The cloud breaks + shop promotion

Most of these cushions/throw pillows are from photos I took in LA 2008, some combined with older patterns from my archives. They really express what living in Venice felt like to me creatively, it was a whole new world of colour and light and pattern. Memories of that sunlight and Ocean living really perked me up this week when we were mired under low grey cloud and cold fog for 8 days.  
Somewhat bad timing because the front Cherry Blossom, Prunus Cerasifera 'Nigra', had opened during the previous week and was doing it's best to cheer up the view in the absence of sunshine (taken when things lightened up enough to actually get a photo)...

The Forsythia can always be relied upon to brighten even the darkest day...

Luckily the cloud and fog have lifted this weekend and we finally had a sunset...

Today I finally got my fix of some much needed sunshine and Cherry Blossom in the garden. Hard to photograph though because the sun returned with it's near constant companion these days - strong wind! It's been so hard to photograph anything in the garden in the last 3 years because it is nearly always jiving around like 50's teenager...

In a very brief moment of stillness and extremely bright sun I spotted this little ladybird exploring the flowers of Pieris 'Debutante' which have been really abundant this year. It's a very compact little Pieris and it's leaves keep a fairly consistent green in all seasons, good for small spaces and places where you don't want any unexpected colour clashes from changing leaf colour...

And finally the deeper toned flowers of the larger and more seasonally varied Pieris 'Mountain Flame'...

Free Worldwide shipping & $5 off today

No need for a code, just go straight to my Society 6 Page. Includes laptop skins, ipad cases, shower curtains, art prints and more.

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.

New Clocks and free shipping weekend

I totally forgot to update that my designs on Society 6 are now available as clocks. Each clock has the option for black, white or natural frame colour, and for black or white hands. And there's free worldwide shipping if you use this link until Sunday at Midnight Pacific Time.
*Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

I think this is going to involve some updating because a lot my my pattern make it hard to read the clock, so I rummaged through my old sketchbooks for some pieces that would better suit a round face and decided this Fjorn pattern (above) was perfect for the job, with a few edits to make it more circular. I love it in clock format, but it also looks good on the other products too. It is also comes in a red on white option.

Now I'd better get back to updating the clock section for all my previous designs to they will work better. I'm thinking single colours may be the way to go initially.

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.

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)
 

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

Shop Cally Creates - Art Print - Italian Gas

Italian Gas - Art Print/Mini 8"x 9" $16. Other sizes available.


Italian Gas - Framed Art Print/Scoop Black Mini 10"x 12" $33. Other sizes & Frames available.

The original photograph was taken in Italy in 2008 (on the 6hr mad dash visit) and has been combined with a printed textile I designed at college in the early 90's to make a more textured graphic image.

Fine art print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using an advanced digital dry ink method to ensure vibrant image quality. Custom trimmed with 1" border for framing.

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