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California Colours

A little mix here of older college patterns with newer California pieces based on photos I took when my lovely wee Brother treated me to a trip back to LA  in 2008 to visit all the places we lived and hung out at. That place really did have the biggest influence on me colour wise, year round sunshine was not something I was used to in Scotland and although yellow had been my favourite colour as a child (taken over by aquas and most greeny blues by my mid teens) it was a primary yellow, daffodil yellow. I'm sure the other yellows were around but I hadn't noticed them.

Moving to LA opened my eyes to a whole new world of yellows. They seemed to change constantly depending where you were and I think I was as much influenced by the feeling of them as their actual colour. I don't know if there really were sharp the yellows by the ocean in Venice where there was no smog, but it certainly felt that way in comparison to the tainted yellows of Downtown LA and the warm and ever changing orangey yellows of the hot desert areas outside LA. And of course there were those Pacific sunsets.

The pieces above from the California collection (top row 1-3, 2nd row 3,) represent that Oceanside feeling of heading down to Venice beach and seeing how everything looked crisper, with the blues and yellows heightened by the cool clean breeze coming off the Ocean, always so refreshing in the heatwave that was the 80s.

FREE worldwide shipping and $5 off items in my S6 shop until March 9, 2014 at Midnight Pacific Time! 
Use this link: http://society6.com/callycreates?promo=8ff1b1 
*excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

Free shipping weekend includes new designs

Another Free Shipping weekend on Cally Creates products* including these new fishing net iphone cases and skins when you use this link - offer expires January 12, 2014 at Midnight Pacific Time. *Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

I was yearning for a beach visit but in lieu of that I started looking through old photos and thought these would make nice cards, prints and phone skins. Sadly they aren't large enough to make bigger items but they satisfied my beachy cravings.

More free shipping on Society 6

Another free shipping deal on most Cally Creates Society 6 products including iPhone/iPad skins and cases, from now through Monday (cyber Monday for those of you that call it that).

New Society 6 Mugs with free shipping

You can now get my designs on Mugs via Society 6. Jeepers, I can't keep up with all the changes. You can get free shipping* using this link until midnight on Sunday (Pacific Time) so if you are tempted to splash out on any of my work before Christmas this is the ideal time. *excludes canvases, framed prints and cushions with inserts but does apply to lots of other items.

New sizes/style of Cally Creates bags

Over at Society 6 my they have introduced a new style of Tote bag, and the option of larger sizes so my designs are now printed right to the edges, so much nicer! If you are tempted to buy one this is a good time as there is free shipping on them (and on several other of my products) through Sunday the 27th of October.

Free shipping on my designs this weekend

I just noticed that there is Free Worldwide Shipping on Cally Creates products in my Society 6 shop this weekend. With this heatwave making Scotland hotter than LA this month it seemed fitting to highlight my LA inspired Amorph range which was very much based on the vibrancy and colour of living near the beach in California in the 80s. The intensity of the light in Venice totally changed the way I worked with colour. This design is available as prints, cards, cushions, cases & skins for various phones/iPods/iPads/laptops.

Nearly all my Society 6 work is based on my old college sketchbooks and designs from the late 80s and early 90s. It's nice to see them released back into the wild after being in captivity for 25+ years and it's a way of keeping my hand in so I don't completely lose all my computer skills (M.E. is really messing with my memory for such things, I couldn't even remember how to cut and paste last week).

Here are a few more designs that are more reminiscent of the colours of a Scottish Summer where the beach colours are less intense but they have a fresh quality that reflects the  clean air and blue skies we get. I'm fairly sure I was also influenced by old tiles for the Carina pattern. 1.Carina (blue) 2.Tilly (blue grey) 3.Carina (grey)
 

Some old photo's for Liz

Magnolia flower and Bali when she was younger

East and West coasts of Scotland

A couple of college pieces: 1992 and a screenprint from 1990(or '91?)

Book jacket cover design which I messed up, but it made it look like this mashed up fishing net in Dunbar

Different kind of light I notice with camera in hand.

I was looking through some of my old photos and put a few together for you Liz. You've had too many words to take in this week - I thought some images might be in order.

