Have you visited MAV’s card society site where she shares her inspirations for each month’s cards? You should. I had such a wonderful time looking through all her inspirations that I thought I’d share how I put together a collection for my shop.
I know, of course, that I don’t need to create an entirely new collection of stuffed animals each time I update my shop. It’s quite silly, really, but it’s also what keeps me engaged with what I’m making. No matter how trivial their purpose, I want the things I make to come from a place of joyful intention, never to just simply meet a demand. I have also found that when I limit my palette and materials, I am less overwhelmed by the possibilities and work more efficiently and creatively. Some of my collections have been inspired by things I have gathered outdoors and others by favorite storybooks and illustrations. Words inspire me as well, be they romantic puns or the charming names in a stack of antique calling cards.
For my next collection, I really wanted to try to a brighter color palette. I kept thinking about the madras plaids and graphic florals I wore in the summers as a child in the seventies. (That’s me on the left, my sister and brother are on the right. This was taken in 1974, I believe). I came across the perfect madras plaids in the clearance section of my local fabric store, and a collection was born. After gathering some complimentary fabrics from my stash, I began sketching some ideas and pairing them with the fabrics. This will be a collection of all animals—elephants, lions, bears, giraffes—animals that might escape from a circus (because animals don’t belong in the circus). That spindly giraffe is going to take some creative engineering, but I hope to pull it off.
I think I’ll call this collection One Summer.
