Lysa Flower's Daily Designer Diary : : Rust?! Is that even a colour?

I use colour as an act of rebellion against the boring and the blah of beige. My sunshiny modern illustrations, prints, patterns and designs are the antidote! Here’s why…

Growing up my mom was a secretary and I dedicated my 9 to 5 collection to her. That’s why there is an A on the cup, it’s the first letter of her name.

Like most moms she dressed me similarly to her taste, which was grey slacks and white blouses (yep blouses with skinny ribbons that went around the collar and tied in a bow). I also always had a cream cardigan.

The most wild colour I wore was a red blouse, but I’m here to tell you, it was the most muted of all reds. My barrettes were brown and beige and in grade 3 when I had to get glasses, can you guess what colour they were? Yep, beige!

BUT, I LONGED for the colorful barrettes and multi coloured wooly ties my best friend wore in her hair.

As a kid, when I was 7 or 8, I asked my mom what her favorite colour was. She said… wait for it…

RUST.

I looked at her blankly. Rust? I stared at her face. She wasn’t kidding. Rust.

“Like the stuff that grows on old Toyotas?” I asked.

She just looked at me blankly and said yes. Not wanting to hurt her feelings, I let it go but I walked away thinking, Rust? Rust? Is that even a colour?

At 10, I asked for my room to be painted yellow. We agreed on a colour and my mom started painting the closet and quickly decided it was WAY too bright. She promptly took the paint cans back and had more white added to them. My room ended up a shade of white, with a slight tinge of yellow. I took what I could get because the rest of our house had beige wallpaper, beige-y white painted walls. Everywhere I looked it was beige.

Maybe it’s no surprise colour is my act of rebellion. I crave it. I’ve never feared it. I can never have enough. It gives me dopamine hits like nobody’s business! When I see colours I love my instant reaction is to call them yummy! I get excited to use them and it’s my favorite part of the design process. I know some designers leave it to the end but I lead with it. I decide on a colour palette straight away.

So thank you mom! Thank you rust! And white tinges of yellow and of course beige! You have shaped me into radiating joyful, happy colours into peoples homes, neighbours and lives!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

 

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS :: DAy 5

 

Yesterday I woke up and felt really in my head. Foggy and grumpy. To get back on track, we hiked up the mountain we live nearby. This spring has been spectacular! The weather was wonderful, sunny and breezy. It did the trick and I was left sweaty and back in my body. Refreshed.

I enjoyed the afternoon and evening in my studio. I added some roundness to the ends of the C, the A, the O, and the S. I made the F smaller and the D larger. I thought it would make more sense since all the other words are like that too. I need to rethink the F, it’s being a bit tricky.

Today I didn’t listen to music but listened to a playback from an online course I’m at taking called the Content Cultivation Course. There were some great nuggets in there!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : DAY 4

 

Want to play a game? Spot the differences! The illustration on the left was at the beginning of the day, the one on the right is at the end of the day. There are 9 differences. The Answers are at the bottom. No peeking!

The playlist for today, I hope you like 100 Gecs!!! :D

And this is what I did this evening: Shout out to my friends Kari (@theprintmakerandherdog) and Tara (Tara.Lee.Bennett) stunning show at @newleafeditions on Granville Island in Vancouver.

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*Answers: On the right illustration:

  1. no surfer on the F

  2. a surfer instead of a flower

  3. a surfer from the left had been moved to on top of the D

  4. no surfer in the right corner

  5. surfer on THE

  6. surfer moved from the M to a dot in the I

  7. surfer now on the C in Chaos

  8. the surfer is larger and between the A and the O

  9. surfer larger and on the S

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

 

ILLUSTRATING : : FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : Day 2

 
 
 
 

While I still need to finesse my lettering, today I played with colour and scale.

There’s still a lot to explore. Mostly, each time I work on something new, I ask myself, “What if I did this instead…?” ALL DAY LONG!

Maybe tomorrow I’ll explore the scale of the background? I’d like to see what it would look like with the font interacting with the waves.

I’m also trying to stick to the Goin’ Surfin’ palette but I’m feeling a little boxed in by it.

Here is the April 16th playlist, I’m loving this new music!

 

LET GO : : deep thoughts by Lysa Flower

I always have an vague idea of what I’m wanting to do with a piece. The journey, like many creatives have written about, is U shaped. Starting at the top of the U: "This is such a GREAT idea! (sketching and inking)". To the bottom of the U: "Ugh! Why is this falling apart in my hands (realizing it feels a little flat)". To climbing up the other side of the U: "Okay, that’s interesting, (breaking it on purpose, pushing the scale super large or super tiny) what if I?… to Wow! I LOVE THIS!".