Cally Creates - Cushion/Pillow covers

Seaweed Fronds Cushion Covers - €19.99

Sketch <9090> retro Cushion Covers - €19.99,

I've been so busy trying to get Christmas presents sorted that I forgot to list some new cushion covers in my Envelop shop. Bit daft of me because they won't be shipping new orders until 7th January.

I really need to go to bed but I have to stay up because my belly has still not managed to comprehend, never mind digest, all that I have eaten since this afternoon. I was planning to just make a simple Jerusalem artichoke soup, a great Winter favourite of mine. But one thing led to another and I found myself steaming carrots, cauliflower and beetroot on top of the soup. Surely that should be enough, but I got impatient waiting and decided to make a salad to tide me over - but it turned out HUGE filled with Beetroot, Pomegranate, Cranberries, Pears, Jerusalem Artichokes, Feta. It was so tasty I ate the whole thing. Problem was, the soup turned out just as tasty and I couldn't stop eating it either and I loved every tasty mouthful.

After the Storm came the snow

Snow last December.

Thursday's storm was pretty full on and the house felt a bit like a cardboard box because we could see the walls wobbling in and out with the gusts. The joys of mobile homes, but we were luck not to be one of the 50,000 people who lost their electricity supply. Apparently more stormy weather is due in a few days but for now things are calm and I awoke to a beautiful inch or two of snow. It's not deep but I suspect it is quite wet snow because it manage to crumple my Skimmia Japonica, which was only just recovering from last year's snow damage. Other than that most things have been pruned or supported so as to resist all but the heaviest of snows

Inspired by the black trees in snow I put together a little selection of black and white niceness, a fantasy Christmas wishlist:



1. Duncan Shott Magnetic Cloud Keyholder £20
2. Sagemcom Sixty Retro Style Digital Cordless Telephone approx £90
3 & 4. Sanna Annuka for Marimekko
5. Nordic Knit Booties (can't find a source for these)
6. One of my own cushion covers approx £17.

Shop - Art Print & Laptop Skins- Ammonite

Ammonite Unframed Print from $16

One of several colour options for my Collioure Organic Cotton fabric on Spoonflower

Italian Gas - Art Prints from $16,
Also as Laptop & iPad Skins $30, iPhone Skins $15, iPhone cases $30

I used to be very sea obsessed, hence my life long love of watery colours, and a fairly long love of shells, though that began to wane when I started to get obsessed by seeds in the Summer of '92. The print above is based on a n A2 charcoal sketch either of one of my own ammonites, or one in the Museum of Scotland, probably 1990 - I forget which. If it was in the museum it was possibly drawn to scale, they have some huge ones whereas mine are fairly small. The background I've added is based on one of my textile patterns from around the same period. The Collioure fabric show is loosely based on designs from that period as is the pattern on the Italian Gas print, but the photographic part of that is from my flying visit to Italy in 2008 when we popped over from France (friend's wedding) for me to take photo's before catching our flight home. A mad 6hrs of non stop photography because there was so much there that I loved.


Ammonite Framed prints from $33
Ammonite skins for Laptops and iPads - $30

Cally Creates - Cushion/Pillow covers

Cushion/Pillow covers available in 3 sizes from €19.99 with free worldwide shipping

I couldn't sleep one night last week so I finally followed through on some projects that have been hanging in the air for years. Like getting my college textiles properly scanned and adapted for digital printing. It's one of those things I keep starting but then abandon because I don't really like editing them on the computer, it seems to take too long so I always abandon the process halfway when the house, garden, family or my stomach make more pressing demands. But a sleepless night and howling winds helped me get back on track and finish preparing some for upload.

The first items available for purchase are these 100% cotton cushion/pillow covers and a 4 napkins (not shown). Since the designs are from my college days in the early 90's I'm calling this collection 'Revived'. The name seems a little ironic given that this is me accepting that I am just not well enough to hand print my own work any more. It's taken a good long while to come to terms with that but now that I have I feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest and I can start getting work out there again, albeit old work - but I think a lot of my old designs are very suited to modern tastes, which was not the case at the time I designed them. Maybe my habit of keeping every-little-thing isn't all bad after all.

