February 7th, 2011

Claire Coles

Now, you probably have guessed that I’m not a “huge” fan of wallpaper, but these designs, colors, and images from Claire Coles Design are just TOO sweet and unique not to share!

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Claire takes hand-sourced vintage wallpapers, embellishes them with silk and leather embroidery, and layers them on the surface to create one-of-a-kind installations. LOVE!! Makes me want to grab a pair of scissors! How about you???

February 4th, 2011

Papaya Art

Have you heard of Papaya? 

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If you haven’t, you’ve surely seen their colorful array of products including cards, giclee prints, journals, totes, etc. Their style, which layers whimsical imagery, global cultural influences, decorative pattern, and inspiring typography is QUITE recognizable and memorable. Creative abandon, indeed!

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You might note that I feel a strong creative kinship with the ladies of this company if you notice HOW PERFECT this imagery looks on THIS blog, LOL!

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So, you can imagine my delight that they chose to use Royal Design Studio stencils from my Moroccan stencil collection in their current trade show booth.

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I love how the graphic black and white pattern “grounds” the space, provides continuity, and provides the perfect compliment to their colorful product mix!

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Note the shift from black on white to white on black to help distinguish the different product lines. Brilliant!

You can keep track of the goings on of this talented team of ladies, led by Anahata Katkin, at the Papaya Blog. The yare currently in the process of designing and decorating their new flagship shop in Ashland, Oregon  (a Lux Boho Boutique), where another one of the Moroccan stencil patterns will be used on a 23′ high ceiling. I’m DYING to see that and only wish that Ashland was closer to San Diego.

P.S. Coincindently, I just saw some Papaya art feature on my friend Angela’s new blog. Check out THIS lovely and inspiring post!

February 2nd, 2011

Under the Big Top

I am in the process of planning yet another (my fourth!) Moroccan painting adventure to Peacock Pavilions in late October, 2011, so thought to revisit the results of our last trip where we focused on a VERY fun fabric stenciling project: turning an ordinary canvas tent into a special space for dining, dreaming, and entertaining.

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The inspiration for the series of Moroccan stencils based on class Fez-style embroidery that I developed for this project came from this lovely book. The graphic patterns seemed to just beg to be translated into stencils! So, I created a whole series of designs that could be mixed and matched and layers in different ways, depending on the needs of the project. We didn’t get a chance to see the tent “all dressed up” while we were there, but could imagine all the possibilities that can arise from a basic black and white color color palette. You can see how Maryam has been able to style and decorate the tent in multiple, beautiful ways and various color schemes.

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Such as the beautiful Moroccan blue colors this post….

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…my favorite pink accent color in this post…

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 …and your basic, elegant black in this post . So chis! Note the stenciled paper placemats! What a fun idea!!

All stencils are from our Moroccan stencil collection at Royal Design Studio.

Stay tuned for my next post, where I will show you this same series of stencil patterns used to create an amazing backdrop for a most deliciously colorful product display….

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