Chintzy Rococo three ways added to my Spoonflower shop

My entry into this week's Spoonflower challenge for

"Chintz Revival"

The brief was for an updated Chintz pattern - Chintz is a brightly coloured flowing floral pattern which originated in15th Century India and has since been interpreted many times and in many ways....so here is my homage and own interpretation comprising an abstracted cheerful Rococo style floral floating over a muted woodland ground - always adding my maximalist touch in the layering of patterns and as ever all motifs and patterns were originally hand painted in watercolours on paper before scanning and formatting in Photoshop ready for digital printing

I love how strikingly different the design looks on black and white grounds - changes the entire feeling of the patterns

From Wikipedia: "The term "chintzy" is also attributed to novelist George Elliot (a great favourite of mine - I just finished reading The Mill on the Floss for the third time) who in 1851 wrote about muslin fabric to her sister, saying: "The quality of the spotted one is best, but the effect is chintzy. This is believed to have been said about cheap British imitations of real chintz, which became common at the time." 

I do hope my isn't seen in that derogatory light she said, with a wry wink, as the comment was likely more about the quality of the material itself - but it is a good word for overly ornate or cheesy things too! 

Here's the LINK to all three patterns in my Spoonflower shop and if you'd like your fabric/wallpaper printed in the UK please DM for a link

Thank you People of Print for this wonderful article!

 People of Print are correct - I did not set out to develop a unique style.

“Developing a unique style has been a happenstance exploration and not a goal,”

HERE IS THE DIRECT LINK to read this article as the type is probably too small because these images are from my Instagram post.

And this is a poster I designed for a call out from People of Print to hail that Print indeed is not Dead - as a surface pattern designer whose work is almost entirely  digitally printed on so many variety of actual in real life items I am shouting out this anthem far and wide. 

As ALWAYS all aspects of this layout were originally hand painted in watercolours on paper before being formatted in Photoshop ready for digital printing

If you want to check out People of Print click HERE

THANKS FOR READING - HUGS P XXX

New Retro Art Noveau Deco pattern added to my Spoonflower shop and beyond....

 

This Art Nouveau Deco Retro design is new to my Spoonflower shop and I've also entered it into this weeks design challenge there for:

"This mashup mixes the organic motifs and ornate shapes of Art Deco with the bold colors and geometric patterns of a retro vibe. Bring us stained-glass style elements, curves, geometric overlays or nature-inspired whimsical patterns. For your color palette, think deep maroon, dusty pink, burnt orange, peacock teal, emerald green and golden ochre — retro colors that sing. Show us what you’ve got!".....this is what I got with a layering of two patterns created from two different motifs. The ground pattern is very linear Art Deco glamour on a cruise ship style and the pattern floating above is my modern take on Art Noveau curvilinear designs based on nature motifs.

As always this design was originated in watercolours on paper by hand by me - a human designer!

Here is a LINK to this design in my Spoonflower US based print on demand shop and if you'd like to order from a UK shop please send me a DM - best to do this on INSTAGRAM as I visit there a lot every day - thank you!

Patricia Shea Designs 

P>S< A new VERY exciting item will be added to my offerings very soon - stay tuned please x

New, unique, artistic fabric and wallpaper designs added to my Spoonflower shop...

 

LINK to purchase on fabric yardage, wallpaper and home decor items - printed to order in the US - for UK please send a message and I'll create listings just for you :)

LINK to purchase on fabric yardage, wallpaper and home decor items - printed to order in the US - for UK please send a message and I'll create listings just for you :)

LINK to purchase on fabric yardage, wallpaper and home decor items - printed to order in the US - for UK please send a message and I'll create listings just for you :)

LINK to purchase on fabric yardage, wallpaper and home decor items - printed to order in the US - for UK please send a message and I'll create listings just for you :)

All of these patterns and their motifs were originally hand painted in watercolours on paper by me, Mancunian designer Patricia Shea, after their creation on paper I scan and format the variety of motifs into seamless repeats via the amazing auspices of Photoshop - but rest assured I still cut, paste, clean, place, repeat motifs etc etc etc by hand, a labour of love that I thoroughly enjoy.

