Slowly Working

Hello! I am slowly working these days, some days at least. Most days I barely work at all. I'm feeling really confident that I'll soon be feeling back to my old self, God willing. My back still hurts quite a bit very often, but I'm so relieved to feel so much better. In all seriousness, I am overwhelmed everyday with gratefulness to the Lord. Already I am forgetting my most painful days, the way the memory lessens after childbirth kind of. What a mercy.

Helmsie has launched, and Sarah and I were blown away by how excited our friends and families were for us. So many pledged, and emailed, and it was so sweet for us. I drew the vast majority of the artwork over a year ago, when my back was ok. Sarah has been so patient and understanding, while I was very frustrated. I am sending the print artwork to the printers this weekend; I've abandoned my Epson. Experts tell me that it has probably just died for good from age, not the continuous ink system as I thought. It's only a few years old, maybe three, so I don't think I'll invest anymore time or energy on fancy printers. 

As I was going through my files this morning, I wandered into some patterns I made last year with the idea of designing new collections for Pink Light(one above). None of the groups are close to finished, so I'll just hold on to them for who-knows-what. I really enjoyed my time with Pink Light, and they were so understanding of my injury. I still can't work much, so the days of drawing patterns for outright sale and licensing are over for now. Maybe one day I can jump back in.  

I want to update the Shop, and now that my printer has died, it seems like the time to start brainstorming what is next. For now, I think Ill just have the playing cards available. Hopefully prints will be there soon-ish :)

XOXO

Karla

(some snaps by Danielle Hulsey of our ABC cards for Helmsie! Check out the website to see it all)

An uninteded absence

Well hello! It's been quite a while since I have dropped by the blog. I've been out of sorts; completely side-lined by a bad back injury. I'm finally feeling a bit better thanks to a lot of medicine and physical therapy and time, thank the Lord. It's been rough. I'm feeling better just in time to enjoy the fruit of launching a new product line that has been in the works for about two years. Just a few weeks ago I thought I wouldn't be able to be an active participant in the launch or in much of life moving forward... forever. Coming to terms with my new normal seemed the wise thing to start doing, so I am overwhelmed with gratitude and frankly in a bit of shock to finally be feeling better. God is so faithful, and this has felt even more true to me in the darkest times. 

Despite the quiet on the blog, I've been slowly working, sending out orders, trying to keep up with Lucie, and counting my blessings. I'll be doing that until the end of March when I'll be back with the new product announcement! Here is a little sneak peak of Lucie and I with one of the first products that will be coming out, taken by my friend the super stylish and talented photographer Danielle Hulsey.

Islet Playing Cards 2.0

I'm back for my fourth kickstarter campaign! I'm relaunching my first and most popular poker card deck, the Islet Playing Cards, with some great new design updates. This is a short 15 day campaign hoping to raise $1500 to help fund a large new order of the cards from my manufacturer. I sold all the playing cards from the first kickstarter campaign, and since I needed to reorder, I decided to update the playing cards with a few design tweaks. Check it out if you need a set for that summer vaca! 

New fabric line!

I have a fabric line! After years of working toward one, and hoping someone would license a collection of my designs, even signing contracts and sending files for three other collections only to have everything fall through unexpectedly, it is so great to have fabric in my hands from Robert Kauffman! If you are a designer feeling discouraged, keep working! People along the way have encouraged me to do the same, and I hope you'll be encouraged too. Licensing and freelance is not for the faint of heart, so be stubborn! And thanks for following along here.

Scoutmob Holiday Market

I'll be in Atlanta at the Scoutmob Holiday Market with 24 other amazing local artists, and you should be there! Tickets are available here, and you get a cocktail and a gift bag at the door! Please say hi if you're there!

Woodland playing cards

I started another kickstarter campaign for my newest deck of cards! This one was the one I worked on the longest. Baby Lucie can take a little bit of that blame, good blame, the best :), but moreso I just had a hard time completely loving the characters I was drawing. Most of the time I have something in my head, and it just comes out when I draw, but I kept trying to like what I was drawing, for months, and I just didn't. I finally started over, and in a few sittings I loved the new characters. 

It is a short kickstarter campaign this time, ending on black Friday. I did that so that the cards could be delivered in time for Christmas! Can't wait to ship them out!

Wallpaper in the new house!

I'm so excited to share photos that the very talented Kaitie Bryant took of my dining room with my Garden wallpaper in Noir for Hygge + West! Kaitie and I have a ridiculous number of friends in common but had never met, so it was great to spend time with her too! Her website is gorgeous; you should check it out. 

