Notes on creating patterns

For the past year I've been busy with pattern-making. A handful of designs came about through digitally recoloring my hand-marbled papers. Some, like the pomegranates, artichokes & lemons shown further along this post, are based on illustrations I made for my BookArtObject cubes ( Mise en place); others are composed of layers & layers of precisely spaced letters (now unrecognizable as such), an idea inspired by a past ALaW project.


I had in mind a collection of a dozen or so to begin with, but "exponential" is a word that comes to mind when describing this project! The number has fluctuated as the designs evolved, but I finally settled on thirty-two for now.

 

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Below is a snapshot from when I was in the process of organizing, shuffling & reorganizing the printouts into mini "collections"—many times!—a process I found immensely satisfying/enjoyable after the intense, detail-oriented period of designing & editing.

I was searching for some kind of logic behind the various combinations, and it was actually quite challenging to arrive at a single, "ultimate" way to group them—but the great thing I realized is that there's plenty of flexibility. Personally, I love the idea of being able to assemble a custom set of just about anything, whether it's a palette of oil paints/watercolors/pencils...or a set of stationery or dishes or clothing. Flexibility & choice are both cornerstones of Studio Milledisegni, but I must admit that it was difficult to come up with a good way to present all of the options to customers!

Here are a few of the natural groupings that "emerged"...

There are many more designs (not to mention combinations), and I'm hoping that others have as much fun as I did when putting together their own customized sets. (The 12"x18" sheets are offered in "mix & match your own" sets of 8/12/20/32.) I've been using them for wrapping small gifts (as shown in my last post), lining drawers, creating gift tags & envelope liners, and one of my favorite ideas so far has been a book cover. I trimmed  one of the marbled papers to wrap around a book I was giving my daughter for her birthday, so it served first as the gift wrap, and now as a dust jacket/place marker. We're hoping to make some decorations for our Christmas tree with the papers this coming week, and I'm excited to see what other creative souls will come up with...

Some of these designs are also offered through my studioMdesigns items (cell phone cases, zippered studio pouches, clocks, notebooks, etc., which are produced by a print on demand company). While paper will always be my first love (and it feels odd to give up control over the production process) I must admit that it can be pretty intoxicating to see one's work transformed into such a vast selection of media!

 

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I hope you are all finding time to be creative, whether in the kitchen, the studio, the garden...or wherever you might/must be spending your time at the moment. Happy holiday season!