The post Cat Rabbit’s Plush Toys Aren’t Meant to Be Played With appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“I first started making little plush toys for friends when I was studying at university,” Rabbit recalled in an interview with AG Gallery. “My interest in textiles grew from there and I began experimenting with embroidery and 3D felt techniques.”
Her handmade figures draw on the tradition of embroidery, doll-making, patchwork, and textile design. “I like to devise new characters all the time!” admits Rabbit. “I get an idea in my head or sketch something out and am not satisfied until I work it up into a 3D character.” The finished result appeals to both adults and children.
“I like my work to engage a wide audience, so there are elements that appeal to young children and also an older generation,” she notes. “My main objective when creating new work for exhibition is to incite feelings of comfort, joy, and nostalgia – when I make a piece that encapsulates all of these elements, I am satisfied with the work!”
Aside from her soft sculptures, Rabbit also makes books for children and other fantastical artworks with her collaborator and good pal Isobel Knowles under the name Soft Stories. Follow her Instagram page for more:
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]]>The post Add a Soft Touch to Your Kitchen with These Textiles appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“Something that influenced me from a young age was the drive people had to decorate and personalize their living spaces with found materials and find beauty in the simplest of objects,” she told Etsy’s blog. “My passion for transforming spaces was massively encouraged when I went to art school in England. I was making illustrations, and a lot of times I was thinking, ‘I wish there was an object with this illustration on it.’ My dad has always worked in textiles and he kind of encouraged me. He said, ‘Let’s try to put your images onto fabric,’ and that’s how things got started.”
Colour your kitchen with our Floral Apron and spice up your imagination: https://etsy.me/2EWZH4w! 
#aprons #kitchenapron #kitchenaprons #kitchenaccesoriesNedialkova draws and designs each pattern, working closely with textile designer Paula Downes, who then carefully chooses the fabrics, matches the colors to materials and sews the finished pieces. The fabrics are produced in a family-run workshop, made entirely in Britain, and meant to last.
“My illustrations are a mix between the Scandinavian aesthetic and Bulgarian folk tales, and they’re also influenced by Bulgarian artists from the ’70s who created these beautiful logo types,” relayed Nedialkova. “I’m Bulgarian originally, but I’ve also lived in Brighton, UK, which is a beautiful town with old architecture. There are amazing decorations and patterns on the houses—circles and ornaments. I translate those into illustrations as well.”
Scrolling through her Instagram page makes us want to upgrade our kitchen!
. . . . . #etsy #etsyuk #etsygifts #etsygiftideas #etsyhomedecor #etsyholiday #etsyseller #etsysale #etsyfindsThe post Add a Soft Touch to Your Kitchen with These Textiles appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post Emily Yeadon Makes Moths, Butterflies, and Fungi out of Fabric appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>Of course, her incredible collection of faux taxidermy was also very much inspired by her rural upbringing. Having grown up in the countryside in a rural hamlet, deep in the North of England, Yeadon’s home was surrounded by open fields and ancient woodlands, while in the distance, the Yorkshire Dale mountains towered above the horizon. Having spent her entire childhood immersed in nature, nature is second nature to her; it’s also what drives her creative passion.
, and a humongous thank you for your loving support and kindness. You’re all so wonderful and truly brighten my day. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. . Be kind to one another, spread happy vibes, do the things you love with passion and determination and hold each other up high 
“My favorite way to seek enchantment is by taking long walks,” says Yeadon. “I’ve always loved climbing mountains in the Lake District with my dad and our family dog, Toby. That moment when we finally reach the summit—icy winds whipping around us as damp heavy clouds form a blanket over our view. A peaceful moment in nature, tranquil, and calm.”
But when it comes to her creations themselves, incredibly enough, she relies on experimentation and much trial and error. “One evening, I randomly decided to dust off my old sewing machine and rekindled my love for textiles,” recalled the self-taught artist. “I gradually began to incorporate fabrics and machine and hand embroidery into my wire creations at the very end of 2017,” she notes, adding that she loves experimenting with mixed mediums.
