shiny suitcase

a cheery way

I'd pinned this awhile ago and thought this happy scandanavian pattern was charming, bright and poppy. My Pinterest source tells me it's from Print & Pattern, the fabulous trend spotting blog, and that it's a Marimekko, but I can't find any evidence of it anywhere. I need to do some more sleuthing.

Still in my kaleidoscope mind, I created this yesterday. I limited myself to just a few shapes and to the colors in the print above. This time I played with the coloring underneath the pattern and again, I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

It feels both holiday and spring all at once to me. I'm enjoying this project and the process.

kaleidoscopic color

I have a child's cheap tin kaleidoscope with plastic beads and little bits in the top section. I bought it a few months ago, meaning to use it for some color inspiration. I took it out today when the sun was out to see what kind of images I could snap of the patterns inside. I was pretty doubtful about my ability to really even see anything through the lens of the camera but these are some of the shots I got of the barrel of the kaleidoscope. They're blurry and a bit crude, but lovely and illuminated in a cathedral like way.

I just shook the toy a bit in between shots or twisted the barrel slightly and I was actually pretty happy with how they turned out.

I think I need to build some patterns and palettes based on this experiment and I'm hoping to post a few of them this week.

 

 

a new kind of calendar

I came across Pattern Matters via Paper Forest and was struck by these incredible colorful calendars. The design and ingenuity that went into each piece is so outstanding! I also love the colors and the creative, unique movement for each month. You have to jump over and check out their behind-the-scenes creation photos. A lot of thought went into these and it truly shows.

As we're nearing the end of 2011, I'm thinking about working on some calendar designs for 2012. I'm inspired by the 12 months in 2012 (double 12s!)  and finding inspirational artwork like this really gets my wheels turning.