Textile print development - Inspiration: Southern Tasmanian rainforest and rivers

I am lucky to live in a place which is bursting with natural inspirations and unique colourings that feed into all of my creative work.  A few months ago now, I had the pleasure of house sitting for a friend who lives in Franklin (about 45 minutes drive from Hobart CBD).  The quiet, ever-changing beauty of this location served as a real reset for me after a particularly busy time of year.  There really is nothing like being in a natural setting to de-stress and relax, especially if you are like me and rent a house next to a busy highway!  Revisiting this peaceful time near clean rivers, creeks and dense bush in my mind has been informing much new mood boarding, print development, textures and colours for new work.

Happy Accidents - Free E-ZINE

Very excited to share HAPPY ACCIDENTS today - a fun zine to ignite or rekindle your passion for experimental mark making! The free PDF is available for download online via www.yolandazarins.com

This zine was made as a teaching tool leading up to my last workshop with Launchpad Workshops.  I was thrilled by the joyful approach everyone in this group took to mark making. Beautiful results were made by participants, some of whom had no experience painting or drawing previously. It was truly inspiring. There were no kids in this group, but many techniques would be great for ages 7+ 

Feel free to share this free resource with friends and family online, or print it out and have a play!

Ponder-ings and new colour ways of Pozo and Frond designs

Perhaps it is something about the slight spring we are getting down here in Hobart, but I am feeling newly refreshed and finding different views and ideas about the way I work; specifically how I am going to evolve my creative practice and business over the coming months.

I am a believer in learning from doing and having a go, and the past year working creatively has been a huge learning curve (admittedly full on!).  It is not the long hours, or my permanently dye-stained hands that is exhausting.  In fact, I love that I get so much time to make textiles and learn that these aspects have been quite joyous.  It is tiring to try to 'keep up' in a world where textiles are produced in huge quantities with new designs released  seasonally.

It was never my intention to make a mass produced product.  What I make is clearly, quite the opposite.  My approach to printed and dyed textiles has been a really considered process with diverse outcomes in colour and appearance of each print because of the unique methods I use.  Even through I know this, I have been fighting against this fact and aiming to make constricted collections of textiles and products.  This is partly because it is familiar and it feels safe to follow an expected formula.

Pondering these thoughts, I decided to temporarily take down my web shop, make some one off and limited edition pieces to re ignite my passion for textiles with plans to relaunch the online store in a few weeks with small batch and one-off products only.

As soon as I made this decision, I felt incredibly energised and motivated to put all my effort into this new approach.   I am so looking forward to being able to invite customers to this new online space which feels one-hundred times more true to my work...

New textiles and pillows made this week that will be stocking the new web store, as well as best selling Bush Pearl and Trail prints in Indigo from the recent Knocklofty collection.  The bright blue really 'pops' as a highlight against the other moodier hues.

KNOCKLOFTY - new home ware collection- a/w 2015

I am really happy to have finally launched the new print and home wares collection for a/w 2015, 'Knocklofty'.  The collection is named after a bush reserve 10 minutes from home that I love to visit with my dog and human friends.  Walking the bush tracks of Knocklofty Reserve is incredibly peaceful.  Being in this setting gave me a chance to imagine floral details of the surroundings as patterns, informing most of the prints, colours and textures making up this collection.

The support from the community, family and friends has been wonderful over the past week, and I look forward to sharing a few new stockists very soon!

To browse the full collection in the look book, view here.

Images from the product photoshoot with local photographer Chris Phelps, who has a beautiful photo style and was really great to work with.

Beautiful Book Storage

Found on annesage.com, bferry.wordpress.com, bookriot.com, mrsblandings.blogspot.com, johanna-vintage.blogspot.com, homelife.com.au, 

Bush Pearl

More outside printing and dyeing of a new design 'Bush Pearl'.  I could get used to this if it wasn't about to be 8 degrees and freezing in Hobart!

I have been running from home to my studio all week, carrying my print table which doubles as an ironing and sewing surface up 6 flights of stairs to make samples and new stock.  Not sure if this makes me fit or closer to a dormant back injury.

Studio details

Creating new artwork for silk screen to be printed onto cloth.  I usually make heaps of these at once, then only end up using one or two! Occasionally old piles of drawings get a revisit and I surprise myself that something quite nice has been tossed aside.

Yes, that is both tea AND coffee in the second photo.  All for me!

The start of new journeys

2015 has been a great year so far.  In January, I started the NEIS program, which is a great way to give yourself time to explore a new business idea while getting financial support to do so.

The past couple of years have been an interesting journey figuring out where I fit in creatively, and if working creatively is even the right fit for me career-wise.  Work and 'what you do' is a regular topic, and I have chatted to a number of people going down the creative career path deciding that it wasn't for them as it took the pleasure out of making.

I have not even finished my 1st month of working for myself and found that it really is a matter of jumping, then figuring everything out on the way down.  The excitement of change has become secondary to new challenges and unexpected surprises that happen along the way.  

While I get into the rhythm of this new way of working and living, I have found immense pleasure in stolen moments by myself where I get to read snippets of novels from second hand bookshops waiting for print paste to dry or dye to set, working outside in the backyard on a still autumn afternoon, and the overall satisfaction of making and getting my hands dirty.

These moments and snippets in time may not be constant, but I hope next time I am exhausted from getting ready for a market, typing a monster grant application or order the wrong equipment, I remember that happy times exist and will return!  

Photos are of a new fabric design using dyes I have been working on this week during earlier mentioned autumn afternoons...

 

Cosy Bedrooms

For the sweetest dreams.

Images from anotherboheminan.tumblr.com, seeemilypaint.tumblr.com, bedsbedseverywhere.tumblr.com, apartmenttherapy.com

Mt Field National Park

Over the long Easter weekend the skies greyed, clocks went back an hour and I spent some time inside coming to terms with long sunny days ending.  

Moving on to curiousness and adventurousness, I began fantasising about spending a winters night or two in Mt Field National Park in the Government Huts at some point during winter.

Images found on Tasmanian parks and wildlife website