Take a look at some of her incredible creations:
If you’ve been after one of the Bumblets, you’re in luck. I’ve just added some to my shop. Very limited number available, so grab one whilst you can. . (Please note, I have increased the price ever so slightly since the first batch I made over the Xmas period. This is just to better reflect the time spent making them) . Hope you all have a wonderful weekend 
) and I came across this pretty collection of fabric fungi I made in November of last year. I loved making them so I just had to reshare them again 
The post Emily Yeadon Makes Moths, Butterflies, and Fungi out of Fabric appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post Meghan Shimek Makes Large Woven Wall Hangings appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“Weaving has definitely become my life’s work,” she admitted in an interview with The Project for Women. “I started weaving in February 2013 when I was visiting my family in Michigan. I took a scarf weaving class and was completely hooked. Ever since I have been taking as many weaving classes as I can and reading books and trying out different techniques.”
Since dedicating herself fully to fiber work, she has studied tapestry and Navajo weaving, rigid heddle, and floor loom weaving, developing her own signature weaving style over several years. Exploring organic movement, Shimek’s weaving style allows the fibers to fall into an indeterminate pattern that reveals the beauty and vulnerability of her materials.
“I am extremely inspired by nature,” she says. “Since I began weaving I have met so many incredibly talented artists, both weavers and in other disciplines,” she adds. “I wasn’t an artist before I started weaving and honestly felt pretty intimidated to jump in and meet all these people who have been working in these fields for years! The weaving community especially has been amazing. All these wonderful people sharing their work and explaining techniques, it really resonates with me.”
With more than 60k fans on Instagram, the weaving community definitely accepts her as their own. Today, Shimek exhibits her work, creates commissions, and teaches weaving workshops across the world. You can also follow her creative journey via Instagram.
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]]>The post The Improvisational Quilts of Lorena Marañon appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“I began quilting late 2013 when working for a fabric manufacturer,” she recalled in an interview with Brown Paper Bag. “I’d done many digital quilt designs there and understood the basic steps and terminology, and I thought that was enough to start on a project on my own. I dove right into a king-sized quilt using that experience.”
According to Marañon, the toughest step was the math she had to figure out to get the design to fit together. “Weeks later I completed assembling the top of the quilt, but to this day it remains unquilted, mostly because of its massive size,” she notes. “I’ve since learned that my preference is with smaller scales, and on pieces that are improvised rather than designed and calculated.”
Letting one step dictate the next, her approach to quilt making is now intuitive and imbues each piece with spontaneity. Her creations explore abstract landscapes, geometry, and repetition, highlighting details that would otherwise be considered flaws. Her personalized pieces emphasize, therefore, the hand of the artist, the result being quilts with uneven seams, raw edges and exposed thread ends. Inadvertently, these marks become the signifiers of reactionary behaviors and moods specific to each piece and its materials.
All of her quilts are designed and made by hand from her studio in Los Angeles using vintage and dead-stock fabrics whose histories are vivified with every limited item made. “I love exploring all sorts of possible outcomes by simply playing around with color, fabric, print, and texture,” says Marañon. “I am inspired most when I’m working, and ideas come in a frenzied rush and I just have to try new ways to lay out shapes, or new ways to mix mediums. Experimentation and fun definitely fuel my quilted projects, and that has to be the reason I’ve fallen in love with it.”
, 20×20"The post The Improvisational Quilts of Lorena Marañon appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post The Vibrant Painted Gardens of Alexandra Karamallis appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>Her Iranian heritage also plays a central within her work. Identifying as a member of the Baha’i Faith – an oppressed minority in Iran – she explores themes including the oppression of women and minority faiths. Her artistic goal? To make art that is at once thought-provoking and joyful.
Having earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design in 2010, her work includes anything from watercolor gouache paintings and collages to knitting sweaters. “I’m a very whatever I feel inspired to do is what I will do kind of a creative person,” she told Matter of Hand. “I love knitting and painting, but I go through phases with both of them. I will really focus on painting for four or five months and then, often in the fall, I’ll start to feel like I want to knit a sweater.”
