Holidays at Minted

I have a new holiday card design available now at Minted, "Block Printed Mistletoe" is available in die-cut shapes so you can choose rounded corners, scalloped edges and other cutout shapes. It's available in three different colors (and if you liked last year's Minted card, that's still available here and here too). Take a look at the new design right here!

Designing the Scarves

I worked on the designs for the scarves while we were in India, sketching out patterns along the way. I wanted to work from existing designs that I already had for sale (or in the works) so that the scarves would fit in with the rest of my prints. So I drew up some repeating patterns on paper, and worked with the printers to create the printing blocks from the sketches.

 

The scarves are printed with wood blocks rather than linoleum, since linoleum would never hold up to the natural dyes and repetitive printing they are used for. I had my blocks carved from a hard wood that would last much longer for textile printing (I learned to do this the first time I studied block printing but a block like this would have taken me about two weeks to carve, so it made a lot more sense to have a professional do it).

Then, each scarf was printed by hand, rinsed multiple times and laid out in the sun to dry next to a water buffalo.

 

(You can find them online right here.)

New Wedding Invitations at Minted

Minted just held its annual call for wedding invitation designs, and I created six new invitations for them. Click on each one to vote for your favorite! Since all of my work is done by hand, it's a nice change to work on some digital designs every now and then. I think my favorite is the first one with the lacy floral border, I'd love to see it with a bright red envelope.

 

 

 

 

 

Four in Hand IPA

While we were in Maine a few weekends ago, we had a bonfire on the beach with some friends, and while we were shopping for supplies, I came across Four in Hand. The beer was good, but the packaging was amazing, and I decided to get it even though I don't normally like IPAs that much. But, this beer proved to me that good packaging makes things taste better.

It's available at Whole Foods, so head over there and get some Four in Hand packaging to hang on your wall. You can drink the beers too if you want.

Portrait Quilts

While reading FiberArts magazine last week, I found out that the magazine is sadly closing (I knew I should have started my subscription sooner). It was always a great read to find new artists and interesting new works in fiber. FiberArts, you will be missed.

In that issue, I also discovered the work of Luke Haynes, a quilt artist who uses traditional quilting techniques to make realistic and modern portrait work. I loved the quilts that were featured in the magazine, and I was incredibly surprised to find out this morning that they are being sold in his Etsy Shop. So if you like his quilts, you can head over there to buy a piece of his art.

Can you believe these are quilts? I love the way he does shading with not only different shades of color but different patterns as well. I especially like the detailed backgrounds and how he combines the quilt pattern with the imagery on top. Beautiful work!

All photos via www.lukehaynes.com