#spoonflower design

[3gremlins]

this year's pride design are pride raptors*! i'll have these in my shop as stickers and cards as well as in person events (you can see my event schedule here)! I normally do moths (for the pun) but I wasn't feeling moths as much this year, so instead we're doing pride dinosaurs :) I've also been transferring them to my ceramic work, so you'll be able to get them on mugs and plates too :) these are just at the greenware stage so colors will darken a bit as they go through the firing process

the purples will get a little bluer too (i've tested this purple and it does fire purple, which is a bit of a unicorn at cone 10). I've still got more purples to test, so i'll hopefully be able to get more variation eventually but I was honestly just happy to get ANY purple (most purples burn out pretty bad at cone 10)

i've also made them into a repeating pattern you can get through my spoonflower! i've tested the pattern already so i know it works (tbh i made it mostly for myself so i could make a tablecloth with my own designs for tabling and such)

*im calling them raptors for brevity, but they're really inspired by a variety of dromaeosaurs and not really one species (the ones with feathery legs are most inspired by microraptors)

[3ofpents]

Fresno Nightcrawler Houndstooth // Fabric Design for @shapeshiftersvt and The Cryptid Collection

Remember way back a few weeks ago when I posted the Squonk poster and I said that once I'd designed the fabric to go along with it I'd start posting the fabric designs here? Well guess what! It's time!

For those who don't remember or who didn't know, I am the co-owner, site manager, and graphic designer for @shapeshiftersvt. 2024 marks our 10th anniversary and we wanted to do something big and special and new to mark the occasion and my partner, co-owner, head tailor, fashion designer, and founder, Eli, pitched a fashion line themed around cryptids. We call it The Cryptid Collection and it features six of our and the internet's favorite cryptids: The Fresno Nightcrawler, Mothman, the Jackalope, the Jersey Devil, Champ, and the Squonk.

My parts of the collection were designing the posters, and creating fabric designs for our very own, truly Shapeshifters designed chest binders and sports bras. But since we utilized Spoonflower to have those fabrics printed, they're also available through the Spoonflower marketplace for anyone to buy for their own sewing projects.

And now that all of the fabric designs are done and uploaded and proofed and listed, I, as promised, am posting them here to talk a bit more in-depth about them, the thoughts and inspirations behind them, and the design process.

Starting with the Fresno Nightcrawler.

Part of the reason I'm starting with the Fresno Nightcrawler is because this was the very first design that I finished. When we were planning out the fabrics, it was the most solid design concept I had that wasn't just adapting the poster design to fabric (mostly because ... I hadn't done the poster yet). It was the first one I really came up with, the one I was most excited about, and the one that pretty much stayed the same from concept to execution.

I love houndstooth. Which is weird to say when I don't think I've ever owned a single garment or accessory in with a houndstooth pattern? But I do, I love it. I love the teeny tiny classic version of the pattern; I love a blown-up graphic version of the pattern; I love plays and variations on it. So when I was trying to brainstorm what kind of fabric pattern I could make inspired by a creature with such a simple shape whose only colors were white and black, the idea came pretty quickly: A houndstooth. Or a Nightcrawlertooth, if you will. It was a trick, though, and a real learning experience, especially with this being my first design.

Getting a pattern to repeat smoothly is a skill unto itself. Basically you have what's called a tile, and the tile contains the part of the pattern that you want to repeat. Then, when your pattern is created, the original tile just gets essentially copy-pasted over and over so 1) you don't have to draw the whole yard of fabric, and 2)all of the repeated parts of the design are identical. But by doing it this way, you have seams you need to take into consideration. If you think of putting the pattern together, it's sort of like making a basic quilt: You start with one square (or rectangle), then attach four more squares to each side, and then just keep doing that. Each one of those seams (top, bottom, left, right) is a place where the pattern might not match up, which means when it's applied to a yard of fabric, it's not going to look like a smooth, seamless pattern.

Of course there's ways to avoid this altogether. If you're doing a simple stripe, using the line tool in your drawing software will keep your stripe a consistent thickness, and holding SHIFT while you draw it will keep the line straight. Or, even easier, you can create a pattern where the part that repeats doesn't straddle a seam; like a polkadot pattern, where the dot(s) can be centered on the tile and seams only cut through a solid background.

The trouble with a houndstooth, though, is that not only does the tile need to repeat, it's made up of repeating figures that interlock. I can't just center the white Nightcrawler on the tile and call it a day, because then the black Nightcrawler straddles the seam. On top of that, they needed to be shaped in such a way that the negative space between the white Nightcrawlers left a shape that was also recognizable as a Nightcrawler and similar enough to the white one that the pattern is mostly seamless.

I fully admit that I was not able to do this on my own. Enter: Eli. Eli is, among other things, a math nerd who enjoys an excuse to break out the graph paper. They found a tutorial online and got to graphing and shaping and, in just a couple of hours, had gotten the shapes down. I took that tile, illustrated it, cleaned up the seams (shoutout to Eli for also finding an easier way to do this than just manually copy-pasting), and voila! A Fresno Nightcrawler houndstooth.

Now, you might look at that image up there and say, "Well that's all well and good, Pents, but they're kind of blobby and the lines are wobbly and it's all a little uneven." To which I say ... yeah, that's true. It's also kind of intentional. Like, I'm not gonna sit here and claim I got the basic pattern done and wasn't exhausted. But also I could've left it and come back to it the next day to clean up the lines and shapes a bit more, make everything really smooth and even. But, like. Look at this guy.

He's just a weird kinda blobby little dude. So I left the pattern kinda weird and blobby.