Much like her work, Karamallis’ creative process varies from piece to piece. “Typically in the front end of the process I do the research and take notes, then I come to a decision more or less about what I want the content of the painting to be,” she explains. After her visual research, she sits down and paints. “I try to come up with a color story that feels cohesive,” she says. “Oftentimes if I decide on a color that I want to have some kind of movement throughout the piece, I will lay it down in a couple places instead of finishing one area first. I try to look at the whole thing throughout the process. I think that a lot of painters do that to create a larger, cohesive composition. “
Her inspiration includes artists like Matisse, Willem de Kooning, and Gauguin, but also Persian miniature painting, and Persian rugs and gardens. “One of the biggest goals in a Persian garden is to create protected relaxation outdoors with the same level of privacy that you would feel in your own home,” she notes. “That is something that is really interesting to me.”
Enter her painted gardens:
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]]>The post Jessica Dance’s Textile Art Has a Playful Edge to It appeared first on PlayJunkie.
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by @davidsykesphotography . #thanksgiving #thanksgivingdinner #knittedfood #comfortfood #jessicadance #choosewool #knit #knittersofinstagram #knittersgonnaknit #food #turkey #textileart #textileartist #knittedfood #design #craft #thanksgivingtableBut it’s her textile art that first caught our attention. Recreating everyday objects in realistic detail, her knitted and embroidered creations include anything from Ketchup bottles to Nike trainers. “I’m often inspired by very ‘normal’ everyday items, items that portray the luxury of choice and comfort in the western world, whilst at the same time hinting at the excess that is often taken for granted in a fast-paced, immediate society,” Dance relayed in an interview with Lifestyle Tails, adding that “the irony being each knitted or embroidered piece that I make has taken hours/days/weeks to create.”
“I always aim for my work to be graphical, with a playful edge,” she adds. “Knitting and embroidery is typically perceived as a ‘feminine craft’ however I try to take gender out of the equation when coming up with ideas. I always strive to produce a carefully considered design, with a strong concept, using quality materials.”
Much like her approach to art, her approach to interior design is entwined with craftsmanship. Describing herself as an interior designer with a holistic approach to designing homes and workplaces, Dance is known for her luxury and contemporary interiors that have craftsmanship at the heart.
With so much going on for her, her days are very much packed. “I’m usually sculpting, knitting or stitching, which is always good time to put a podcast or music on…. or if I’m trying to work something out or write, I need total silence,” she describes her workday. “I usually work until around 6 depending on what I’m working on,” she adds.
Follow her work through Instagram:
Just welcomed my knitted @johnlewisandpartners sewing machine back into the studio after a 2 year loan 
. . . #johnlewis #jessicadance #knitted #sewingmachine #sewing #knittersofinstagram #sewersofinstagram #sew #knittedsewingmachine #woolweek #cotton #wool #choosewool #haberdashery #sewing #patterncutting #craft #embroidery #handembroidery #sewingroom
). I then did a stint as a 'lid tightener' at a factory (soon got demoted to box taper), Then I was a foot model for a brief moment. I was Kylie body double- not my official job title at all, I was working on a kylie music video and in the absence of anyone else 5ft I was nominated body double for about 7 minutes, where I stood awkwardly on a portable stage that was to carry Kylie to check it would take her weight (sacrificial lamb 
#businessnuggets #jessicadance
by @davidsykesphotography . . . . #beansontoast #comfortfood #jessicadance #knitted #knittersofinstagram #stylist #stylistmagazine #knittedfood #craft #maker #tea #ketchup #tomato #beans #wool #choosewool #knitted #makersofinstagram #textiles #cornishwareThe post Jessica Dance’s Textile Art Has a Playful Edge to It appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post The Soft, Layered Art of Dorris Vooijs appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>Her pieces — a hybrid between paintings, collages, drawings, textile art, and digital art — usually begin with an image found on the internet, in magazines, or thrift shops. Often, these images become the physical basis for her new work. With digital sketches, prints, markers, spray paint, thread, and ink, Vooijs transforms these images so that they reflect her life and her aesthetics.
“I like to see what happens when you cross digital stuff and layer that with traditional methods,” she writes on her website. “Building up and peeling pieces away or scratching my way back to the surface, until I feel that it might be time to step back and leave it alone,” she explains.
With her methods varying, each piece can take anywhere between a couple of hours to more than a week to complete. “Some pieces took so long I almost gave up,” she admitted in an interview with Jung Katz. “Actually, I did repaint a lot of my work… sometimes it’s just the quickest fix and besides that, it’s budget-friendly. I also often work on a couple of pieces simultaneously.”