I waffled and waffled about where to put wallpaper in our new house. I asked everyone who came over, brought friends in for visits just to get advice about where to put some; I was that indecisive. "The hallway for sure" I thought, and then, "Our bedroom, for sure"... "No, All the bedrooms!" I think a big part of my indecision was that we hope to stay in this house for a long time, and this year has been chock full of expensive purchases with this "forever" house in mind. We've renovated the kitchen, added new front doors, painted the exterior and entire interior, and almost replaced every light fixture... all in a year. I had a baby in that timeline too :) I'll be adding more wallpaper, but I (still yikes) can't decide on where else it should go. Full of relief from my waffling for a while at least though, I can tell you I'm so happy with how the dining room turned out. Here are the befores and afters:

The only part of making a wallpaper decision that was easy was picking which pattern to use. We were so happy to find this house that we love in our same old neighborhood of Normaltown. We kept looking all over Athens, and we just loved where we were already. I drew this pattern a few years ago now from flowers I picked on walks in Normaltown too, so it felt right to keep these camellias in the neighborhood :)

We hired a fantastic wallpaper installer named Grace, (no website, but here is her number (706) 540-5817). Let me tell you, after installing some wallpaper myself, it was really nice to have someone else do these high ceilings and that arch. It isn't difficult to hang wallpaper per se (really!) but I wanted this floral to match up perfectly everywhere, and I just don't think we were skilled enough, or patient enough, to be up for the job. Also, that arch! I would have never attempted that. So glad Grace did because it is my favorite part! Here are some process photos (Sidenote-the lighting is a little weird here because Grace was using a big spotlight to work):

I think I'll be hanging a few paintings one day (with hanging sticky strips maybe), and painting that pot with the plant in it, but other than that I think the dining room is pretty much done. I hung some curtains, and then really missed the casements and open windows. When Lucie can eat food without spilling so much, I'd love to add a big persian-style rug too.

Thanks again to Kaitie Bryant and Hygge + West! 

Wholesale ordering for Fine Art Prints!

Just a little bit of news- I added wholesale ordering for fine art prints! I'm offering the bestselling prints above for now. If you're an online or brick and mortar shop, get in touch via the wholesale page. 

Around here lately

The Windsor playing cards have all been shipped out to the Kickstarter backers! My intern and I carried a huge box into the Post Office at 4, and didn't leave until 5:20. It was a lot of cards. I've been really enjoying packing orders and shipping them out. There is something so fullfilling about having a finished product in your hand, and then getting it to it's final home. After being the middleman designer for so long- drawing something, finding a licensee, waiting a year to see the design on a product, and only then being able to share an image to the world- it's really nice to just make something and send it out as soon as it gets here! 

In other news, I've added back international shipping in the online shop for regular orders, and I think today I'll add it for wholesale orders. 

In the most important news... isn't Lucie huge?! She is the cuddliest, sweetest little thing right now. It's all going by way too fast!

Wholesale ordering!

I was so so nervous to start a Kickstarter project the first time around with the Islet playing cards. I kept saying to friends, "What if no one is interested? I'll look so dumb!" I set the amount pretty low, as low as I could to send in an order that I wanted to fund, and anxiously refused to check the totals. My intern Emily handled pretty much all of the project. She or Joseph would even tell me when I needed to check the messages. Joseph would look at the progress and fill me in on the total whether I wanted to know or not :)

This second time around, I really enjoyed the process! Emily still did a lot, and Joseph usually knew how many backers I'd gotten that day, while I had just a ball park number in mind. But, when my Surtex prints were finally in the mail, I could really take some time to be excited when I got a new backer or received a message. I'm so glad you guys liked the cards! I was so flattered that so many people who backed the cards the first time liked them in person so much that backed my next set! I placed a much larger order this time, and after a few inquiries, I am happy to say I can now fulfill wholesale orders!

Thanks so much to everyone who has ever ordered from my shop or backed my projects on Kickstarter! I have really enjoyed the process from idea->product->shipping->customer reaction so so much! Oh and I'd love to see your instagram photos of your cards if you take any!

Surtex 2015 is over! for me at least...

Whew, I've mailed my prints, all 200+ of them to my agent at Pink Light Studio in Seattle. She'll be taking them to the show in NY this week. My trusty Epson did a great job. Now I think I'll go take a nap since I am thankfully staying put in good 'ol Athens and not heading to the show. If you're interested, take a look at Surtex's instagram for coverage of the show! Here are some studio shots, just because it's been a long while since I've done that... maybe never in the new house?

Instagram Wallpaper

As I prepare for another day of drawing for Surtex, I just had to share some images a friend found on Instagram. Get ready for maybe the cutest Instagram account ever: brittanyrsugg

Her gorgeous home is filled with lots of great wallpaper, so I was extra thrilled to see my Carved Ogee for Hygge & West in there! I love seeing how people use the things I make!

Windsor Playing Cards

I just launched another kickstarter! May I present...the Windsor Playing Cards!

I'm hoping to raise $1000 to order a bigger batch of cards than I did for the Islet cards. I'd love to reach out to some local stores to get them on some shelves too. How fun would that be? The online world is amazing, but sometimes I long for some off-screen shopping you know? This print, you probably notice if you've been reading this blog for half-a-minute, is based of off my most popular print. I still love the colors on the dark background. 

