Recycling my own artwork - and having fun in the process.

Many moons ago - yes, maybe actually 10 whole years ago - I created this tabletop pattern "Homespun", comprised of 20 different but related individual designs, for a company called PTS America and they in turn produced the ceramics and sold them through Bloomingdales - wee hee. Lately I have been perusing all the designs in my flat files and saw great potential in the above mix and match designs to re-use the elements and create new work for my own online stores - this involved scanning the art and then manipulating it in Photoshop - which I usually don't find to be that much fun but in this case I starting to get on a roll and now have gone down a wormhole of almost infinite possibilities - I am only showcasing the ones I have used thus far but I do have some more in mind. I was also inspired in this direction of traditional patchwork quiltiness by the continued popularity of the design below in my CafePress store - especially so on iPhone and iPad cases and sleeves.

"Quilt Design" 3G hard case

During my perusing I also scanned this 'country' patchwork design  to use in combination with all the ones above.

"Bow and Gingham" iPad case at my online CafePress shop

This gingham bow is from the edge of one of the bowls in the top picture and the windowpane plaid is from another dinnerplate design in my art archives.

 I took the square patchwork above and combined it with the red windowpane plaid and created the journal cover below.

"Plaid and Patchwork" journal available here .

...and then I combined all of the above designs and literally "patchworked" them together to create this allover design seen below on an iPad2 cover.

"Homespun" iPad2 cover

 ...and here is the repeat in it's full glory soon to be available at my Spoonflower shop (I haven't received my test swatch yet but when I do and (hopefully) approve the first sample then the fabric will be for sale) on a variety of different fabrics.

It was so much fun doing this - I was, and have been planning for quite some time, to start some new "from scratch" watercolour illustration artworks based on desserts and recipes which I will make, bake, photograph and illustrate - BUT  having sat down on a number of recent occasions to do such and just not being able to get the flow going I finally realized what with the Holiday season upon us and other attendant things I should enjoy the recycling process you see here - which although it is time consuming and challenging is very different and somehow easier than creating new work. Starting the creation process of a new piece of art is surprisingly consuming - at least for me it is and it takes a whole different part of my brain and a big chunk of quiet time to contemplate. Thus I shall save the new work for the new year - here's to a productive 2012 - I'm excited to get started in just a few weeks!

How long can a run on sentence be??