LYSA FLOWER'S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY: TRAVELING TO PRINTSOURCE

Since my first surface pattern design course I’ve heard Surtex was the mecca of all surface pattern design trade shows. Did I mention it’s in New York? I’m on the west coast of Canada and getting over there will cost a pretty penny. So I was thinking. since I’m making all these sales sheets anyways maybe I should look at doing a show closer and smaller than Surtex. Something to learn from and try out first before doing the really big SHOoow.

A few Google searches later, Printsource popped onto my radar. Dang they show in New York too! Oh but wait… wait… AND they have a show in LA! That’s easy enough for me to get to. Oooh! I yelled out to my husband, we need to go to LA this August!

Really that’s all it took to convince him! Printsource is this August 13 and 14th. I’ll be heading there to walk the show, check it out, lurk at the booths and decide if it’s something I want to invest in and invest my time in preparing for next year.

Yep to quote Kathy Phantastic, I’m nerv-cited! and can wait to get back and tell you all about it!

 

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

 

ENDLESS SUMMER : : VANS

One of the very best parts of Tofino, other than the beaches and waves, is Tacofino, a parked food truck that serves tacos and my very favourite, Diablo cookies!

So there we were, after a day of attempted surfing (but successful boogie boarding), we thought we’d head into town to Tacofino. As we were driving to it we saw it! The most beautiful van I had ever seen…

The next day we went back to Tacofino for round two, and we also enjoyed ice-cream at Chocolate Tofino. While waiting in line for the ice cream I noticed this chalkboard painting of a van with surfboards stacked extremely high on it (I thought it was funny and took a very fuzzy photo of it). While I didn’t stack my surfboards that high on my vans they definitely influenced mine! Inspiration was everywhere on this trip!

I haven’t even told you about the sunsets yet! They were blazing and reminded me of the Endless Summer movie poster, hence the name for the top left print.

With every collection I love to do a standalone illustration for the name of the collection. While playing with some markers, I came up with the goin’ surfin’ lettering and ended up incorporating it into a tossed goin’ surfin’ van print.

So the moral of the story is, eat Tacofino, it’s good for your health, especially the diablo cookies, as is ice cream at Chocolate Tofino! Oh and yes, inspiration is everywhere… especially in Tofino!

 

PRETTY PLEASED ABOUT PURPLE!

… BEFORE IT USED TO MAKE ME PUKE! Okay well that’s a bit dramatic but it has been on my “No thank you” list for a long time. When I started designing for my Goin’ Surfin’ collection I wanted to push my colour palette and decided now was the time to make friends with purple. I had done it with grey about ten years ago, so I knew it was possible. Have you ever had a colour aversion?

I think A LOT about colour and I’m curious about these aversions. I don’t know what it’s like for you but for me colour is instinctual. I’ve taken all the colour theory courses, but to be honest, I can never remember all the rules. All I know is when I use certain colours or combinations they give me strong feelings that I react to.

I know about the symbolism of colour, which I find surprisingly conflicting for some colours (like yellow which can be both happy and anxious). I know purple is a hard colour to make and that’s why it was reserved for royalty, but that never helped me warm up to it.

Then there’s a psychology to colour but I think it gets muddy with your personal relationship to it. Let’s say a colour was a hot trend when you were a kid, for example avocado green, and you have memories of your mom making you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as you basked in your avocado green kitchen. You might have warm fuzzy feelings whenever you see avocado green but others might have the exact opposite reaction to it.

When it comes down to it, I think the specific hue is the important factor to making friends with a colour. For example, my father in law and I both love yellow. Except, he loves school bus yellow and I love a bright lemon yellow. To me, it’s not the same colour at all! Kind of like growing up with other Lisa’s in my class room. I didn’t think of our names as the same ever, even though they sounded the same!

So in the end, I searched and found a hue of purple I adored and used in Goin’ Surfin’. Not only did I stretch my colour palette, I finally made friends with purple and I LOVE what it did for this collection, especially my Sunshine Floral! Those pops of purple really made it sing!

 

MAKING WAVES FOR SURFERS!

Designing the waves of this intricate surfer print was one of my favourite design challenges in this Goin’ Surfin’ fabric collection!

Once I got my head wrapped around the repeat, and realized I needed to bring each wave to a point (otherwise it looked like toothpaste, ha, ha!) AND then when I put the surfer silhouettes on the waves, it was pure joy!

Then of course I played with ALL the colours (my very favourite thing to do!)! While I didn’t end up using the pink and yellow waves for the surfers I did end using it for the base of the sunshine floral!

