Super Secret Collaboration Project

The above print is one i had been working on a while back and just never completed. You may have seen similar typography style prints in my shop, but with a watercolor fill which i did by hand. In this case, i was just stumped as to what color scheme i’d use for this phrase. It wanted to be a bit more bold and less soft and washy like watercolor. Then along came Ashley.

i’ve had a life altering blog discovery a few weeks back. It’s called Li’l Blue Boo. have you seen it? You should. Artist, designer, painter, crafter, and creative ingenue, Ashley Hackshaw is the woman to know. She creates fabulous upcycled knit dresses with a patchwork, whimsical style that is too cool for school!! She also designs and lays down her own artwork as screens on the knits and incorporates those into the dresses! When she’s not sewing and screening, she’s raising an incredibly creative daughter and also painting gorgeous portraits and customized art for kids. And she shares her know how on all of the above through very easy-to-follow tutorials like this!

OK…..so now that THAT introduction is made, i’ll just tell you that after reading Ashley’s blog end-to-end in one sitting, i was oddly compelled to write her and tell her what an inspiration she is. i thought for sure she’d think i was a crazy lunatic, but most people do anyway, so i got to typing.

And she wrote back.

She was super sweet and wondered if i ever collaborated or wanted to? WHAT??? Me??? Of course!!!! Pinch me! i jumped onboard in a heartbeat and knew just what art i could send her to screen on these precious works of art. i sent the “When i Grow Up” print pictured above. More precisely, i sent her the outline of that art. She needed the one-color art for screening anyway, and i still had not figured out the fill.

The next day, it came to me. It needed to be filled with a joyous amalgam of color and texture. This was art meant for little girls and big girls who remember what it’s like to dream. It needed an injection of HAPPY! So i immediately pulled Baby Bohemia from my archive. After all, it’s been a very important piece to me. One that helped define my style and which has sold super well since day one. i had just recently made the artwork into a repeating pattern since i’ve been considering dabbling in a little textile design. Lucky for me, it was just perfecto for this project. See how it came together 1-2-3!

i wanted to make sure the print was listed in my etsy shop in plenty of time to coincide with the launch of our collaborative collection. Because, c’mon! Wouldn’t it be a sweet & super-unique gift idea to give a dress and the art that inspired it in one lovely package? Well at least i thought so.

Now, Ashley has been so kind as to give me the green light to use her photos to show glimpses of the work as it progresses. So far, she has selected ink colors and fabrics and made a pile of various screen printed fabrics to be pieced together in to these dresses. You can see those, along with some of the fabulous other offerings in her shop below. (The middle dress/tunic is BIG Blue Boo, for us stylish mamas!)

i am so, so excited for these dresses to hit the web. i give many, many thanks to Ashley for working with me. i mean, really, she’s doing about 95% of the work at this point! And i’d only offer one word-to-the-wise if you want to snag one of her creations anytime soon. LBB has a fiercely loyal and HUGE following, and dresses sell out FAST!, like- minutes after they’re posted fast. So be forewarned and be at the ready! Yippee!