Of course, nothing beats the feeling of making something from scratch - it's what I truly love to do, but since that isn't an option I feel OK about going digital for a while. And it's giving me an excuse to unearth old designs again, which is always immensely good fun. It feels like Christmas every time I open a folder or folio.

Other designs, colours and items are awaiting approval (there seem to be technical glitches) so watch this space to find out when more are added, it most definitely won't be all black and white - You know how much I love colour. I'll try and rework a few designs each month if I can.

You can also buy some of my repeat patterns as fabric from Spoonflower. This one is Collioure fabric in Black and white (colours available too) which you can purchase as swatches, fat quarters and by the yard in several colourways and fabrics including Organic Cotton Knit. $5 a swatch $11 per Fat Quarter.


Collioure fabric in Black and white

My Halloween - food, face, flowers - 2011

Much belated, a few snippets from my Halloween Dinner party:
1. Autumn Squash and a lovely Black Bear brooch from Adadine (guilt gift from Mr P).
2. Facepaint always makes me happy.
3. Oxalis plant in a ceramic raku fired bowl I made in the early 90's.
4. Japanese snacks in a small ceramic tealight holder.

Halloween costume ideas - Day of the Dead

-2006
-2005
..-2006
2003

I love Mexican Dia de los Muertos - Day of the Dead. All that colour, art, creativity and food, what a joyous way to celebrate and remember loved ones who have died. Every few years some friends host a Day of the Dead Party instead having a traditional Halloween party. In the early years I started off with simple skulls make-up and a plain red wig but in subsequent years I was inspired by edible Sugar Skull candy and opted for much more colourful face painting and costumes and lots of colourful flowers in my wig to give that true Mexican feel. As always, I did other people's faces first so my own was a bit of a last minute rush, but even messy painting looks jolly when it's in such bright colours. I always enjoy doing them.

DIY Halloween Lighting Ideas

I like to set the mood at Halloween with home made or customised lighting.


I make paper Pumpkins to work as wall and window decorations, lighting and masks.

• Fairy lights, which are a year round feature, get a Halloween twist with orange paper chain and shreds of orange crepe paper (only on led lights that don't get hot).

• Tealight holders and glass jars get wrapped in orange paper chopped with jaggy tops and grouped to look like little fires.

• Rather than doing scary faces on pumpkins I prefer something more decorative or abstract so that I can keep using them past Halloween.

• Paper pumpkins ensure I still have a spooky vibe on the night. Made from orange paper and drawn on with marker pen then cut out. They look great in the window with tealights behind them (safely in jars) and if you attach two lengths of wool either side they double as pumpkin masks if you have guests who don't have the time or interest to make anything. The one in the photo above is in front of a small table lamp with a 4w energy saving bulb to give a gentle light.

Halloween face painting - elf/goblin/sprite

Elf, Goblin, Sprite? I just painted in a way that suited the ears I'd been given.


A friend gave me her green ears • sitting by the fire

Here I am as a Goblin type of critter in 2005. It was a mild dry October that year so we had the party outside around a tiny barbecue based bonfire with orange tea light lanterns and pumpkins around the garden.


Halloween Invitation 2011

When I was a kid I absolutely LOVED it when we were out Guising (Trick or Treat) and would occasionally go to a house that had made an effort to be spooky. In the 70's it was very rare to encounter that and I vowed when I grew up I'd always dress up for the Guisers. Since Asda in the UK was bought by Walmart there was a definite importing of Halloween as a commercial concept and all the other supermarkets have followed suit so Halloween themed houses are much more prevalent these days, but I far prefer a home-made look rather than a bought one and for me getting creative is the most fun part of Halloween. Having ME has meant not a lot of partying but having had a nice Fancy Dress dinner for 4 last year I decided to increase that this year and tweaked the Elfish Goblin with some fangs to make the above e-vite for it.

Halloween costume inspiration

Junya Watanabe - Commes des Garçons - Autumn/Winter 2008-09

When friends say they don't have anything to make a fancy dress costume with I always remind them that you'll never be stuck for a costume if you have some old tights and a bin bag (panty hose & trash bags). Several of my best, indeed 1 prizewinning, outfits were made with those basics and perhaps some wire or cardboard scraps, or a bit of tinfoil to tweak my own clothes into creations fit for any costume party.

