Etsy Love - Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo is one of my favourite artists, her creativity and use of colour and imagery has always inspired me. So following on from my previous Mexico inspired post, here's a Frida Kahlo inspired Etsy treasury! If you haven't heard of Frida you can learn more about her here, she had such an interesting life and was an inspiring woman!

1. Sketch Inc / 2. Rougepony / 3. GGs Pin Up Couture / 4. Kilkenny Cat Art / 5. Andsmile / 6. CaraCarmina / 

7. MiZen Designs / 8. Object Apparel / 9. JaneFoster

Desk of the Day - Origami Flowers

Today I'm working on some digital patterns and illustrations based on origami for my latest uni project. I think these patterns look a little geometric and crisp for the look I'm going for so I may have to find a way to re use them.

Remake & Remodel - The final design ideas part 2

You can find part 1 of my designs here. After discarding my heel designs I decided to focus on sneakers as I think eventually I'd like to go into sneaker design (Hello Nike? I promise I'll treat you good, I won't leave you for Adidas like Kanye did!).

I explored different ideas for the sole, the stitching, laces, materials etc before I settled upon my final design. My final design ended up being the bubble platform, I then had to create a 3D prototype of an element of that particular design which will be in the next post!

You can see more of this project here, more of my uni work here, and more of my illustrations here.

 

Remake & Remodel - The inspiration

Most design subjects at uni require you to show your ideas through colour boards and mood boards. Here are the inspiration boards for my Remake & Remodel project. As you can see, my main inspiration came from bacteria and the simplistic 3D shapes of DNA. I wanted to combine the bright, business of the bacteria with simple and futuristic shapes.

You can see more of my uni work here.

Remake & Remodel - The final design ideas part 1

I feel like I've been pretty absent from blogging recently, but my last deadline is tomorrow so normal blogging will commence shortly!

In the mean time here's a sneak peak of part of my design development for the Remake & Remodel project. I discarded this shoe design as I wanted to work on a sneaker style shoe in the end.

You can see more of my uni work here, and more of my illustrations here.

Remake & Remodel - Bacteria Pattern

Leading on from my post a few days ago, after a couple of days catching up on crazy dog and fat cat cuddles, I'm feeling up to going into more detail on my current project!

This project is called Remake & Remodel. Our brief is to be inspired by a shoe we were given to deconstruct (pictures of this to come!). Deconstructing my shoe got me thinking about what goes into a shoe and what isn't shown. So, inspired by designers that use functioning parts as design features, I started thinking about what is inside us that dosn't show. I ended up looking into DNA, viruses and bacteria, all of which have some fabulous visuals to inspire a project.

Pattern has been a large part of the shoe designs I've been working on for this project, I wanted to add some fun and bright PonyChops style to these shoes. Here's a pattern I've designed and decided on to be in my final shoe design. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out, and think it works well with the style of shoe I've picked.

Adventure Time giveaway winner! And a Lumpy Space Princess pattern

A big congratulations to McJilly Math for winning mine and TeeToo's Adventure Time Giveaway! If you're super bummed you didn't win, don't worry! Andrea from TeeToo has added her Lumpy Space Princess pillow pattern to her blog, so you can make your own now!

High Top Boots Pattern Design

A few months ago I had an interview at Dr Martens for an internship. I knew I wanted to put some docs friendly designs in my portfolio, so I designed some fabric with high top boots on it.

I'm really happy with how these turned out, my original intention was to put them on some boot designs (I'll post these at a later date). But I like the way these turned out as just a pattern.

I'm thinking of making them available on Spoonflower soon, what do you think?

More of my illustration work.

Back to School bags with Case Luggage

It's only 2 weeks until I move to London now, and 3 weeks until I start my uni course. For an art or design uni course like mine, where I will be carrying lots of material, stationary and a laptop around, a good bag is a very important purchase.

I've been searching the Case Luggage website for some practical and fun bags to take to uni with me, here are some of my favs.

Now of course, before I show you my practical finds, I have to show you my absolutely favorite find. I think it's very apt for this post, as it is London themed:

This childrens London Bus case is by Cuties comes with stickers so you can personalise it yourself. As you can probably tell, I've never really grown out of personalising things, so I think this is perfect.

