Results

Photo: B. Lima, 2013. Font: Paulinho Pedra Azul, link here

You can see here the 8 finalists of the Spoonflower + Robert Kaufman contest. Congratulations to the eight finalists and to all who took part on it. 
Not this time for me, but thank you each of you who took the trouble to vote for me. 
Thank you very much indeed.


All images and contents, unless otherwise stated, belong to Bethania Lima. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website

Fabric8

Parallel Universes, copyright Bethania Lima, 2013.

I have been out of the blogsphere because I am concentrated on trying to make my site.

I am coming back to post, out of a sudden, just to share my joy of being selected as one of the top 100 designers whose work was picked up between 750 to go to the next stage of Fabric8 contest on this weeks’ Spoonflower contest. For me it means a lot, because that first selection was professionally based.

My entry is the top image. The theme was a real difficult one, Geek Chic. Parallel Universes is a personal take on the proposed Geek Chic theme of  the Kaufman+Spoonflower's contest. An elegant and restricted colour palette apllied to patchworked slightly geometric universes. 

When I think of geek the idea of a well developed domain of mathematics, physics and astronomy comes to my mind. It reminds me of Big Bang Theory and of the atomic era. 

When I think of chic it recalls me elegance, aesthetic, delicacy.

When I added the idea of fabric to the whole equation, a certain 50 retro feeling came to my mind, so I developed this simple and yet meaningful concept of parallel universes.

If you like it, you can vote for it here. It’s really a bit tricky to vote. There are 100 designs there to be picked and you have to go through all the seven pages, selecting the prints you like. After that, you’ll be taken to a confirmation page, to finally finish voting. So, if you are really in the mood of going through all that trouble, your vote is most welcomed.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and stay tuned for the upcoming site. It is taking longer than expected, but regardless of the trouble, I am having a lot of fun!

All images and contents, unless otherwise stated, belong to Bethania Lima. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website

AtoB

"Agapanthus", print by Bethania Lima Designs, 2013.

Dear Michelle Drew, the person behind Pattern and Co, had this great idea of making flower patterns following an A to Z sequence. To read about her original project, don’t miss this post. So far, that quick lady has made A for Anemones (wow), B for Bachellor’sButton and C for chrysanthum. Yeah, I know, she's very talented indeed!

So far I’ve managed to draft A for Agapanthus (above) and B for Bougainvillea (bellow). I am trying to balance this project with all the other stuff with many other stuff, so when possible I will post a few letters more. Please, join us on this delicious exercise. Michelle suggested this reference for the AtoZ of flowers. Most of the time I intend to follow the names from there. Boungainvillea didn't appear there, and I love this colourful plant, so the reference for it you can here.

"Bougainvillea", print by Bethania Lima Designs, 2013.

I have lots of Agapanthus on my little garden and they look very special from November up to the end of January, in my spot on the south hemisphere. For Bugenvilles, however, I had always loved it, but I am afraid it’s not a reciprocal kind of love. In Curitiba, Brazil where I used to live, it took me ages to get a beautiful bugenville in bloom. Here, in Santiago, things got even harder. Although I had around eight bugenvilles planted, just four of them are slowly wanting to show some timid flowers (the small, tiny, white part. The lovely colours that we see on those plants are just different leaves, you know?). See a few around the garden shots below. As a flower lover, I am enchanted by this challenge. Thank you, Michelle!

And thank you for paying a visit.

Photographic collage with Agapanthus from my garden. Photos by Bethania Lima, 2013.

Bougainvillea from my garden, photos by Bethania Lima, 2013.

All images and contents, unless otherwise stated, belong to Bethania Lima. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website

Stop and Go

Original, textured, beautiful Efuto, designed by Julie Hamilton, 2013 (front view). Copyright Julie Hamilton.

Original, textured, beautiful Efuto, designed by Julie Hamilton, 2013 (back view). Copyright Julie Hamilton.

From time to time my blog stays silent. On the blogsphere it is common. I wished I had more time. I wished English writing were easier. But none of this is true. I’ve been working a lot, uploading patterns for license/sale (more on this in another post, later) and trying to focus on building my site.

“Stop and go” is the expression that better describes how the site building is going. But it is going. And stopping. It also applies to my post frequency, doesn’t it?

Today I want to share with you the work above, a gorgeous Efuto (decorated envelope) from Julie Hamilton, the artist and pattern designer from Artistically Afflctted. The explanation of her blog title is perfect: "to be in a wonderful state of creative chaos due to an overactive imagination". I feel quite at home around that concept.

