Play: Geo Calendar

My experience on Pattern Camp this weekend taught me that I'm apt to overthink things... Too much research, too much second guessing, too much control, too much time spent deciding. I abandoned all these bad habits whilst on the course - the fast paced learning environment made me do it and I'm so glad I did. I discovered that working this way made me more creative and take more risks. I was less precious about things and more inventive.

Something I made at Pattern Camp

This week I'm creating a calendar. It needs to be pretty neutral in terms of colour and motifs so I've decided to play with geometric shapes. 12 shapes and 12 colours, combining the shapes and colours to create 12 patterns.

Quick & simple shapes drawn in Illustrator

There are so many combinations and so in order not to overthink it I will be working against the clock - 25 mins per pattern.

Fancy having a go at this? I'd love to see the results!

More on Wednesday,

Frankie x

New blog!

Good morning and welcome to my new blog!

I’ve just had the most amazing weekend doing Jessica Swift’s wonderful Pattern Camp, a two day intensive course in pattern making. Although I already have some of the basics of pattern design nailed I’m always keen to learn new skills, see how other people work and I just love the energy and enthusiasm of being part of a group. I'd really recommend this course - it's fast paced and Jessica is a helpful and capable teacher.

So I’ve been planning on starting a new blog for a while and today seemed like a really good day to do it. After reading this wonderful guide to blogging by Beth Kempton a few weeks ago I decided that my blog needed a bit of a shake up in order to be something that supported my wish to further develop my skills and style in pattern making. I was often finding that although I enjoy writing my blog it sometimes took me away from my work for too long and didn't really support what I was doing. Plus, I also feel it's time that I was braver and shared my work more instead of keeping it all hidden... So here it is!

Work in progress from Pattern Camp

I will usually be blogging 3 times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday and you can get my blog straight into your inbox just by signing up. My intention is for my blog to be an adventure in pattern - focusing on play, process, practise and progress. I hope you will join me!

Thanks for reading,
Frankie x