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If you don't know, FIKA is the Swedish tradition of taking time for a coffee and cake break every day. But aside from what you eat and drink, it's really more about taking time to pause and socialize with friends and colleagues. Sounds pretty good to me! I've entered my new "Fika Swedish Pastry and Coffee Break" pattern design in this week's Spoonflower "Fika (Swedish Coffee Break)" Design Challenge! Look closely so you can see just how fun these flowered mugs of coffee and pastries are! I created them in a puffy "balloon-style", using a tool that I just recently discovered in Adobe Illustrator. Voting for this Challenge opens today and closes Tuesday September 27. You can link to the Voting Page HERE. BTW: I couldn't help trying this Illustrator tool out on a few other designs. Scroll down to see the fun results! All these pattern designs are now available in my Spoonflower Shop on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in 3 sizes! Click the images below to see them in my Spoonflower Shop in Medium-Scale (Small- and Large-Scale also available)!  Fika Swedish Pastry and Coffee Break  Breakfast (I LOVE the fried eggs!)  Cupcake Dreams (adapted from an earlier design in a "flat" style which is also available in my Spoonflower Shop!)
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When I snap a pic that for some reason I just really like, it's often because there's just "something" about the captured colours. Picking out these colours is one of my favourite ways to come up with new colour palettes for pattern designs. For example, here is a photo I took at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk while on a coastal roadtrip to California in June, and I just really love this pic of a vintage-inspired ride. So I picked out some gorgeous colours to create a new palette...Expect to see these colours in a new design! How do you come up with new colour palettes? Do you use your photos too?  Very honoured to see one of my designs in this absolutely gorgeous portrait of the iconic actor Tilda Swinton shot by photographer Chris Chapman in the Deadline Studio at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival 2022! I invite you to check out my Instagram Post to read more about this collaboration in Chris' own words!  When I travel to other places, I love going to markets where it's so interesting to explore all the unfamiliar things, particularly food, and especially fruits and veggies I have never seen or tasted before. So when I saw that this week's Spoonflower Design Challenge was "Otherworldly Botanicals", I immediately thought about strange fantastical fruits as a subject matter. So here is my new "Ambrosia" pattern design which I filled with graphic melon-like fruits on curly vines (of course, it HAD to have curly vines!) Voting for this Challenge is now open and you can link to the Voting Page HERE. I would love your vote for this one (voting closes Tuesday Sept 20)! This design is also now available in my Spoonflower Shop on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in 3 sizes, and you can SHOP this design HERE (in the Medium-Scale, it's also available in a Small- and Large-Scale too!)  Ambrosia in Coral and Earth Tones on Dark Brown And of course, I couldn't resist adding this design to my Spoonflower Shop in some other colourways too, see below! Each colourway also comes in 3 sizes. Click on an image to link to the Medium-Scale versions directly in my Spoonflower Shop!  Ambrosia in Pastels and Warm Neutrals on Cream  Ambrosia in Orange and Olive Green on Yellow This is my entry for this week's Spoonflower "Victorian-Era Florals" Design Challenge which I call "Victoriana". And of course, I couldn't help trying this new design out in several colourways: (1) "Midnight Blue" (for an antique kinda faded effect), (2) "Parchment" (nice soft colours) and (3) "Aubergine" (because I had to try some brights, as usual!) I ended up entering the first "Midnight Blue" version, and it seems you all agree that this colourway was the right one to enter when I asked a couple days ago via social media, YAY! If you would like to vote (voting closes Tuesday Sept 13), be sure to check out the Voting Page HERE. And you can check out this design in my Spoonflower Shop too!     I’m very pleased to show you the brand new book “Create Patterns with Different Layouts” by Manon Jodoin of Jodoin Studio just released and available for purchase on Amazon. This full-colour book features pattern designs from 18 designers (including me!), all organized by design layout, such as “One Way”, “Spot Repeat”, “Stripes”, etc. It’s inspiring to see how all the designers interpret the layouts differently and it’s such a great resource for both aspiring and established surface pattern designers! With thanks to Manon for including me! See below for a sneak peek inside... Check out the Jodoin Studio WEBSITE where you can easily purchase this brand new book!   This week’s Spoonflower Design Challenge is “Birding” and here is my entry I call “Birdwatching Love”! Scroll down to get a little peek at the process behind this design. If you would like to vote, you can link to the Voting Page HERE! I would love your vote for this one! Voting closes Tuesday Sept 6. And BTW: this design is now available in my Spoonflower Shop on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in 3 sizes!  See below for a little sneak peek into the early sketching behind my "Birdwatching Love" design! It's fun!  WHOOPS! I just noticed I forgot to post about LAST week's Spoonflower Design Challenge which was "Crochet Granny Square"! So, here is the design I entered which I call, appropriately, "Crochet Granny Square". Scroll down to see the INSPIRATION behind this design! Unfortunately, voting for this Challenge is now closed, but you can vote in THIS week's "Birding" Design Challenge (see my next post!) 
