SquidWhale Designs

Preview: New Goods in the Sea Shanty

2011-01-31T12:01:00.000-08:00

Large wood compass

Solid wood flounder bowl

Low relief house on a river wall art

Instant collection - Three pipes and stand

20 Cheaters For Sale

2011-01-27T10:31:00.000-08:00

all for sale in our Etsy shop.

2011 Handmade Olympics!

2011-01-20T05:53:00.000-08:00

We're so happy to be a part of this awesome event by The Rikrak Studio: The HANDMADE OLYMPICS! "Where the handmade world comes together to celebrate making things"!

There are 8 handmade olympic events that can be entered in various ways (read the RULES).

The event that we in particular are sponsoring: Favorite Handmade Goodie that Inspires Loveliness & Wellness! (event #4).

We're giving away a $50 shopping spree to our Etsy store: SquidWhale Designs.

Additional prizes being provided by Michele Maule, Racey Tay, The Peach Tree, Tscarf. Check out their stores!

Fun-A-Day: 1.7.11 - 1.10.11

2011-01-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

painted by Elizabeth (the Squid)

painted by Sarah (the Whale)

Etsy Treasury: Valentine's Day Edition

2011-01-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

curated by Elizabeth (the Squid)

curated by Sarah (the Whale)

Fun-A-Day: 1.3.11 - 1.6.11

2011-01-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

We're tearing this shiz UP.

by Sarah (Whale)

by Elizabeth (Squid)

by Sarah (Whale)

by Elizabeth (Squid)

by Sarah (Whale)

Fun-A-Day: 1.2.11

2011-01-03T05:04:00.000-08:00

painted by Elizabeth (the Squid)

Fun-A-Day: 1.1.11

2011-01-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

painted by Elizabeth (the Squid)

For our Fun-A-Day, we'll be making 30 (or more) small gouache paintings (5"x7"). These paintings are the basis of our upcoming "Cheaters" collection, a collection based off of "cheater" style fabrics.

painted by Sarah (the Whale)

Happy New Year!
<3 SquidWhale

"Cheaters" collection underway ...

2010-12-31T12:25:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-30T13:53:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

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

Brandon Bird Paint By Number & New Card Sets!

2010-12-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

"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!

2010-12-03T06:55:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-28T14:27:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

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

Etsy Treasury FRIDAYS

2010-10-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

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 ...

2010-08-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

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!

We've Been Treasured !

2010-07-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

Crystal from The House of Hearts created a Treasury inspired by our Turkey Red Collection AND gave us an artist shout-out. It's our first Treasury feature and Beth and I couldn't be more excited! Click on the image above to see "Turkish Delight". Clicks on the featured items and comments will help it to get a spot on the front page of Etsy. Oh, and Crystal has an awesome Etsy shop filled with vintage Treasures! Go seeeeee!

Also cause for celebration, Beth curated her first two Treasuries yesterday! She was nice enough to feature items from my Etsy shop, Mouse Trap Vintage, in both. Looksie:

THE FAIREST OF THE FOWL

A FISHERMAN'S TALE

HAPPY 4th!

<3
Sarah

REDefined Opens this Friday!

2010-06-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

This Friday, June 11th marks the opening of REDefined, the Midwives Collective & Gallery's annual members show and the official launch of SquidWhale Design's first collection, The Turkey Red Collection.

Beth designed a postcard for our first collection. The mouse print on the left is my first true repeat pattern. The one on the right is one of Beth's lovely abstract floral motifs. Both of the originals were painted in gouache on illustration board and scanned. In our show you'll see an installation that includes an 8'x8' section of hand-painted wallpaper, a collection of pillows made from our fabrics, an upholstered chair, embroidered vintage textiles and a limited edition Turkey Red City Mouse Pin (The City Mouse Pin will also be for sale in my Etsy shop by Sunday night!).

About the REDefined ...

REDefined: Annual Members Show

REDefined
Annual Members Exhibition and Fundraiser for Midwives for Haiti

June 11th - July 10th, 2010
Opening Reception Friday, June 11th, 6-10 PM

Midwives Collective & Gallery
1241 Carpenter St., 2nd Fl., Ste. 2

REDefined is a show about “red”. Some of us appreciate the beauty and visual impact of the hue, the lightfastness of the pigment, the passion it conjurs up, its political implications or the moods or emotions it has come to represent. However the word is interpreted, this is one show that will truly define who the Midwives are. We all rigorously explored the depths of our artistic limits to present our works in the forms of painting, installation, textile design, sumi e brush painting, embroidery and photography.

Featured artists:

Ellen Bonett
Kelly A. Burkhardt
Carol Deutsch
Sarah Louise Hunt
Christiana Kugel
Cheryl Rybacki
Elizabeth J. Smith

We have also created a redwork quilt that will be raffled to raise funds for Midwives for Haiti (http://midwivesforhaiti.org/). Raffle tickets are 2 for $5 or 5 for $10. To purchase raffle tickets, contact themwc@gmail.com. In addition to the quilt raffle ticket sales, 20% of the sale of any art in REDefined will be donated to the cause. Midwives for Haiti is a nonprofit organization that sends nurses and midwives to Haiti to provide a clean and safe environment for pregnant women during the birthing process.

If you can't make the reception, as always gallery hours are Saturdays from noon-5 or by appointment. Just contact us at themwc@gmail.com.

For more about the artists and their work and images of our quilt, please visit our website soon: www.midwivescollective.com.

We hope to see you there!

-Sarah (The Whale)

MAJOR PROGRESS

2010-05-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Whale here with my first-ever blog post!

This has been a week of MAJOR PROGRESS at SquidWhale h.q. We've finally delved into working in color (gouache painting yes!) and went on our first flea market adventure together to hunt for vintage inspiration.

Let me start by saying that I am a fine artist by training and it is not easy for me to work in the way that Textile Designers do. I usually rely heavily on layering of wet and dry media, on rigorous mark making (ok, scribbling) and a lot of adding and subtracting. My drawing tools are filthy with graphite powder.

After much erasing, re-drawing, checking my measurements and much encouragement from Squid, I finally finished the contour line drawing of my first surface pattern design. Here, it's inset into our 4 ft. wide medallion of abstract florals:

To prepare for painting my whole motif with gouache on board which is quite large, I started with just these two little plaid mice. They're seen with some of Squid's designs for our first collection:

Our designs amidst some of our vintage inspiration found at the flea market on Saturday. Please note the color litho plates from a 1939 edition of French Costumes. They're fantastic and will most likely be for sale in the SquidWhale Designs Etsy shop come June or July:

Detail of the most amazing hankie that echoes our color palette and design choices:

And lastly, a little vintage embroidered linen table cloth and leather-topped wooden table for our installation. I plan to embroider a few scurrying mousies onto the table cloth. They'll weave in and out of the black-eyed susans and the french knots that look, curiously enough, just like little mouse turds...

More soon! Thanks for stopping by!

<3 SquidWhale Designs

The Learning Curve

2010-04-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

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

A Full Day in the Laboratory

2010-04-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

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!

Sneaky-Peeky

2010-04-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

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!

SquidWhale is coming....!

2010-03-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

ssssssh....SquidWhale is coming. A mythical beast that defies the eternal struggle between squid & whale, SquidWhale seeks a symbiotic harmony of handmade design and beautiful crafstmanship with modern technologies and wild, quirky sensibility. SquidWhale is the brain-child of Sarah L. Hunt (the whale) and Elizabeth J. Smith (the squid), two divergent minds coming together to create something totally unique. Be on the look-out for SquidWhale, to be formally released into the wild this summer, 2010.