"Cards that Pack a Punch!"

Handmade greeting card and design company, Cracked Designs, is a team of two humorous designers Tara and Adam Scheuerman. Based out of Milwaukee, WI they specialize in greeting cards, stationery, custom invitations, and hand bound journals. Their goal is to be different than what is out there and come up with witty, unique, and clever cards that are handmade and eco-friendly. Check out their website, blog, and Etsy to purchase cards and such like these...

The Fabric Workshop

Another great resource in Philadelphia is The Fabric Workshop and Museum. I visited it in high school with my art class and I remember it being a really great and inspiring place. There was lots of screen printing happening and lots of yardage to check out. It is a place for the public to witness the creative process and view completed work.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum is the only museum in the US creating and exhibiting new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging and established international artists. They have many internship and volunteer opportunities, as well as a prestigious artist in residence program. You can also visit daily and bring groups.

Their current exhibition is by artist Cai Guo-Qiang who draws in gunpowder, and then lights it on fire. This is what he did on the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps...

Oh I love Philadelphia.

Printfresh Studio

This winter I mentioned I had the opportunity to intern at Printfresh Studio, a textile design company in Philadelphia. Formed in 2006 by Amy and Leo Voloshin, Printfresh has become a leader in fashion textile design. Their sales team sells original and vintage designs to their growing list of clients. They also exhibit at several international trade shows including Direction by Indigo, Printsource, and Premiere Vision in Paris.

The Printfresh team of designers is dedicated to creating trend-right designs for the apparel industry. Amy also travels through Europe and the US to collect beautiful vintage documents for clients' inspiration.

During my time at Printfresh I helped the designers make their digital prints come to life. I screen printed designs, sewed prints into shirt fronts to be shown to clients, and added to the growing vintage archives. Although only 3 years old, this company is producing and selling lots of great prints. Don't be surprised if you are wearing one of their designs now or in the near future.

Voila

Many long nights and hours at the fibers building, but my screen prints have turned into tote bags adorned with French knots, and my 3 yard weaving sample is finished and cut off the loom!

Flowers by Bornay

Bornay makes some of the most beautiful flower arrangements I have ever seen. They are a company from one of my favorite cities, Barcelona. You can visit their blog and website to see some amazing photos. This is how their website describes "events and details for people." I think this could be directed to so many aspects of life and creativity...

"The core that defines a specialized company in floral decoration is not just flowers. For us the core is creativity and capability to understand what needs to be projected in each situation, in each context and for each client. The flowers and the elements that surround them are the tools we use to express ourselves in order to succeed in the effect they must produce.

Understanding the needs on every situation succeeding in transmitting the idea, and representing it impeccably so it becomes a reality, it is the objective that motivates us to believe that very soon, we will be able to work together."

Flowers by Bornay
Events and details for people.

What Ive Been up to...

Its been a busy few weeks since the quarter has begun, but its been going pretty well. I spend countless hours in the fibers building since I cant really weave or screen print at home. And with that, heres a little of what I have been working on.

This child-like floral is complete, now I have to turn them into tote bags. I've also be doing lots of experimenting with different techniques.

Our first weaving project is a 3 yard sampler. We are using all sorts of materials and learning different weaving patterns. Its fun to see the different designs appear, and makes you appreciate the fabrics we use and wear every day and the work that goes into them. Pretty amazing. Plus, its pretty fun and relaxing to listen to your favorite music and weave for a few hours.

We're even learning lace techniques, so many possibilities!

In between all the work and me trying to figure out what to do for my portfolio/after I graduate, there is some good friend time, including kidnapping the two birthday girls and taking them to the beach....

Happy Birthday Liz and Bess! Wait a minute...

Suzanne Tick

One of my three classes this quarter is weaving. It has been an enjoyable class so far. I have learned to make a 3 yard, 120 count warp. I have prepped a four harness loom by threading each warp by hand. And I have experimented with weaving 5/2 cotton, but also unusual pliable materials like drinking straws, wire, and paper towels.

While doing some research I came across Suzanne Tick, a weaver and textile designer whose work often makes use of very unexpected materials. She is responsible for most of the textiles produced by KnollTextiles every year. She has an interesting video clip on artbabble where she is weaving a piece made of dry cleaning waste. Check it out!

Allison Cole

I'm really enjoying the work of illustrator and printmaker Allison Cole right now. She graduated from RISD in 2003 and lives and works in Providence, RI. She illustrates editorials, surface designs, and her own hand lettering. I like how she includes lots of little textures and great fonts in her pieces, and her style and color choices are great! You can check out her website, blog, and shop. Do you recognize this from a Target gift card this winter?

And how cute are these? The first is used on a market bag, the second is one of her surface designs, and the other shows her style and I guess sense of humor?!

Brrrr

Forsyth Fountain was frozen this morning when I passed it walking to the Lisa Simmons lecture. Lisa is a writer who writes for the blog Socialite Life. It was interesting to hear her story and tips to get a job in the new media world.

I spent the afternoon until class doing some research and being inspired by screen printing. I think I could enjoy screen printing for a long time. In fact, I could see myself screen printing as a career. Screen printing my own designs on anything... posters, stationary, clothing, bags, I'll do it! In class today we used contact paper to make a motif. I made two birds sitting on a branch and had a lot of fun printing! Heres what it looked like.

So much fun! I'm definitely looking forward to this quarter and what comes out of it.

A New Year

Its been awhile since my last post, but a lot has happened since then. I finished my internship at Printfresh, I really enjoyed it. Its a new decade! I'm back in Savannah! and a bunch of things in between...

Because my brother goes to West Point we got tickets to the Army Navy game at the Linc. It was cold and army lost, but it was an experience.

I'll probably look like a horrible person, but my boyfriend and I get a kick out of peopleofwalmart.com, so we decided to go and see if we could find any interesting people... we did.

Christmas was nice, spent time with the family and opened some presents, including my very own laptop! A year and a half after spilling water on my old Mac, I am the very proud owner of the new 13" Macbook Pro, and I promise I will never bring liquids near it. Speaking of Macs, my roommate Eny, who I had not seen since the summer, made an appearance in Philly and brought her dead Mac along. We went to two different Mac stores, in two different states, but we successfully revived her computer.

While in New York we visited Central Park, ate Korean Food, freezed our butts off, and Eny saw some of the major NYC attractions for the first time.

We headed back to Brooklyn to warm up and grab a cup of coffee at Heights Coffee Lounge. I was excited to get a HUGE small latte that tasted a lot like the coffee in Europe. Oh how I miss it.

Back at home there was a lot of snow, 20 some inches, and lazy dogs.

New Years Eve Chester and I had an empty house, and he redeemed his coupon for a Melissa cooked meal. I took on the challenge to make him some Honduran food, which was good, and bad. Since I have never had Honduran food, I was not sure how it was supposed to taste, and the women that make it are pros, and I was certainly a beginner. But some of it was very tasty! some we had to laugh at. But a good way to ring in the new year/decade!

January 2nd I left early in the morning for Savannah. After 7 months away I was returning to my apartment and my wonderful friends that I missed. I was greeted (tackled) by about 8 or 9 or them at the airport, which was fun! I spent most of the weekend (and Im still going) moving back into the apartment. Lara arrived later that night and our household was complete again. .

There has been lots of hanging out and classes started yesterday. I have a feeling this quarter will be very busy, but very good. I am excited to be screen printing, weaving, and working on my portfolio. Crazy that in only 7 months I will be a college graduate and hopefully ready to work!! This is the year.