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Creating the New Spring Tote Bag

Hello Hello!

I just finished the embroidery test for my new floral spring tote bag and I’m very happy about the result, I would like to share a bit of my process with you.

First I transferred my drawing to the computer and used a software to create the embroidery stitches. This is the time I decide how the stitches are going to look like, witch direction they are going and how long they are going to be. (Did you notice the flower in my computer is the same as the one in my mug? They are all part of the same collection!)

Then it’s time to choose threads with the best colours for this project. I chose 2 tones of pink, a dark yellow and a dark green.

Did you know my embroidery machine has a name? I call her Fofina, she is the studio pet! At least that’s how I treat her, I adore her but some days she gets a bit grumpy. Today, she was in wonderful mood and gave me gorgeous stitches! I group all designs together so I could save some fabric (I always do that for tests).

After I took out of the machine, I notice I could make the leaves a bit fuller, so I got back to the computer to adjust that. Quality is very important for me, that’s why I always test each design before making it available for purchase. For the final version, the flowers will be scattered in the front of the bag, it will look very delicate.

What do you think about the project so far? Do you have any curiosity about how I create illustrated bags? Send me your question in the comments!

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Self Love Club!

Yesterday I heard in the radio that only 9% of the people keep their New Year resolution by the end of January. That’s so depressing!

Well, I’m determined to keep mine this year! My main resolution is to do things I love and share more here! This year I want to care more about enjoying the process and be happy about every step. That includes drawing more, having more fun with my illustrations, expressing more my feelings and ideas and experiment more with design and photography. Be more artistic and less shy. Let myself out a bit more! Focus more on creativity and worry less about the hard part of the business.

How about you, how are you keeping your resolutions?

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New arrivals on the way!

Hello and Happy New Year!

Here is just a quick update. In 2023 I’m increasing my range of products, introducing new bag styles, ceramic mugs and new wall décor. Some of these products will be available exclusively here on my website, others will also be on Etsy.

I’m also experimenting a bit with my visual communication, please feel free to send me feedback!

Let me know how are you doing and if you would like to share any goals for the year please leave me a comment!

Cheers! 🥂

jo

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The collection saga

Remember when I said I was going to postpone the launch of my collections for 2 months? I thought that would be enough. Guess what? That won’t be enough!

I was working on my Halloween collection last week and I was really enjoying and having tons of fun. But yesterday I realized it’s already September 3rd and I don’t have any completed drawings. Not even 1! You might think, oh you have almost 2 months to Halloween. But I actually don’t.

  1. I have a full time job
  2. I’m going to visit my husband’s family for 10 days
  3. Halloween collection should be released about 2 weeks before Halloween…

So I calculated and basically I have 20 days to do everything (16 pieces, between stickers, illustrations and handwriting quotes). I started to think about cutting some of the drawings and making a smaller collection. Then I thought about skipping Halloween completely and start working on the Christmas collection. But I didn’t like that idea. Why would I publish the whole Thanksgiving collection for September/October and then spend again another month and a half without posting anything again and then suddenly post a ton of Christmas drawings? People want some consistency!

Well, yesterday I was painting the floor of one of the art studios I work at. I love those days when I can do something mechanical, it helps me put my mind back in place. I thought a lot about many things.

Pushing myself so hard is destroying my creativity

Drawing takes time! While it’s nice to work with a sense of urgency, I can’t keep like a machine. I need to be kind to myself. So I took a hard decision, but this will give me peace of mind. I postponed everything for the next year, including the Thanksgiving collection that is already done.

I’m going to create enough drawings to have a “savings account” of drawings. I want to have 6 months of drawing collections ready before starting posting on social media.

This might not make sense for most people. You might be thinking: why don’t you just draw and post like you did before? Why make such a big deal?

It’s been a while I like to work in collections (astrological signs collections, months collections, holidays collections, etc). I prefer to work in collections because it allows me to tell a complete story and I feel very accomplished. The other reason is that collections help organize visually my portfolio and offer a variety of products on the same theme. It’s pretty much like a fashion collection. I’m pretty much inspired by fashion, so it makes sense to plan collections like a fashion designer plans for the runway.

So that’s what’s going to happen. I’ll keep posting behind the scenes here and I’ll offer a few isolated drawings online until I get my collections organized and well stocked. Best news I got this week, I was approved on Giphy, so soon I’ll make lots of gifs available for Instagram and Facebook. Keep in touch!

I love gifs and stickers! 🙂