For the next two weeks, I am in SURTEX 2015 GET IT FINISHED MODE. That isn't actually a real thing... I just really feel like writing that in all caps expresses my determination. I finished two whole collections in three days while my mother-in-law is here watching Lucie. I actually really love what I've been making so far, which is a relief considering how much I am trying to GET FINISHED. It's kind of amazing what you can crank out when you know it has to get done, most of the time. Sometimes I just can't draw something I really like when I need to, but not very often. Usually a break, some coffee and a walk help me reset. Check out #Surtex on instagram for some beautiful work! I probably won't have time to do that until after I send everything off to Pink Light, but you definitely should enjoy it :) 

New prints in the shop!

So excited to have some new prints in the Shop! Some of these would be perfect for a nursery. Hope you enjoy!

On becoming a surface designer

I get a lot of emails from people asking me how they can get into surface design. Hands down, far and away, it is the single most asked question appearing in my inbox. For quite a while I've been meaning to attempt a blog post explaining what I know about it.  I'll preface by saying that all my advice is only based on my personal experience because that is really all I have to go on. Here goes! I hope this helps!

A surface designer is someone who illustrates repeat patterns. A lot of us are also textile designers or product designers or both. I went to SCAD in Savannah for Fibers. I absolutely loved it. I learned so much, wished I could've stayed longer and taken every elective, if it hadn't been so expensive. I graduated with two job offers in textile design. SCAD was just what I needed (except for the expensive part). When I was looking at colleges, they was the most affordable of all the art schools I was interested in. It was also my favorite. I went to work as a home textile designer in North Georgia. When I married my husband we moved, and I worked for a gift product company. Three years ago I decided to try to get into licensing designs. When licensing artwork, the artist receives a royalty from product sold or a flat rate for allowing a company to use your designs for a specified amount of time. You retain ownership, and can license that artwork to other companies as well. I quit my full-time job and worked on my own for a few months. My work was constantly rejected. Years of critiques prepared me well for this, but it was still difficult. After I had a small portfolio of work, I got an agent. My work was still being constantly rejected, but I didn't have to hear it myself anymore :) When I had a larger portfolio of work and some licensing partnerships I moved onto a new agent, and I really prefer working on the artwork and having my agent sell my designs rather than trying to do that myself. I also have a few really great steady freelance clients who need work from me on a fairly consistent basis.

I feel like I need to say here that my husband totally supported us financially for a lot of that time. I get the impression when people write to me that they want to quit their jobs tomorrow and rely on income from licensing immediately. It just doesn't work like that. It usually takes at least a year for product to become available for sale, and the artist doesn't receive anything until after that usually. So even if you were able to snag some great licensing partnerships right away, it would still take time to make anything at all.

So, here is my advice! I think you should go to a program like SCAD's Fibers if you can, and if you can't, take some online courses in surface design. Work in industry for a while. This is important! I learned as much working with other designers at my jobs as I did in college, maybe more. Get really good at Photoshop and Illustrator. Learn to make nice repeating patterns. Draw with the end-use in mind, meaning think about the product you want to see this on. Build up a good portfolio of work. Make a nice website. THEN email an agent, or email companies images of your work yourself. Keep the emails brief. Send them whole collection images. If they need your work, they will get back to you. Try to get some freelance work. Most of all, just draw! You can't sell artwork if you don't have artwork for people to choose from when they contact you. 

I hope this helps any of you who are wanting to get into surface design. There is no secret to it, just put in the work and time! 

Daily Sketch/ Series 3/ no.14- the end

Whew, what a week. I thought the other day, "jeez it's hard to sketch when I have so much drawing to do." It's strange to say but so true. Here are the sketches from this week, probably the last for a while...

Daily sketches/ Series 3/ no.9-13

Dear readers, can you even believe it? I am still Instagramming daily sketches. They are quick and sometimes blurred by baby hands grabbing the paper, and often they are numbered incorrectly : / but they are there! And summarized here too...

Fully Funded!

Wow, the Islet Playing Cards are fully funded on Kickstarter! Thanks so much for all your pledges! I am so very appreciative!

Daily Sketches/ Series 3/ no. 4-8

This weeks daily sketches! If you'd like to follow along daily, I'm posting on Instagram.

I launched a Kickstarter!

I just launched a Kickstarter campaign! Joseph had a really great experience with his campaign, so I thought I'd give it a try! I sold out of the Islet playing cards in my shop twice, and have had to turn orders away several times. Such a bummer. I love that the Kickstarter campaign will let me know how many card decks I should carry in my shop since it basically means everyone is pre-ordering. Check it out and let me what you think! I would love to hear!

Also, I designed a new little paper box for the cards now too that I absolutely love! Hope you guys like it :)