Her toolbox ranges from the traditional to the digital and includes Photoshop, Wacom Intuos tablet, A3 printer, digital prints, transfers, acrylic, oil, spray paint, Tipp-Ex, embroidery, markers, pencils, ink, and carbon paper.
Follow her work on Instagram:
The post The Soft, Layered Art of Dorris Vooijs appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post Creating Drama with Color: Alexandra Kingswell’s Textile Art appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>Her fascination with color sparked at a young age, and she remembers sorting her colored pencils into pleasing sequences as a child. After a degree in communications design and a career as a graphic designer, Kingswell discovered her second love, that of textiles.
Combining both passions for color and textile, she now creates quilt-like textile art which reminds of stained glass. Her work is characterized by vibrant colors and strong, geometric shapes through which she seeks a colorful physical expression of mathematical ideas. “I want my work to lift spirits and make people smile!” she writes, “And also intrigue them a little!”
Using mainly solid color fabrics in bright and saturated hues, her patchwork is very precisely sewn and contains no embellishments (“it has to be that way so there is no distraction from the colors and sequences,” explains Kingswell). Depending on the work, she sometimes stretches the finished design over a canvas stretcher. Other pieces are left flexible.
What emerges often appears random, but is actually very far from random. “I get pleasure from creating things – things that are so much more than the sum of their parts – finding new patterns by exploring the beauty of color, number, sequence, and proportion through the medium of fabric,” writes Kingswell. “Starting with a harmonious color-scheme, sometimes inspired by a poem or other text, or a special number, I impose a mathematical sequence, cut, rearrange according to the sequence, and see what happens.”
Take a look at her delightful results:
The post Creating Drama with Color: Alexandra Kingswell’s Textile Art appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post We Sense a Pattern with Charlotte Jade’s Designs appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>Founded in 2015, Jade offers an eye-catching range of hand-drawn designs that celebrate the fascinating plants and animals living on our planet. By celebrating the shapes, forms, patterns, textures, and colors prevalent in our natural environment, she hopes to restore our affinity with nature.
“I hand draw all my designs, which creates quite a personal feel to my designs,” she relays the creative process in an interview with Jung Katz. “I then apply color (which is generally quite bold) and edit these hand-drawn images digitally using photoshop.” According to Jade, she enjoys combining hand drawings with digital design, to create her eye-popping repeated patterns. “My work is quite detailed and I generally use a pencil to create my patterns, however, I do enjoy combining pencil and paint, as I feel these two mediums create quite unique pattern designs,” she explains.
Inspired by plants, foliage, flowers, animals, she’s also fond of geometric prints and also designs that are inspired by natural textures. Fashion is another huge inspiration for Jade, as she loves keeping up to date with styles from the runway and current fashion trends.
Her luxury design collections are available on wallpaper, textiles, upholstery fabrics, furniture, cushions, ceramic tiles, and flooring, with all products printed and made in the UK. Here are some of our favorites:
• All our products can be used for commercial and residential interiors, so drop us a message to discuss your project 
) I’ll be holding an open day later in the summer with some more details to follow soooon so anyone who wants to come visit the space let me know and I’ll keep you in the loop
hope you are all having a good week so farrrrr 
we’ve got an EGGcellent Easter offer with 15% off starting from today until Monday across all products on our website 
follow the link in our bio to get your CJ discount using code EASTER19 at the checkout 
Our good friend @jwdeah is also running 15% off his Etsy store too with the same code EASTER19 
HAPPY EASTER 
it has been an amazing few days and we can’t wait for next year already! Thank you to everyone who has helped us with the show, you all know who you are, we couldn’t have done it without you, absolute dream squad 
@decorex_international
#handdrawing #pencil #pattern #print #patterndesign #printdesign #charlottejade #design #designer #textiles #textilesdesign #wallpaper #art #instaart #interior #interiors #interiorsblog #interiordecor #decor #leopard #lifestyleblogger #illustrator #illustration #digital #charlottejade #leopardprint #interiordesign #lifestyle #home #handdrawn #drawingThe post We Sense a Pattern with Charlotte Jade’s Designs appeared first on PlayJunkie.
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