a line extension *

bracelet designs - Foundations line extension

* more shameless self promotion and/or potential Empire (creative) building.

The most successful and rewarding product design jobs/customers that I've found in my nearly 8 years of being on my own - of being a self employed product designer/illustrator have been found at monster.com and I continue to look there regularly for new customers and new opportunities. The hardest part is convincing a potential customer that they can and will have a successful, fruitful and carefree working relationship with a designer gal who lives far, far away in some tiny village by the sea. Fortunately a few have been brave enough to take a chance on me ... and I continue to have great relationships with them to this day. Merci ! I've always known, when on the hunt for a new customer .... if I can just get my foot in the door, if they'll just give me one project - I'm pretty darn confident ... I'll be in like flint. Madam Invincible definitely hangs out in this world.

This particular project was with Enesco. They already had a very successful, best selling product line called Foundations based on beautiful stylized angels, mostly figurines and they'd decided to add a line of jewellery to this collection. The tres talented designer of this (and many other) collections with Enesco -Karen Hahn was at the time swamped with other projects and needed to hire out some freelance help - and lucky me I got the job. The existing collection was already beautifully designed and extremely well thought out - my job was to glean little bits and pieces of her existing designs, use lovely pre-existing motifs and icons, and her soft pastel colour palette to create a line of jewellery to go with - ultimately evoking the same feeling and fitting perfectly within the existing Foundations product collection - a line extension. I worked closely with the Karen, she provided detailed art direction and then I was to run with it ... and run I did. I totally loved this project - could have drawn pages and pages and pages of thumbnails. Karen loved my final drawings and the jewellery collection was manufactured, well received and is now selling well. Perfect. A few more of the final jewellery pieces here, here & here

I absolutely love what I do - and the most challenging projects in the end are often the one's I'm the most satisfied with. Speaking of which - I'm just about to begin a big batch of final drawings (hooray !) here at the TTD (teak topped desk). 22 final drawings from the latest big batch o'thumbnails for Customer No Uno - I was aiming for 24 (ya know Mama loves to aim high) but 22's not so bad. So we'll be busy drawing now through to the end of this weekend ... maybe longer.

and ps. my new favourite TV show -' cause laughter truly is the best medicine. Just plain old fashioned silliness. Warning do not drink or eat while watching - Snort ! I gave myself the hiccups last night I laughed so uncontrollably hard. Don't say I didn't warn you.

oh my ! the sound of birds in our yard and gardens is unbelievable - I'm going to see if I can't figure out how to attach an audio blurb for you - you won't believe it - You'll say to yourself that girl must be livin' in an aviary.





another page of bracelets, two of holiday ornaments and a page of necklaces

more design chat

Echo collection one of my first product design adventures - over 10 years ago

Very little that I would change today if given the opportunity to design this collection all over again ...and any designer out there knows that you don't say that very often. Usually when you design something, once it's in print or in this case once a mold has been made and it's been cast in metal, there's something that irks you, some thing that you wish you'd noticed- that you wish you had changed. I think this collection of home decor items has survived the test of time, today (maybe 12 years later) it doesn't seem trendy and has that timeless quality, that certainly was my intention when designing it. My inspiration at the time was Greek art, especially Greek pots and their incredibly modern looking marks & patterns. Hence the frame inserts (which I also designed, being formerly and occasionally still, a graphic designer) the illustrations on the frame inserts are taken directly from books on Greek ceramics. Incredibly beautiful & very modern looking. I called the collection Echo because I felt I was echo -ing the design of a past culture and I liked the word and thought it would be easy to remember - catchy (sales & marketing talk).





More winter-ey temperatures here in Nova Scotia. We are still without a car (les chiens and I) but we're surviving and except for Jake & Winnie having to have leashes on and not being free & loose - they seem to be enjoying the new scenery and especially all the new smells. We occasionally have, what I'm sure looks to someone who happens to peer out their window, a modern dance interpretation as I skillfully spin around, switching hands and legs, to unwind and untwist, tangled leashes from my body, all the while waving my poop bag in the air. I'm sure it's a comical sight. That Winnie Dixon, she's so good on a leash, she trots along proudly, occasionally looking back to smile at me, the happy face of a shelter dog whose so thankful that she, now, has a good home. She's proud & she's happy and a leash to her - speaks of true love.