In the end we went with the above colourways. ALL of them I’d LOVE to swim in! Or Surf! :D

 

THE COUNTDOWN IS ON!

Ten days until Quiltcon! That's nine sleeps! It seems like it's coming up fast. Maybe that's because I decided in December to go. I don't have any workshops or lectures booked. I don't even have tickets to get in. I'm just going to wing it! I'll figure it out when I get there. At least I have a place to stay... phew! And because I'm off to Quiltcon I also decided that I needed a new bag (perhaps for some fabric purchases? Maybe, just maybe).  It was also the perfect excuse to go for an idea I've been sitting on for a while, a Boombox bag! I bought a Metallic Fat Quarter Bundle from the Fat Quarter shop. It has ALL the sparkly fabric I could ever need. The bottom half of the Boombox is done, now I'm on to the top... and making the bag part. That too.

RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS: For just winging it, one thing I have locked and loaded are cards for Quiltcon. I picked them up this week and I'm pretty tickled with them! I'm teaching some workshops this year so I thought I should have some to hand out. That and MOO Cards had a 25% off sale, wink! I also decided to get some greeting cards printed up. I missed sending out Christmas cards by a country mile so my new plan is to send out a few cards every month throughout the year instead of trying to do it all in the month of December. I was very pleased with Social Print Studio's speed and quality. I had never tried them before but I will be ordering from them again. They've got some really unique services and a killer sense of humour! 

RECOMMENDED PATTERNS: One of my favourite designers is Berene Campbell @happysewlucky. Have you been following her tattoo quilt? It's amazing! It's full of love, wisdom and hope. Literately! She's mostly active on Instagram but she also blogs HERE. And if you love her work as much as I do you'll want to check out her Etsy shop HERE. I highly recommend her patterns! I've got big plans for mine but I'm still in the hoarding fabric phase. Keep an eye on this lady, she's amaze-balls.

RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR PLAYLIST: Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb here. My youngest son has introduced me to Kendrick Lamar and I'm absolutely in love with this SONG, "i".  Turn it up loud and have a wonderful Valentines Day this week, much love to you! xo

OH WAIT! I almost forgot! This past week I discovered my Roller-skate surface pattern designed was posted on Print & Pattern's website, for Make it in Design's graduation round up. The discovery was well worth an all out happy dance! 

I MIGHT BE A TEENY BIT OBSESSED...

Er... okay. Or a lot! I don't remember exactly how I came across The Jealous Curator's website a couple of years ago. I loved it immediately but it freaked me out. I'd check it out now and again, get freaked out then... rinse and repeat. That was until this past May when I was quilting on my Cassingle quilt. I had watched (or mostly listened to) the entire run of The Wire (which might just be the best show ever made! Hello season 4, I think you're perfect!). Post the Wire, longing for something to listen to, on a whim I thought, "Ah, I'll listen to a few Jealous Curator Podcasts". It was on my, someday I'll do that list anyways. It wasn't long until I was completely hooked. I started with the first podcast and worked my way up to the present. In hindsight I wish I had done it the other way because I missed some opportunities in regards to book signings and talks. Anyhoo! This summer I bulldozed my way through pretty much all of them. In listening to Danielle Krysa's own journey (the Jealous Curator, she's no longer anonymous) I fell in love with not only the work she curates but HER work, her bravery and... well her. She has two Instagram accounts that are always worth daily peeks at; @thejealouscurator and @daniellekrysaart. When looking at her work make sure you read the titles, they are just as spectacular as the work! 

She recently had a show at the Back Gallery Project, with Aimee Henny Brown and Janice Wu, called Uncommon place. I took my boys there early in October. I haven't been able to find my favourite piece online but it was of two boys and their mom looking at a big splotch of gold paint that said, LOO KUP! We had a moment of, "OH! We're life imitating art... or is the the other way around?"

Oh, and I have I mentioned the books she's written: You can check them out here. I'd recommend all of them! I'm currently working my way through You're Inner Critic is a Big Jerk.

And speaking of recommendations... here's a surface pattern designer to be on the look out for: Gail Myserscough! She a UK designer that has a groovy 60's feel to her work. Gosh I love her vacuum cleaners... and cats... and swimmers, don't even get me started on her flowers. Yeah, I'm a fan! Be on the look out for her!

And lastly, RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR PLAYLIST: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, a Bob Dylan Cover by Walk Off the Earth. Stay cosy!