I've had a LOT of fun over the years stretching old tights over shapes to make weird headwear but beware, I found out, to my great dissapointment, that sometimes people think you've made a bad attempt at being Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) from Star Trek.

The collection above by Designer Junya Watanabe is clearly not made from bin bags and tights, but the effects are similar, albeit painstakingly sewn and crafted, not held together with glue, pins and tape like my 'collections'. The point is that you just need to use your imagination a bit. Costumes don't have to be about recreating something that already exists. Some people may look at you with bafflement if you don't dress as a character but don't let that stop you coming up with something creative and original if you are feeling inspired.

Update: A follow on post shows the work of Hendrik Kerstens who uses a plastic bag to style his daughter like the Dutch Masters.

Playing at dressing up - Summer into Autumn

Another spot of pretend shopping from August, inspired by the change from Summer to Autumn. It was before the reds started to show on the leaves and is more about those lovely pale but vivid Summer skies we see here in Scotland on many August evenings. The light still speaks of Summer but there is a noticeable drop in the temperatures as the sun sets and you know Autumn is around the corner and you'll need to start looking out warmer clothes. Most of my warm clothes are Black, Teal, Grey or Red but I love the idea of some Mustard/Yellows that so perfectly link the late summer Rudbeckias and Heleniums that are then overtaken but the yellow leaves of many of the trees.



Items shown in the composition are: 1. Wool blend coat by Pink Martini 2. Look From London Laugh On Tights 3. El Naturalista Shoes - Spring-Summer 2010 4. L'annello in titiano realizzato da Michela Nosè. Photo: Fondazione Politecnico di Milano 5. Techno PULL & BEAR pvc - Be.com 6. Green Butterfly photo from Layoutsparks.com. 7. Cally Creates: a drawing from The 4 Day Sketchbook, 1991 8. Illustration from source that had no credit (if you know the name please leave a comment) 9. Yellena James - Gallery

Product love - Apple

One of my early textile designs recoloured in Photoshop on a Mac around 1991 or '92,
with a Cally-fied Apple logo on top to show that Apple made it all possible.

Update 6th October: I was really sad to hear that Steve Jobs died yesterday. Hopefully my original post below says something about the impact he had on my life and work. He will be missed.

I was sad to hear about Steve Jobs resigning his post as CEO of Apple last week.
I feel a bit anxious at the thought of him stepping back and how that might change things at Apple, though he is not leaving the company, just that role and the involvement it required. With PMS raining down on me like a storm it's no wonder I got a bit weapy as I watched You Tube footage of him giving a commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford University in 2005. I'm such a Nerd, I'd have loved a speech like that at College instead of the stuff I often struggled not to sleep through.

He is definitely someone who has literally had a big impact on the quality of my daily life for more than 20yrs. His visions, brought to life, made my work not just possible, but pleasurable and my old Macs are still Iconic objects in my house.

The only Mac I owned but haven't kept is the PowerMac 7500, designed during Steve Jobs absence from Apple and definitely not an icon of it's time the way the other's have been. Thankfully he came back and before long the Mac Cube, then iMac and then iBook were born and computer design has never been the same since.

I've never had a Mac die on me, ever, or get a virus, so they were great value for money even though they were often twice the price of others. They all still work and were only upgraded because they were getting too old to work efficiently with modern software and internet developments. The 7500 was given away after my Cube came but the others live on and have all retained some value as still valid useable Macs or collectors items.


5 Mac's we've each had or shared since 1996. Spot the one that didn't have Steve Jobs involved?

I've added things I was typically working on on each Mac and it's interesting that the newer the Mac the more I work with old designs and pieces from my early college days. At the moment I'm slowly updating 1000's of my old textiles designs and patterns to jpgs and getting them into some sort of order to actually get some of them printed. I'd never dream of doing that without Apple and Adobe on my side.

