Process

My portfolio has been sent into the world! Big thanks to all those friends that took the time to help me out and give me feedback. I’m looking forward to seeing where these patterns end up. I will most certainly keep you posted.

Next I’m getting to work on a collection of tea towels. I like the idea of tea towels because they are functional and giftable. I can wholesale them on a site like faire. I want them to be pretty enough to frame and hang on your wall if you wanted, but also absorbent enough to clean your kitchen. I mentioned maybe doing a tea towel of the month club, but no one was super excited about that idea. I’ll probably just sell them in my little online shop. I want them to feel nature inspired, pretty with a hint of quirk. I thought about picking a different critter and plant to anchor each design inspired by the nature books I picked up at that library sale a few weeks ago. I started messing around with snowdrops and downy woodpeckers. I made this and I was getting really excited even though there was A LOT that wasn’t working.

so it was time to simplify and try try again:

I kept playing and finessing until it turned into this. The woodpecker ended up as a chickadee.

I redrew the whole thing a few times over several days looking at it through the lens of, “would I buy this?” and, “what don’t I like about this”.

I think it’s looking really pretty. I would buy it. Those birds sharing a worm! The grasshoppers! Gahhh I love it. I draw mostly in the procreate app on my iPad, and I like it because you can work through mistakes faster. You can make a copy of your art to futz around with so that you don’t have to stress about ruining what you have already made. It makes it easier for me to play. You can’t make things you like without making things you don’t like first. There’s no way around it. You just have to keep playing. And then go on a walk and then play some more and then make dinner and keep playing. And then try something weird and erase it and go to sleep and then keep playing. It’s the weirdest process. Then all of a sudden this thing emerges and it’s great and you’re like geez I’m so glad I kept going. Then you start a new project and you make a bunch of terrible things but you keep playing and the process starts over.

To create the collection I will make at least 2 more designs and continue tweaking the the designs until they all work together. One thing I learned while working on pattern collections for my portfolio was that working in collections helps me improve all the designs. If one piece isn’t measuring up it’s very obvious. It helps you keep pushing to make things better. Next up I’m thinking mushrooms and chipmunks.

After I nail down the designs I will order some samples of tea towels and get pricing to screen print them. One step at a time! Making physical products is a lot of work. I wish I could have had these ready for this holiday season, but I have no choice but to start where I am. Wish me luck!

Thanks for being on this journey with me!

Things worth sharing:

The cards that I designed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art featuring pieces from their presidential china collection are for sale on their website. They used to only be available at the museum!

We watched the Sylvester Stallone documentary and I loved it so much. It’s the creative process on display. You see him tapping into his experiences and emotions to create something that would resonate with people, and then doubting himself and making weird terrible things and then making more great things.

I made soup and banana bread this week. Tis the season to ring in the cozy.

Alexandra Stedman on instagram is a great fashion follow.

I listed a few big things taking up room in our little house on craigslist and Facebook marketplace, just trying to free up some more space. They’re things I really like so they’ve been hard to let go, but they just aren’t working for us. I think once they’re gone it’s going to feel like a big payoff for a small effort.

I suggested to a friend that she borrow a movie from the library and the thought had never occurred to her! We still have a dvd player and I just put Oppenheimer and The Quiet Girl on hold. Elliott got the Mario movie and Sonic the last time we were there. Libraries rule.

My Shop: phillycornerstore.bigcartel.com

I wrote a book!

E-mail: halestormenator@gmail.com

Instagram: haleyharmondraws

Portfolio: haleyharmon.com