carpet, protect it with something. When you're done smoothing, wipe off any fugitive drips and let the pieces dry.

When you want to take the design off, just peel off the pieces and wipe off any leftover starch with a damp cloth. Supposedly this will not harm your paint job at all, according to reports from many people online, making this the perfect wall treatment for apartment dwellers.

Woodgrain desktop wallpaper

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:57:00 +0000

Just when you were thinking to yourself, "What the heck are high res woodgrain textures good for," here's the answer. Desktop wallpaper! (Which I consider to be the answer for everything, really.) Download this one here.

Free wood grain textures

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:21:00 +0000

Download high resolution wood grain photos here.

Orange from abroad

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:06:00 +0000

Designers Claire Eglizeaud & Paul Moreau wrote from France to introduce their cool new shop, Bonjour Mon Coussin. They've created a line of graphic pillows (and it looks like they have a penchant for orange.) Have a little fun browsing right here.

And then if you need some more orange to kick off your week, watch this nutty advertisement for a Dutch supermarket giving away soccer mascots (right?). I can't understand a word, but it made me smile.

More orphans have found a good home

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:03:00 +0000

These came in the mail from Barry as part of a swap. They were separated from their families at some point, these poor little Ben Seibel dishes, but we will take good care of them.

Custom MMs

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Did you know you can get personalized M&Ms? They'll print your own message, logo, or even photos on any of 22 shell colors. You can choose your own packaging, too. Fun party favors! Check it out here. Via bb-blog.

How to make swirls in Illustrator

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:06:00 +0000

A handy tutorial from Bittbox for making swirls and curls.

I'm regressing

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:17:00 +0000

My mom sent photos she took of old artwork hanging in her house. I did these in high school.

Here's one from college. And these days I draw like this: I've reverted back to elementary school! So funny!

Thank you, eBay.

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:20:00 +0000

These wanted to come and live in my house. They felt they would be happy here.

Your chicken says what?

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:46:00 +0000

Charming website! Bzzzpeek has collected recordings of children's voices imitating the sounds of vehicles and animals in their native languages. And if you want to see those in writing, click here. Via Coudal Partners.

Coke + Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:47:00 +0000

Visit mycoke.com, enter, and click Beijing 2008 to see Coca Cola's cool Flash graphics, downloads, and games celebrating the Olympics. And you know how much I love the Olympics. See all the commemorative Coke cans with logos in different languages, download wallpaper with themes from various countries, decorate your own Coke bottle, and more.

Things you can make

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Fabric bird mobile from Spool Sewing
Business card holder from Amy Butler
Memory candles at Inspire Company
Serendipity tote bag at Sewing Republic
Papercraft rabbits driving cars (so funny!) at a Japanese site I can't read
Papier-maché bowls from Painted Fish Studio
DIY roman shade at A Merry Mishap

(Image from Spool Sewing)

Paper berries and branches

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:15:00 +0000

A little Saturday experiment: a tiny vase of branches with origami paper berries. I can't decide if I think it's cute or just strange. Where did the inspiration for this come from, you ask?

This stick-circle theme pops up a lot. It's decades old but experiencing a resurgence. (Here, on Patricia fabric from Ikea.) The motif is based on three dimensional branches and berries found in nature, reduced to flat graphic shapes. Which I then attempted to make 3-D again. Silliness!

To make this, find a few delicate little branches (these are from some sort of pine tree). Trim them with a scissors if some of the ends are too long. Then use a circle punch (it will make your life easier) to cut out paper circles. With gel or liquid craft glue, stick the circles together, sandwiching your branch in between.

New Flickr groups

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 05:46:00 +0000

I just created two new Flickr groups: this one for your projects inspired by this blog, and this one for your orange-themed photos. I love the orange things you guys find and email me about. Now you can share with everyone.

(Cups image above submitted by Ann Stucki.)

Getting in the mood

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:50:00 +0000

To add to the fabric post, there are three things I require in order to start designing. 1) A happy-looking office—that's my seat there by the window. 2) A nice latte made with this. 3) One of my Pandora radio stations playing on my computer. Then I can settle in and get to work.

Designing fabric

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:38:00 +0000

I've gotten several emails lately asking if I could talk about how I got into designing fabric. It's not a very complicated story... I was working as a graphic designer (still am) and blogging on the side for fun (still am), when Caroline of jcaroline creative sent me an email. I knew of her online shop, but didn't know her at all. Essentially she said something like, "I like your blog. Want to design some fabric for me?" Essentially I said, "Sure." Without having a clue how to do it.

I have a degree in Design Communication (FYI for people who have asked) and have been using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for years, so I imagined it couldn't be that hard. Other people do it, right?

So I figured out how to make repeating tiles of pattern in Illustrator, my program of choice because I like flat graphic shapes. Essentially you do it like this (the best tutorial I could find for you.) I set to work making a page of patterns, and from those Caroline selected her favorites. I designed some prints to coordinate with them. Then Caroline picked a set and I refined them until we ended up with Modern Flora. She found a vendor to manage the printing. I sent them files and they magically turned them into screens. Yes, using magic! And then Caroline and I met in Massachusetts for the print run, which was great fun.

An aside: the prepress/printing process will cost you thousands of dollars, unless you find someone to license your artwork and they foot the printing bill. Or unless you go the digital Spoonflower route, which is still in Beta. (Their minimums are tiny.) I'm curious to see their quality.

My process: If I have an idea for a pattern or interesting shape, I might spend a nanosecond sketching it on whatever piece of scratch paper is handy. Or I might not sketch it at all. I might just start making it in Illustrator. I don't have a sketchbook. Sometimes I doodle on computer paper, or notebook pages, or junk mail. Then I put it next to my computer until it's time to make it in Illustrator. Sometimes I lose it or decide to throw it away because it sucks. I don't try to make nice sketches AT ALL. Just a shorthand notation so I'll remember an idea. And then it usually turns out completely different, anyhow. I take my hat off to all you meticulous sketchers out there. I swear, if anyone saw my chicken scratchings, they would never know I used to make naturalistic pastel drawings and watercolors. How did I ever have the patience? Now I'm all about simplicity.

I hope this novel was enlightening to someone, somewhere.

Make notes to self

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:23:00 +0000

Thank you, Patricia Zapata, for these lovely to-do list sheets. Since these are my favorite colors, I'm just going to go ahead and pretend you made them for me. Even though you didn't. Downloadable right here by clicking the last link.

Wonderland

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:29:00 +0000

I stumbled upon a Korean artist named Yeondoo Jung (via Craftzine) who has turned a collection of children's drawings into whimsical photos. I think they're amazing and crazy and delightful. See them here. Also go see the Bewitched series and make sure to read the captions.

(Images from Yeondoo Jung.)

Free desktop wallpaper

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:30:00 +0000

More desktop wallpaper from Eleanor Grosch!

In progress

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:18:00 +0000

In case anybody was wondering if I'm ever going to create more fabric, the answer is yes. Designing has been going on behind the scenes! Will these prints above ever see the light of day? Who knows. Just wanted to give you a peek at things in the works.

Someone should buy this

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:41:00 +0000

If you're a fan of orange, you'll love this. Get it on etsy right here.

My mind hurts

noreply@blogger.com (Jess) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:37:00 +0000

I made something else from that Japanese origami book. I photocopied some pages and a friend translated the instructions for me. (Thank you, Jamie.) I thought this would be a quick, fun little project: make a book cover with a nifty pocket in the back. It turned out to be quite hard. I had to think a whole bunch and spent a lot of time staring in bewilderment. But I got it!