Even if I'd cleaned it, it's such a blobby little shape that's so at odds with the classic houndstooth that's all straight lines and sharp angles. So I made a deliberate choice to not polish it up. To kind of lean into the kodama vibes:

I am really so so proud of and pleased with this design. It came out almost exactly how I pictured it; it was really the most true design collaboration between Eli and I; and I'm just so pleased, after a lifetime of being a houndstooth lover, to now also have designed a houndstooth.

If you'd like a custom-sized, handmade, made-to-order binder or sports bra in this houndstooth like the one in the photos, you can find those listings (as well as the poster listing) here, on the Shapeshifters website. There are three pattern size options, the classic teeny tiny version; a somewhat bigger medium size; and a super graphic large size. Our binders are the most comfortable and effective on the market thanks to our finely graded internal sizing system. Because we're a small operation that makes every garment to order, both our binders and sports bras are highly customizable, and can be made to ALL measurements with flat pricing across sizes.

If you'd like to purchase the fabric yourself for your own sewing projects, you can order it through our Spoonflower shop, where we have it listed in the same three pattern sizes.

[jmtolman]

Bats & Pomegranates   

The theme for this week is Whimsigothic Wallpaper, and like. There was no way I wasn't going to enter. Whimsigoth is my THING. So after a lot of brainstorming, I decided to combine the ultimate Spooky Animal with the ultimate Spooky Fruit. And this is the result.

I really like how it turned out! I did have to restart the pomegranates a couple of times- I couldn't quite get the style right. It was frustrating, but the time spent redoing them was well spent- I think they look lovely now.

You can vote here on Spoonflower. Thank you! 

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Gumroad | Redbubble | Spoonflower | Patreon | Twitch | Instagram

[shapeshiftersvt]

Aaaaaaaa! The first round of Jackalope fabrics came in and they look amazing! These photos really don't do it justice, I had to do a lot of editing to get the green close to true. But there's something about the particular shade of green and the slight shimmer of Spoonflower's sport lycra that makes it look like it has a faint gold shimmer.

I can't wait for you all to start getting your binders and sports bras!

[dreamtigress]

Pride Month Print on Demand...

Happy Pride Month from a queer bisexual artist! I don't do a whole lot of self promotion here, overall. But money is tight in the summer, and especially this summer. I could use any bump on sales that I can get. Plus, I am pretty proud of my designs. I would be honored if you chose to show your pride and support this queer artist. I have many rainbow, pride flag, and other designs to choose from.

Visit any of these links to support Tiger Torre Art:

http://www.tigertorreart.com We're restocking in preparation for the MD Ren Faire.

https://www.redbubble.com/people/tigertorreart/shop There's lots of pride designs available.

https://www.teepublic.com/user/tiger-torre-art 40% off sitewide today!

https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/tigertorreart 30% off fabric with code BMSMYYARDS.

[salamanderinspace]

Almost 130 designs uploaded!

[torotillo]

Another little hand drawn painting pattern that I’ve added to my new Spoonflower shop as a fabric or wallpaper pattern. Link in my link tree via my Instagram @thisspeckledwood

[inkedinred]

Spring has arrived- and so has my Spring Garden pattern in lilac, green and cream colorways on Spoonflower & Redbubble!

[sibilantwhisper]

Do you know the Black History of Hoodoo? It was the basis for my pattern I submitted for the Whimsigothic design challenge, now on sale at Spoonflower and just in time for spooky season 👻 Buy Hoodoo Pattern

[rjavenuru]

Mr. Boo Hoo and El Dark watching TV and chilling with El Darks new blanket.

[sunshinesight]

Please vote for my entry in the Spoonflower Welcome to the World Design Challenge: https://www.spoonflower.com/design-challenge/welcome-to-the-world-2024-11/vote

Voting is open until 3pm on 5 November 2024.

my entry: woodland animal portraits You don’t need an account to vote, but it requires a captcha.

[sasyall]

Check out my Spoonflower shop

Save up to 30% off on everything

[jmtolman]

Candy Woodcut Cats

I made this for the Block-Print Inspired challenge! The cats were my second attempt at a block print style- the first didn't really sell the look. I made four custom cat brushes and used them for several designs, but the simple cat stack here won out. In these colors, they kinda remind me of jellybeans!

You can vote here on Spoonflower. Thank you! 

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Gumroad | Redbubble | Spoonflower | Patreon | Twitch | Instagram

[ashesbijoux]

Neapolitan Triple Skull Ice Cream on Fabric | Spoonflower

[dreamtigress]

Pride Month Shameless Plug

Seeing as it's about halfway through Pride Month, and I have fallen down on actually, well, plugging my own work that *isn't* writing, oh hai, have some links. I create hand made leather masks, crowns, and other accessories, as well as digital art and graphic designs for Print-On-Demand shops. I'm a queer, bisexual, gender non-conforming artist, and I make my living through my art.

Happy Pride Month from a queer bisexual artist!

I would be honored if you chose to show your pride and support queer artists. I have many rainbow, pride flag, and other designs to choose from.

Visit any of these links to support Tiger Torre Art!

https://society6.com/tigertorreart

[raveenadesignhouse]

This is the pattern I decided to create for this week’s Spoonflower challenge - the vintage metallic wallpaper challenge.

It features 11 different color variations that suit every mood and season. That, I’ll post it in my next update.

Now coming to this pattern color variation- it adorns the royal acanthus vine in Art Nouveau style. In a gold wallpaper theme, it shines and radiates, appearing royal and elegant. Vote for me if you like it.

#spoonflower #spoonflowerdesignchallenge #spoonflowerchallenge #spoonflowermakers #spoonflowerartist #spoonflowerwallpaper #spoonflowermetallicwallpaper #spoonflowerhomedecor