That U feeling; it’s kind of like riding a wave I suppose... AND like the ability to LET GO of expectations, disappointment, each moment. When I really started to think about it, the need to LET GO might be the purpose of life… Whoa, that got deep fast! All I was trying to say was that I LOVE when hand lettering and patterns go together ;D

 

MODISH QUILTER : : RETRO ISSUE : : FABRIC DESIGNER FEATURE

I had the pleasure of sitting down for an interview with Kiley of Modish Quilter to chat about my journey as a fabric designer.

For me, the path to becoming a fabric designer has been a scenic route and I feel like I’ve accidently, on purpose, landed here, doing this thing I absolutely love. Even if there’ve been a few speed bumps and growing pains along the way. During our conversation, I shared insights into my creative process, from the initial idea to the inspirational playlist, messy ink drawings, to my favorite part, selecting colors in Adobe Illustrator and, oh! So many repeat patterns, which I adore to play with!

As I look back on my journey so far, I know I’m a lucky duck for the overwhelming love and support my retro-modern sunshiny prints and patterns have received. It's truly heartwarming to see how my designs have resonated with collaborators, people, makers & neighborhoods. I enjoy, oh SO much, being able to bring bursts of joy and color into the world, one print and pattern at a time!

 

LIKE FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL... BUT DIFFERENT

Instead it's been three trunk shows and two workshops (minus Hugh Grant).

Last month the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild invited me to a do a mini trunk show for them. I was overwhelmed and grateful by their response. They're quite a talented bunch so that really meant a lot. I was also invited to do a workshop for them on "How to Create Your Own Paper Piecing Block". It was an intense day with big brain work. You know how paper piecing is right, it's like one big puzzle. They stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park! We all learned a lot... and there were tacos! Everyone walked away with their own pattern block to sew. A few people were partially done sewing their blocks but Jaydeen was there first one to finish her TACO block!

Next up, back to back trunk shows. The first one is today, Friday, May 11 for the Blue Mountain Quilters Guild in Port Coquiltlam at 7pm. Then tomorrow, Saturday, May 12th, there is a trunk show for the Northwest Quilters Connection: An International Quilt Group at 9:30am in Vancouver. I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone and seeing their show and tell! 

May 26th I'll be teaching one of my favourite projects, a Cassette Book Cover workshop for the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild. It's perfect for learning paper piecing and for finishing up a project in one day. We'll aim to make three sizes but I also have an alternative up my sleeve. There are still a few spots available. It's $40 for members and $45 for non members. Email Joan jmzielke@shaw.ca to register. Hey, maybe I'll see you there!

As tradition would have it... RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR PLAYLIST: I can't get enough of this band! I'd recommend ALL their songs but today I'm going to go with THE LATE SHOW by the band called The Beaches. They're a Canadian Band out of Toronto and they're killing it! Sadly I missed them in Vancouver just by days. I won't make that mistake again. 

I'VE GOT MY POM-POMS READY TO CHEER THEM ON!

Have you heard of Make it in Design? They're an online design school that teaches surface pattern design and I HEART surface pattern design! Right now I'm in their Ultimate Portfolio Builder course. I'm having a BLAST! The first two photos in this line up are my first work from the class. But don't worry there'll still be lots of sewing happening!

One of the HUGE benefits of taking MIID (Make it in Design) courses are meeting some exceptional designers. I'd like to introduce you to three designers I think we need to keep our eyes on. I'm pretty sure big things are around the corner for these ladies.

First, I'd like to introduce you to Abby Hersey. I met Abby on Instagram last summer and have enjoyed watching her grow. Her her first collection with Robert Kaufman is called Let's play house. It's adorable and if I had a little girl... we'd be playing with it A LOT!

In 2015 I met Jill O'Conner through MIID. She's been inspiring to watch. Recently she's joined forces with Jackie Hurd. Together they have started a collective called Jack & Jillo. They've been busy working on their portfolio and will be showing at PrintSource next summer 2018! 

Teresa Chan, I met this past January. She's been incredible to watch as her Instagram following has spiked to 33.1k! Yep. 33.1k. That wasn't a typo. Have a look at her feed and you'll understand why. Amazing work! Her first fabric line will be at Quilt Market this fall. I can't wait to see it! The fabric line will be available in the Spring of 2018. I'll keep you posted!

RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR PLAYLIST: keeping in theme with being a cheerleader, from the ultimate cheerleader Gwen Stefani, HOLLABACK GIRL ... it's bananas B! A! NAN! A! S!