When I saw the Spoonflower "Granny Square Crochet" Design Challenge, I immediately thought of the blanket I bought at a garage sale years ago (see below). Ever since then, my husband has been trying to re-sell it at the many garage sales we've had but I've always said "No way!" One of the things I really love about this blanket (aside from the handmade-ness and obvious love that went into making it) is the randomness of all the bright colours. So although the design I entered doesn't entirely copy this blanket, I really tried to capture that colour randomness (and btw: I do realize that my design doesn't have squares)! You can now purchase my "Crochet Granny Square" design in my Spoonflower Shop on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in 3 sizes!  This week's Spoonflower Design Challenge is "Retro Floral Curtains" and I've entered my new floral "Danube" design in a gorgeous Royal Blue! My retro idea was to use all those bright and groovy 60s colour combos that I love: Blue with Turquoise, and Pink with Red, and Purple for good measure! If you'd like to vote, check out the Voting Page! And BTW: this design is available in my Spoonflower Shop in 3 sizes and in other colours too (scroll to the bottom to see)! And you can SHOP this design HERE!  Duvet cover, pillows and curtains shown below are Large-Scale!
Wallpaper shown below is Medium-Scale!  My "Danube" floral pattern design is also available in my Spoonflower Shop in Ecru (left) and Moss Green (right) in Small-, Medium- and Large-Scale versions too!
This Week's Spoonflower Design Challenge is "Space Exploration"! Here is my Entry: "Blast Off!"8/4/2022 “BLAST OFF!” This week's Spoonflower Design Challenge is: "Space Exploration"! Here is my entry and believe me, I had real difficulty with this theme, from coming up with ideas to creating a design that I liked! Anyway, you get to see the final result here, and not all the hair-pulling that went into this one! Voting for this Challenge opens today Thursday August 4 and I would love your vote for this one! Public voting closes Tuesday August 9. You can check out all the entries at the Voting Page! If you would like to SHOP this design in my Spoonflower Shop, you can do so HERE. And take note that it does come in Small-, Medium- and Large-Scale sizes too! And Read All About the Design Process Behind "Blast Off!" If you would like to read about my design process and how MY "Blast Off!" design came to be, I invite you to read my most recent NEWSLETTER (August 2022) where I describe how hard this one was! If you are interested, you can Subscribe to my Newsletter too!    My new pattern design "Cabinet of Curiosities" is my take on this week's Spoonflower Design Challenge theme: "Dark Academia". I really had a hard time trying to decide what to do for this one (I think I spent a day staring at a sketchbook, sketching, then flipping the page, repeat...) But one of the suggestions for topics was "specimens", which made me think of Cabinets of Curiosities, giving me an excuse to draw all kinds of fun little oddities and use dark moody colours! AND I thought it would also be a fun option for Halloween projects too (after all, it has animal skulls, jars of eyeballs, bones, spiders, claw hands...)! Voting for this Challenge opens today Thursday July 28 2022. Check out all the entries and maybe vote for my entry (!) at the Voting Page HERE! Voting closes Tuesday Aug 2 at 3:00 EDT! And you can go to my Spoonflower Shop and check out this design which is now available on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in 3 sizes!  And of course I couldn't help adding a fun simple coordinate to pair with this design! My "Cabinet of Curiosities Eyeballs Coordinate" is also now available in my Spoonflower Shop (see below)!  This week's Spoonflower Design Challenge is "1970s Throw Pillows" and here is my entry, "Dreamscape"! OF COURSE I couldn't resist trying out this design in a bunch of other colourways too (see below), but I did end up entering the first Coral Orange version. Check out all the entries at the Voting Page. Voting ends Tuesday July 26 and winners will be revealed on July 28! And if you want to see my Spoonflower Shop, CLICK HERE! This design in all these colours is available on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor! Stay tuned for more colourways too! 