Apple Mac Love Affair - the early days:
1984: Macintosh 128k
Played with in Macy's
1985: Macintosh 128k
Did my first Graphic drawing on one, was hooked
89-94: Mac LC & Quadra
Colleges, so I'm guessing based on dates and looks
94-96: Mac Quadra, Mac Classic & Mac Colour Classic
All at work or work placements.

My Own and Mr P's Mac's:
1996: Mac Colour Classic
Shared - Ex work freebie soon replaced by the workhorse that follows
1997: Power Mac 7500
Shared - End of line sale - for our Graphics business, lumpy but efficient
2002: Power Mac G4 Cube
Mine - Refurbished ex-display bargain, rekindled my true love of Apple
2007: iBook G4
Mr P's - but I was never off it, what a glossy white delight
2011: MacBook Pro
Mine - Unbelievable Birthday Present, Thank you Bro, thank you forever

I had my first play on a Mac in Macy's in 1984 but never saw one again until the next year when and American came to stay with us and brought his new Macintosh 128k with him (he carried it as hand luggage). It was great, so dinky for a desktop computer at a time when IBM PC's where huge. And it had the mouse, (remember, that thing that IBM said no-one would ever use). I drew a picture of a camel and a palm tree beside of a pyramid (auto filled with brick pattern - mind blowing technology at the time). My first digital image, I loved it. I still have it actually, in a folder somewhere, it looks like it was done on an Etch-a-Sketch but for the times it was astonishing that you could do graphics on a home computer.

When I went to various Colleges they were all to do Art so Mac's were pretty much standard throughout and were in colour by then. It cemented my loyalty to the Mac and introduced me to another love, Adobe, initially through Photoshop, then Illustrator and finally InDesign. It's a shame Apple and Adobe have fallen out, I feel like a parent watching their kids fighting and knowing that the family would function better if they just got along like they did when they were young. Business and ego's tend to spoil a lot of good things.

The Cube and Apple Studio Display were my most exciting purchase. More than I could afford but utterly worth it. My quality of life literally improved overnight. Quiet drive, fast and space saving. They needed 80% less desk space and every inch counted when I worked from home in a tiny flat. As a delightful bonus it came with the new kid on the block, iTunes, and we all know where that has taken us. I couldn't have loved 2 inanimate things more.


My old flat in Edinburgh in 2002, with Apple Display and Cube (peaking in on left edge)

In the past it was mainly people doing creative jobs that used Macs because they were so geared to visual and audio performance and software, but thanks to iPods iPhones and iPads more people are seeing the benefits of beautifully designed things. I am concerned by the frequent and obsessive upgrading which seems incredibly expensive and wasteful but I suppose that's just endemic (right word?) Western Culture these days. I never upgrade until I really truly need to because I can no longer use my existing software.

Anyway, the change in people's buying patterns for phones and music has clearly tempted some to change their computers too (Yay and Welcome!) and I noticed on Friday that the stats page on Blogger was showing something I'd not seen before, Mac OS users being greater than Windows users with 50% of blog visits coming from Macs. Steve Jobs, you are vindicated, good design does matter, people will pay more for the effort to develop it and was/is worth pursuing.



It shows also that Firefox is tied with Internet Explorer. I'm surpriseed so many still use IE but I suppose people like what they know and often use what is pre-installed (hence the Safari users, sorry Apple, Firefox beats Safari hands down for me). I highly recommend you try Firefox if you haven't already. Imagine if people had refused to use Google because it wasn't a Microsoft product?

I have used other PCs in various jobs and they only confirmed for me that the extra cost of my Macs over the years was totally justified and that I never, ever want to use Windows or Internet Explorer if I can possibly avoid it. At Ikea I got my Department buy a Mac (until then I was taking all my work home to do on my own computer in my own time). Suddenly people went from rarely using the Dept. PC to fighting over time on the new Mac, the passion of the convert. Within a year they had to order another to meet demand and have been getting Macs ever since.

I know that Windows has incorporated lots of Mac OS stuff these days and is no longer visually hard to bear, but I still prefer Apple's commitment to looking forwards instead of playing catch-up. I hope they can keep doing that now that Steve Jobs isn't fully involved. Looking after your health is important and hopefully taking a step back will mean he and his forward thinking brain and instincts will be around to keep an eye on Apple's direction for a long time to come.