"Cheaters" collection underway ...

Beth and I are working on a collection of original prints inspired by this unusual vintage quilt top (purchased at the wonderful shop, Harriet's Daughter, on Etsy) and cheater quilt fabrics.

 

Determining a palette ... still life with gouache tubes and some sketches by Beth

We'll be exhibiting 30 gouache paintings similar to the ones you see above in the fantastically fun annual art event, Fun-A-Day! You can participate in Fun-A-Day, too! Sign up at http://artclash.com/

We've also begun to list items in our new nautical vintage section, The Sea Shanty! Check it out!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
XOXOXO
Squid & Whale

The Sea Shanty

The Sea Shanty, our new vintage section filled with exclusively nautical-themed objects, is coming in January 2011. Here's preview of what we have in store ...

Happy New Year, all!
xoxo
Whale

Bad Day on the High Sea

Finshed! Boo-Yah! Check out the original by Brandon Bird!

Brandon Bird Paint By Number & New Card Sets!

"It's one of the best paintings ever made. It's our generation's Mona Lisa." ~ Elizabeth J. "Beth" Smith

Beth has a very high opinion of Brandon Bird's painting, Bad Day on the High Seas. At one point she even considered getting a huge tattoo of it on her back. Before SquidWhale was a twinkle in our eye, there was this painting we found in a random Google search.  The rest is history.

So, when Brian told me about this new paint by number kit, I knew I had to buy it for Beth for Christmas.

Beth got to work tonight painting her very own version of Bad Day on the High Seas. She's mixing all of her own colors of gouache to work with. It's going to be bad ass. And, will have a place on our studio wall very soon. I promise we'll share when it's done.

 

Also, we're so excited about our new card sets!

French Costumes, Set of 5 different designs (only three of them are shown here)

The Turkey Red Collection, Set of 4 different designs (obviously all pictured)

They're available in the shop now and make a fantastic last minute holiday gift/stocking stuffer. The best thing is, they're festive, but not necessarily for the holidays. You can enjoy them year round!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Sarah

Holiday Etsy Treasuries! Feel that Festive LOVE!

Well, it's been a pretty good week for SquidWhale Designs regarding treasury inclusions. This week we were featured in THREE new treasuries, all really lovely and well curated!

Curated by our friend Jessica of LaBestia

Curated by Chicgiftsbysass

Curated by HarmonyVanLue

 And in other news, the note cards we've designs are to be delivered today! Can't wait to get them packaged  up extra pretty for you all! Post on those SOON!

xoxox

Elizabeth J. Smith (The Squid)

Note Card Preview!

Hey guys! Just finished working my wizardry on the ol' Photoshop for upcoming note card sets we're rolling out in the next week. Printed by our local friends, Fireball Printing, and packaged with love and care from my partner, Whale, these cards will be perfect for the holidays, but also for any sort of occasion where you'd like to correspond in the olde-fashioned manner of the actual hand-written sentiments. One set is from our TURKEY RED collection of textile patterns, the other taken from these rare book plates we found while thrifting that we've curated into our collection.

Now, the preview:

Ok, luv ya!
Squid

Etsy Treasury FRIDAYS (slightly belated) & new wearables in the shop

Things are chugging along at SquidWhale H.Q. Beth completed embroidered brooch no. 2 and no. 3 this week and now we've got three listed in the shop.

embroidered brooch no. 1

embroidered brooch no. 2

embroidered brooch no. 3

 To celebrate, we put together this Treasury featuring our new embroidered brooch no. 2 (plaid study) and a cache of gifts for him and her (and pets!) under $50.

Also in the holiday spirit is this darling red and white Treasury by miesmama, featuring our embroidered wall art:

And finally, this week Beth and I both made Treasuries including Victorian mourning jewelry about knots and hair and had no idea till now. MEGA-MIND-MELD:

By Beth:

By Sarah:

Thanks so much for looking! Have a lovely weekend!

xoxo

Sarah

(The Whale)

Warming Up

It's a cold day at the studio today, so we did a little lunch time warm up.

Etsy Treasury FRIDAYS

SquidWhale's back with a vengeance! Our studio's finally set up, we're working on some new exciting products for the Turkey Red Collection just in time for the Holidays, and we're back to blogging after a long hiatus.

We've decided to begin adding a few weekly blog articles to our repertoire. From now on Fridays will be ETSY TREASURY FRIDAYS! Woot! We'll be celebrating our love for these thoughtfully curated collections of handmade and vintage goodies by featuring one Treasury we made this week and one we love.

First off, the lovely peodra on Etsy curated this Treasury, NIGHT TALES, earlier this month and we LOVE it!  We're so excited she featured our altered vintage doily, Mice with Black-Eyed Susans! It also has lots of our favorite Etsy sellers, including Plundered (vintage shop by Margaux Kent of The Black Spot Books & Philly friend), Yokoo, Restless General Store, Swan Bones, The Pin Pals ... the list goes on and on. Poedra has amazing taste and a wonderful new jewelry shop on Etsy.  Keep up the great work!

And now for one I made (Sarah here). I made my second Treasury just a few nights ago, MINOR TRIUMPHS, MAJOR DISASTERS.  I was in an interesting state of mind when I crafted this, but I like how it turned out.

ENJOY!
<3
Sarah
SquidWhale Designs

BEFORE ...

As of August 1st, SquidWhale Designs has a home base! WOOT! Yippee!!! Wazooo! HOT YAMS!

We're across the hall from the Midwives Gallery at 1241 Carpenter St. in South Philly. We LOVE the artist community in our building, the location (near the Italian Market!) and our friendly landlord, Steve.

Our little space needs some work to make it into the clean & styley design studio we envision...




This week we purchased a brand new iMac and printer (!!!). We haven't set it up yet, so it still feels like a dream. Tomorrow we're going to purchase paint and other supplies to pretty up the floors and walls. Some day soon we hope our little home will look like some of these amazing work spaces ...



All dream work space images found via Design*Sponge

We have some key items in mind to prettify our space ...






This lamp was gonna be for Mouse Trap Vintage, but I decided it will be for SquidWhale Designs studio.

Stay tuned to see our progress!