 I “met” Julie through our fantastic facebook group, that congregates more than 200 pattern designers. Julie was one of the first to welcome a bunch of us to the group and she is full of initiatives. When Gill Eggleston, from Pattern Addict, came up with the idea of the Efuto making and exchanging, that later on developed into “our” lovely The Little White Book, I believe Julie found herself in heaven. She began making lots of Efutos, and sending them to the lucky people like me. I understand why she did so. Or at least I guess I understand: it’s liberating. There’s no brief, no restrictions and it’s a delicious experiment to develop your own style. There’s nothing more liberating than playing around. It strengths the "muscles" of the brain, it liberates the imagination. And once we develop it, we can work better under any circumstance, regardless of the limits of any sort. So it’s a win-win situation and an exercise on creativity. 

In the Efuto Julie sent to me, I found a few goods to keep on the experiment, as you can see on the picture below. A lovely treasure that I will be using as soon as I can. I better stop now and go make some Efutos.

Inside the envelope, an invitation to keep the creative juices at work.

Thank you, Julie, for this sweet Efuto, a glimpse of your "wonderful state of creative chaos".

Thanks for stopping by.

All images and contents, unless otherwise stated, belong to Bethania Lima. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website

Sweetness

The mirror gift and the whole package of goods, designs by Bethan Janine Westran.

Here I am, back to blogging post.  I’ve been absent because of pattern making frenetic activity. I love it so much that I can’t complain. But it definitely is a very time consuming activity. I've been also playing around site making. Slowly.

Today I want to share another gift I won. This time it is from the great Bethan Janine, a fellow designer that I admire a lot. Her work is delicate, sweet, and original. I always had told her so, because there is no point in not praising and recognizing a great work. And I believe that not far from now her work will get all the public recognition it deserves. It’s top quality. Bethan Janine was part of the team of the Believe Creative Studio designers exhibiting in Indigo Paris in September 2012. See her interview here. And you know what? Her work was so good that one of her patterns was selected and exhibited in a common area during the show.  And she had a fabric selected in Spoonflower as a top 10, at least once that I know. She had many other professional accomplishments. Well,  the fact is that she sent me a little something as a Christmas gift (see above the rounded mirror and all the stationery accompanying it). Thanks to the mail, it arrived in the beginning of February, but it’s a timeless piece and I am carrying it on my handbag. I love the gift, it’s beautiful, simple, delicate. Look at the mirror, the delicate pattern at the small fabric bag that holds the mirror, the happy and well designed cards, and the handmade stamps on the envelope. Wow. But I love even more the gesture of her. The fact that she was kind enough to remember and send me a little something. How good to be remembered, you know? So simple, so good. Thank you, Bethan.  I am real lucky to have fellow designers as you to learn from!

Thank you, Bethan Janine (designs by Bethan Janine, picture by B. Lima).

All images and contents, unless otherwise stated, belong to Bethania Lima. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website

Another Efuto

Decorated envelope gift, 1, designed by Anneline Sophia, 2013.

Decorated envelope gift, 2, designed by Anneline Sophia 2013.

Hi. Got another Efuto. The one above pictured is fresh, colorfoul and floral. Love it.
The sender was Anneline Sophia, another classmate from the great ABSPD course. By the way, Anneline also send a few words on the back a gorgeous Rachael Taylor's postcard. See it below.

Efuto, designed by Anneline Sophia, and Rachael Taylor's designed postcard.

I know of a few more Efutos that are on my way, and hope they come home pretty soon. If you love those decorated envelopes as I do, don't miss the directory I mentioned here, initiative of Gill Egglleston, or this post here,  from Jullie Hamilton, all lovely sweet ladies and surface pattern designers, old members (founders, may be?) of our amazing Facegroup, full of talented people with whom I am always learning a lot.

Have a nice week and thank you for stopping by.



All images and contents, unless otherwise stated, belong to Bethania Lima. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website

On Efutos and Colours

Miranda Mol's Efuto and post card, photo by B. Lima, 2013.

Just got another gorgeous Efuto (decorated envelope) from my dear sweet friend Miranda Mol, all the way from Holland. In fact, my daughter was the receiver, as a gift for her birthday. I love the colours on this Efuto and on the great post card with Miranda’s own pattern on it. If you like it as much as I do, pay her a visit at her site. 

Miranda Mol's patterned postcard, photo by B. Lima, 2013.

I am adding the hashtag #coloringmehappy to those pictures above to take part in Jessica Swift's new series called "Coloringmehappy" (see more about the great artist Jessica Swift and this initiative of her here, please).

Talking about Efutos, I get the impression that we are spotting a trend there and that Gill Eggleston, from Pattern Addict, was a bit of a trend setter, by creating the suspiciously gorgeous The Little White Book of Surface Pattern Designers based on a general exchange of Efutos in our group of fellow designers. I am part of this book and I am a very proud participant of the real exchange of Efuto’s that has been going on. Recently I even spot Efuto’s making and exchanging in a lovely post over here. 

Don't you feel in the mood of decorating your own envelopes? Grab whatever media you fancy and go ahead. It's delicious and addictive.

Thank you for stopping by.

All images and contents, unless otherwise stated, belong to Bethania Lima. Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website