Rebranding myself and going full on MAXIMALIST and COLOUR SATURATED

 I'm in the enviable process of rebranding myself and cleaning up a lot of old designs on a variety of my platforms - new banners and profile pics are alighting and I'm deleting designs that don't resonate with my full on maximalist, colour saturated groove anymore. 

Building my look over the years has been a very fulfilling journey but now that I am looking back I see I may have a lot of designs online that no longer resonate with my maturing distinctive style that teeters the brinks of design and art - a style which has developed slowly but surely and, to be honest, without me even realizing it was happening.

A few of my print on demand platforms have either closed or changed dramatically in the last couple of years - it's been a dramatic unexpected change but is now, I see in hindsight, a much needed shake up of the potentially too comfortable design rut I was in, so now I only have Spoonflower, Contrado, Redbubble, and I'm slowly developing my new e-commerce platform Buy Me a Coffee

I hope you enjoy my new look!

Cheers, Patricia

                                              

Cottagecore Pink Pansy new design

 The current (early July 2025) Spoonflower challenge is for Cottagecore - and that just struck a chord for me to develop a new pattern from my very English centric pansy illustration which I painted up many years ago for one of my very first business card designs as I was sallying forth in the wonderful world of freelancing in the last millennium!

Cottagecore is (from Wikipedia) "In British English, the term cottage typically denotes a small, cozy building. The term describes many kinds of small houses of rustic or traditional style. Cottages are often associated with cottage gardens, which prioritise informal design and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. Notably, cottages are associated with non-urban landscapes. The aesthetics of cottages and cottage gardens may be evoked in rural houses or in more urban environments.

Pansies are SO English cottage garden - almost their epitome along with hollyhocks, poppies, foxgloves and the ultimate - roses!

Cottagecore satisfies an "aspirational form of nostalgia" for its proponents, as well as an escape from many forms of stress and trauma.”

    I give you my PINK PANSY COTTAGECORE:

This pattern is now avaiLable in my US Spoonflower shop on fabric substrates, wallpaper, table cloths, cushions, curtains and more - just click HERE

If you would like to order from UK please just drop me a DM

If you would like to VOTE for this design click HERE but be warned there are 21 pages of designs to scroll through - you can vote for as many take your fancy and each voters gets a different random order of the designs.

As always all aspects of this design were created by hand by this human in watercolours on paper then scanned, cleaned up and formatted via Photoshop to create a seamless, layered repeat.

Cheers, Patricia x

Please check out my BuyMeACoffee new e-commerce platform - thank you - this will be regularly updated going forward with workshops, consultations, originals and print outs to purchase - I'm doing this instead of a website.

This Creative Boom article has given me Phoenix Rising wings!

 I cannot express to you how utterly chuffed, delighted and happy teary I am about this article featured on the amazing design platform CREATIVE BOOM - you can read it by clicking HERE

It is beautifully written and vindicates my long held belief in not pigeon holing myself in my work.

Please let me know if you give it a read and what you think - I'd be ever so appreciative of your feedback

and THANKS Creative Boom!

Cheers, Patricia x

"Meraki Mandala" monthly membership

 

As I really delve into my new platform ‘Buy me a Coffee’ I am realising it is so much more than what I thought at first was a purely crowd funding platform for creatives - this week I had an idea for a membership there whereby if you sign up for a monthly fee (like Patreon if you know that platform) you will receive an outline mandala design to print out at home and colour in for yourself along with a QR code link to the guided meditation I listened to as I create each new piece intuitively and spontaneously and each new mandala will have a theme such as Acceptance.

Colouring in has proven results for being calming and fun at the same time - it helps you access the now and takes your thoughts away from the past and future.

The word Meraki is quite new to me and is derived from Greek, it literally means the “essence of yourself.” I am interpreting it as leaving a piece of your soul in the work you have created with passion and a sense of happiness - sheer humanity, something machines cannot do. It is about doing something with creativity, passion and love, which is what I do with all my artwork, because it is my vocation, but particularly with my mandalas as I always either listen to guided meditations as I create or float off into a zone of elsewhere - elsewhere is a whole other concept for another day.