I've entered my "Corfu" design in this week's Spoonflower "Cheerful Checks" Design Challenge! This design and it's colour combination were inspired by a trip I took a long time ago to that Greek island! If you would like to see all the entries and vote (and I would love your vote!), you can link to the Voting Page HERE! Voting closes next Tuesday July 19 2022! . And this design is now available in my Spoonflower Shop on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in 3 sizes! Check out my Spoonflower Shop HERE!
 I've entered my "Jaipur" floral pattern design in this week's Spoonflower "Monochrome Moments" Design Challenge! The idea behind this challenge was to choose a "Base Colour" and create a design using only Tints (colour + white), Shades (colour + black) or Tones (colour + gray) of that colour! At first, I had some consternation...How could I create a design using only ONE colour?! But I ended up choosing this beautiful Scarlet Red for the challenge (and I couldn't resist adding this design to my Spoonflower Shop in some other colours too!) If you did this challenge, which Base Colour would you choose (you have to choose just one)?! Check out the Voting Page to see all the entries! . AND If you are interested, Spoonflower is offering 25% OFF All WALLPAPER Rolls until Sunday July 10 2022! You can link to my BEST SELLERS directly HERE! 
Wallpaper pictured above is the "Large-Scale" version of this design! It also comes in a Small- and Medium-Scale version too!
Just after returning from my month-long road trip down the West Coast (fantastic trip, btw), Issue #54 of Uppercase Magazine (July/Aug/Sept 2022) arrived in the mail! I love it when this magazine arrives! This Issue is all about Abstract Art and Design, and my answer to the question, "How do you personally define or interpret 'abstract' in art and design?" was included, together with my "Flow" pattern design. Thanks to Janine Vangool of Uppercase Magazine for including me in this Issue, it's so inspiring!
And if you can't read what I wrote from the above photo, here is my answer to the question:
For me, “abstract” art and design begins with a representation of something, whether physical (like flowers or a landscape) or intangible (like love or protest). In other words, it is not non-representational. Sometimes, the subject might be only slightly stylized, so a viewer requires little imagination to understand what it is. On the other hand, the image might be so “abstracted” as to be initially unrecognizable. But in all cases, I think abstraction requires pulling out those essential characteristics or the essence of a subject; then, maybe when the title is revealed or after contemplation, there is an “ah ha” moment when the observer gains an understanding of the artwork’s meaning. As a pattern designer, I try to reduce motifs in my abstract patterns to just their essential shapes and colours, while trying to ensure they are still recognizable for what they are. |
AuthorJackie Tahara of UnBlink Studio Archives
September 2022
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All images on this website are Copyright © Jackie Tahara. All rights reserved.
If sharing, pinning or blogging my images, please always credit me and link back to my website. Supporting artists is a good thing to do! Thank you!
If sharing, pinning or blogging my images, please always credit me and link back to my website. Supporting artists is a good thing to do! Thank you!