Spoonflower Kaleidoscope Challenge

I was so excited for the Kaleidoscope challenge at Spoonflower. Since I use a lot of my photography in my designs, it's a technique that I often use to create a repeating pattern.

My initial idea was to do an image using a photo of some of my colorful tumbled stones. I'm a bit of a geologist and have a large collection of rocks. I took a photo of a bunch of them laid out.

Then played around with them.

None felt quite right to me. 

I played around with various photos.

This one was fun, but still not what I wanted to enter.

Then I came across some photos I took of 1,000 paper cranes made by elementary students. It's a photo that I've tried to turn into a textile design before trying to make it a repeating pattern, but was never happy with the result. The details are just to hard to see.

But when I turned it into a Kaleidoscoping image, I loved it! I came up with a few different variations.

In the end, I picked this one. 

The brighter colors attracted me to it. Here is a photo of it as wallpaper. It looks like a beautiful and intricate mosaic. 

This is a close up image of the design. 

Voting begins today! Vote at - https://www.spoonflower.com/design-challenge/kaleidoscope

Spoonflower Maximalist Challenge

As I read the prompt for this weeks Spoonflower contest and did a bit of online searching, I realized that my design aesthetic is Maximalist. For better or worse - the more is more philosophy is so me. I love combining bold colors and textures - in my home, wardrobe, and pattern design. With this prompt, I had so many ideas in my head.

I decided to start with a base of my favorite texture - wood. I have an obsession with photographing wood. I love wood grains, tree rings, weathered driftwood. If it's part of a tree, I'm taking a photo of it. I started with this photo I took of a Sequoia tree cross section.

I then wanted to add some natural elements. Another texture that I love to photograph, that also gives me some bold colors is rocks. I'm a geology nerd and I love going to Gem & Mineral shows and hit the mineral section of any museum I can get to. I added the following in small bits to my design.

This is Parrot Wing Jasper

A Septarian Nodule

Variscite

I wanted to balance it all with some ornamental design and used some patterns that I created from a photograph of a metal plate.

Then I added some flowers. I really love exotic flowers such as orchids and passion flowers. I love their unique shapes and they have amazing colors.

I then decided that the final touch should be some succulents. I love succulents.

Here are all those things jumbled together for my design. I actually made 9 designs using different elements  and this one was the final one I made and it just felt right. I absolutely love it and think I'll be ordering some soon to make myself a top. I named this design Bohemian Nature Maximalist.

If you love it too, please so to Spoonflower and give me a vote. Voting starts on March 14th. Vote HERE.


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Spoonflower 1950's Challenge

This week's Challenge theme at Spoonflower is 1950s. Immediately the first thing that came to my mind was tail fins on cars from the 1950s. I love photographing vintage automobiles, but I'm actually clueless when it comes to knowing that make, model, and year they are. So - some of these may not be from the 1950s. I made a collage with a collection of photos I have taken of tail fins.

This photo is obviously of a Bel Air. I took this photo at Dallas Cars & Coffee. I really love going to Cars & Coffee. It's held the first Saturday each month at the Classic BMW Dealership.

This photo - was also taken at Dallas Cars & Coffee. I have no clue on the make and model or year of this vehicle. But it has a beautiful paint job and a fancy tailfin.

This photo was taken at the Mecum Auto Auction in Dallas, Texas. I have no clue what this is, but I thought it had interesting lines and tail lights.

Another from the Mecum Auction. No clue on this one either. It has a pretty paint job.

The remaining photos were all taken at the Mecum Auto Auction. This is another Bel Air. I think this blue was common for the Bel Air.

Not sure what automobile this fin was on, but look at those sharp lines!

This one is a Thunderbird - I really love the classic lines on this auto.

Hopefully I guessed correctly and these photos are of automobiles from the 1950's. I really love how my design turned out.

Voting for the 1950s begins on August 16. Vote HERE!

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. These links provide me with a small compensation if you make a purchase using my link. There is not cost to you when you do this. My thoughts and opinions given in this blog post are mine.