Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Learning Curve

So, in our trials and tribulations of setting up shop and all, we're learning a lot, and fast. Whale is new to the whole business of "textile design", though she's nurtured a long and passionate love affair with the printed fabric and it's many applications (you can see her penchant for vintage calicos in her Etsy shop as well as her own unique stylistic eye). As her counter-part, I'm lucky to have earned a degree in Textile Design and thus am able to help her achieve her goals (as well as mine). Also, I'm relearning a lot of things I'd thought I'd forgotten from my college daze, and all the while the voices of my hallowed instructors ring out in my head, their advice mostly of the sassy and endearingly bitchy sort, which always makes me smile (and of course, work harder).
Additionally, new technologies like digital printing have become much more accessible and affordable than they were when I was in school, This is forcing me to learn a lot about color calibration and such. The fabric below is a color chart we printed out with our fabric printer's facilities. It is going to save us so much frustration and time and money!
The possibilities are endless!
Whale's first design is deceptively complex.
Looking over what we are cooking up, we are both very excited about what's coming. As Whale and I learn and relearn the many nuances of achieving a cohesive and conceptually strong textile print, we only make our future endeavors that much easier.

Next up we'll be getting into the hand-painted part of our work. We'll sneak-peek them for you all in the next couple of weeks!

<3 SquidWhale Designs

Monday, April 12, 2010

A Full Day in the Laboratory

Sarah L. Hunt hard at work on her very first repeated print.
Sarah measuring & remeasuring for accuracy.
An overview of our 4ft. wide one-off wallpaper print.
Elizabeth J. Smith tracing all the little details of the design.

All of this will be revealed in full glory June, 2010 at Midwives Collective & Gallery!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Sneaky-Peeky

Hey-o! Squid here. Thought Whale and I would show you a little bit 'o' what's been cooking in the lab.

Pictured here is one of our designs as test printed by Spoonflower. We very much have to tweak and color correct (and of course finish the design into a true repeat), but thank goodness we didn't print significant yardage without the test! Also pictured is a section of our sexy 4 ft. diameter one-off print, which will be a hand-painted wallpaper. Oooo-la-la! 


Get ready for more sneaky-peekys as we push towards our big show in June at Midwives Collective & Gallery and then for the full roll-out over for Summer 2010!