Would you be interested in a membership like this? Let me know by message if you are - thank you!

LINK TO JOIN NOW IF YOU'D LIKE TO

🙏😘💛🖤🐝

#merakimandala #blacklinemandala #buymeacoffeemembership #bespokemandala #monthlymembershipmandala #patriciasheadesigns #designconfections #merakiartwork #manchesterdesigner

Buy me a Coffee.....please :)

 

I recently joined the wonderful platform 'Buy me a Coffee' an e-commerce platform where I can not only sell and receive commissions for my work but also crowd fund in the form of asking my supporters by buy me a virtual coffee - I've never considered this before but since I have been pivoting from my print on demand business model which has been very severely impacted by the introduction of A I generated artwork - resulting in a number of my print on demand shops being very suddenly closed without warning to me - I am now heading in a more artist driven direction selling my original mandala designs - created either in colour pencil or watercolours, creating quantum mandala workshops - I have one coming up in Magical Marrakech this October  and designing beautiful, large, double sided printed mandala silk scarves printed in the UK.

I'll be posting about these three things individually going forward. 

Your purchase of a virtual coffee will most certainly help me realize these endeavours as I sally forth on new exciting career paths all centred around mandala designs.

I thank you in advance for your graciousness and kindness in supporting my art - most sincerely, Patricia xxx

The Coffee and Biscuit watercolour illustration above was created for a lovely bakery in Maine long ago....

Click HERE to purchase a coffee and download a free mobile wallpaper located in the shop tab.

My BIG WILD WALK for 2024

 

I have walked more and raised more since I created this graphic yesterday - click the donate link below to see - thank you! xxx

Please help me help UK Wildlife by donating to my Big Wild Walk this year - thank you in advance for you donation - every penny goes directly to The Wildlife Trusts who do an amazing job of supporting our sadly fast diminishing hedgehogs, butterflies, bees, bats and even wildflower meadows.

LINK TO DONATE DIRECTLY - CLICK HERE

Festival Ready Fabulous Buckets Hats!!!

 

Turn that frown upside down with my wonderful, reversible jaunty bucket hats - handmade to order in London, UK

 

 Here is my Jaunty Bucket Hat made in waterproof oilcloth out in the wilds of Derbyshire doing it's job beautifully and here's how it looks in my shop mock up:

 and the interior showing how the patterns are differently placed on the outside and inside basically giving you two looks for the price of one...

 This mock up of my very popular Millefiori design shows the hat with a wider brim - there is also a narrower modern brim - just ask me to do a mock up of such for you and it will be my happy command to do such at a pretty sharpish pace!

 and a couple of other patterns that have sold and also been requested and mocked up for perusal....

 

and Candy Rainbow Geometric with an interior of Autumn Leaves! - Another customer request fulfilled most happily!

 

and finally dear Ones - some strawberries for your summer outings and trip to Wimbledon to keep the sun off at the tennis!

 Please click HERE scroll down left hand menu - accessories > womens accessories > bucket hats - to peruse all my current Bucket Hats or request a mock up in one of my patterns you love with no obligation :)

 As ALWAYS all these patterns and motifs were originally hand painted in watercolours by yours truly!

Merry Merry Darlingks all - Patricia xxx

Couture On demand dopamine textile design

 

Well this is about as close as you're going to get to a selfie from yours truly :) 

I am bedecked in my own designs though with a fabulous bonkers all the way long sleeve T from my London based CONTRADO shop and a backpack from REDBUBBLE ....but the crux of this post is to link to a simple wonderful, crystallizingly elegant interview by THOMAS RIDGE copywriter extraordinaire who did this article about me a few months ago - and what a great article it is - Tom was so relaxed and asked such great questions that teased out thoughts into words that I never even realized before that were ideas I've had about myself and my design - thanks so much Tom! He also coined the phrase 'Couture on Demand' which I have to say is genius!

Please follow THIS LINK to the full clever clogs article and thank you for reading! Warmly, Patricia 

And close ups of that utterly maximalist long sleve T which you can peruse to your hearts contenet HERE