From Stripes to a Luscious Summer Fruits Pattern

It’s officially the break between modules of ‘The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design’.

But this week our course tutor, Rachael Taylor, has put out a call for Module 1 'graduates’ to submit their favourite pattern to showcase on her blog.

I’ve been beavering away, producing a new pattern and its co-ordinating designs almost daily because I have so many sketches and even finished painted or screenprinted motifs, queuing up to be made into patterns. So I have plenty to choose from!

You can see them

HERE

 on a
 Pinterest Board

But it didn’t take me long to decide which one to submit. It was the one I had most fun working with – or maybe that should read ‘playing with’!

This was the postcard-sized pattern I made in the very first week of the course and it wasn’t compulsory, just a suggestion for those of us who couldn’t wait to get on with designing. It was suggested that we use tapes or ribbons to make stripes but I couldn’t find my box of tapes and braids. I haven’t had time for any sewing for a while and my sewing things are stacked in a corner or my attic studio, and not easy to get at.

My collage painted papers, on the other hand, were easily accessible!

So how did I get from these simple stripes of painted tissue to the ‘Summer Fruits’ idea of the pattern that I'll be submitting? 

To be honest I’m not entirely sure – often a title or theme will suggest itself to me as I’m working/playing with a design and I can’t get it out of my head until I consciously acknowledge its presence! This was one of those themes.

But I think the sequence of thoughts went something like this –

Bright, warm-coloured stripes > summer > outdoors > garden > canvas garden furniture > stripey awnings > garden party > Edwardian picnics > strawberries and cream > Pimms with slices of orange and lime . . . plus the colours in the original stripes are quite 'fruity'.

To me it has overtones of a bye-gone era, the luxurious garden entertaining of the ‘upper classes’ of a century ago, as portrayed in some of the very popular TV dramas!

But, in spite of that, I don’t think the finished pattern has a particularly ‘vintage’ look. What do you think?