Pretty things for you or someone special...

Here's a necklace and earring set I made as a special gift for a friend to give to his wife. The request was to include blues & greens. I found the glass and leaf pendant at my favorite bead store, Fusion, and that inspired the rest of the beads: apatite, sunstone and some swirly blue & green ones that I already had in my stash. I use sterling silver wire for the wire work and the chain which I break and reconnect depending on the design. If you're looking for a special gift for yourself or someone else, I'd be happy to make something for you. Fancy gift wrapping is included. :)

Museum of Science Magazine, Spring

I recently wrapped up a big project with Plural—the spring issue for the Museum of Science in Boston. This is the second time we've done the design for the magazine, the first time being their fall issue. Once again it's chocked full of impressive and engaging stories about what's going on at the Museum. The design follows the look and feel of the previous issue so that the Museum's brand is consistent to its audience. The 32 page, plus cover magazine was printed with post-consumer recycled paper.

As always, you can click on the images for a closer look.

Butterfly, Flutter by

The other day I was sitting on the patio trying to figure out what to draw. First I tried drawing the hops but they were too detailed and I got frustrated trying to be precise. Then I noticed the white butterflies dancing around the flower bed—the kind that almost look like they must be drunk the way they flip flop around. I started sketching butterflies with stylized patterns. I liked the play on words of 'butterfly' and 'flutter by' and used the text in the background, kind of like a wallpaper effect. I added some scanned papers because the flat colors seemed, well—too flat. :)

I thought it might be interesting to see my original sketch so I'm including that as well. 

Georgetown Garden Walk: Sunday July 12th

Friends and fans of the Georgetown Garden Walk have been chomping at the bit to see this year's poster so without any further ado, here it is! This is the first year that the poster will be screenprinted in a limited edition of 200, making them a nice keepsake for the event. The files went off to the printer this week and hopefully will start popping up around the neighborhood in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled and mark your calendars for Sunday, July 12th 10 to 5.

As I mentioned earlier in my blog, this year it was a collaborative effort between Jay and me which was a lot of fun. We brainstormed on the concept and wondered just what flowers would look like if they were Georgetown hipsters—voila! 

For more information about the Garden Walk contact Jon Dove at 206.763.9595. Free maps of the garden locations are available on the day of the walk at the Bank of America parking lot, 1112 S. Bailey Street.

Playing with Patterns

If you know me, you know that I'm a total pattern junkie. Can't get enough of them—florals, geometric, traditional, mod, hand drawn, etc. I love them all. (Well, ok maybe not leopard or zebra unless they're on the animals themselves.) A while back I came across this tutorial for making a repeating pattern by Julia Rothman (love her work!) and I've been meaning to give it a try. She made it so easy to understand how repeating patterns are made—a ha, that's how they do it.

So I took elements of this drawing I made and created some patterns from it, playing with different color combinations—so much fun! I would love to screenprint these on giftwrap. :)

As always, you can click on the image for a closer look...