My actual practical finds look just as awesome and fun! They're by Kipling. I chose the Dallin Wheeled School Bag (right) and the Poona School bag (right). I first noticed these bags for their awesome prints, but it turns out they're really well designed too. The Dallin comes in 3 different prints, has wheels and built in laptop protection. It can also be carried on your back, so it's multi functional and very practical. The Poona is a little smaller and comes in a fun monkey print.

 I also really liked this Umbrella with a matching zip pouch by Knirps and this Converse Backpack.

What are your "back to school" essentials?

Les Folles Marquises Giveaway

Today I have a super rad giveaway, brought to you by Dorothée from Les Folles Marquises. When I first saw Dorothée's adorable jewellery I immediately fell in love. Her little doll necklaces remind me so much of matryoshka, I love their little faces and the intricate patterns on their clothing.

The winner of this giveaway gets to pick any piece of jewellery (apart from a wedding locket) from the Les Folles Marquises shop.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Parents & the City - Blog Design

Well guys, It's finally here! The design of Parents & the City is finished and live. This blog design has taught me so much. Mainly that I need to try out wordpress before designing the blog, oops! But it's been one of the most fun projects I've done in a long time.

Since I'm passionate about bright and colourful patterns, I was stoked when Diana gave me free reign to design a New York and baby themed pattern! I was even more excited when she wanted to have a statue of liberty themed logo. Baby Liberty is definitely one of my fav things about this design.

You can find my work in progress on this design here, here and here.

If you would to contact me about blog, logo or pattern design email me at ponychopsshop @ gmail . com

Here's some more details of the new design:

Be My Trash

I've been wanting to start posting about fashion a little more lately. Fashion is probably my biggest passion. I want to start sharing some of the eccentric brands and trends that inspire me and make me work harder towards a future in fashion design.

I wanted to start off my fashion inspiration posts with a brand I only discovered last week, Trash. When I first saw Trash's website it was love at first sight. They have such an in your face style, the kind of style that you either love or hate. I think this brand is definitely one to look out for in the future! Oh gosh, how I would love to design shoes to match these wonderful clothes!

Trash was created by Angela Brejt, who works closely with talented graphic designers who often don't have a formal education. Angela is a vegetarian (Is it possible for me to love this brand any more??) and strives to ensure she never uses any animal skin or furr in her collections.

Trash focuses on creating clothing that will flatter women of all shapes and often only produces 4 to 5 copies of each piece.

My favorite pieces from this collection are the all seeing eye, reptilian inspired dresses and leggings. I'm a little obsessed with conspiracy theories, I find them inspiring and entertaining, so I love that these pieces don't just contain the fashion of the all seeing eye, and that they also include the reptilian element.

Check out Trash's Online shop and their Facebook page.

Digital Portrait - Laura / Pip

On monday I finished this portrait of Laura from Wrapped Up In Rainbows. Laura loves pink and turquoise, so of course I had to include those colours! She also has a really awesome VW van named Pip. As soon as I saw pictures of Pip I knew it needed to be included in the portrait somehow! I love VW vans. So I did a Pip patterned background, complete with it's own "PIP" personalised number plate.

I'm so so happy with how this turned out. Making the Pip background has got me obsessed with making material patterns again!

If you'd like your own personalised portrait, please contact me at ponychopsshop@gmail.com or at my Etsy Shop.

Wednesday Art Feature: Luka Va

Luka Va is a Lithuanian artist now living in Australia. When I first discovered her shop LukaLuka on etsy, my first impressions were fun and amusing.

With cute quirky illustrations of animals covered in pattern and colour, this art is bound to find a place in your heart. Her creative works come from a happy place, wouldn't you love to just surround yourself with her beautiful skateboard sloths, keyboar cats and happy creatures?

[Website] [Shop]

Wednesday Art Feature: Tracy Chaplin - Gretel Girl

This week, I want to show you the work of the talented Tracy Chaplin, Gretel Girl. Tracy is an Australian based illustrator with a love of fabrics, craft & upcycling.

Not only are Tracy's works beautiful and intricate, but they are so well thought out and presented beautifully. I love how she presents them in embroidery hoops. I think this is such a unique and visually pleasing way to present her work, plus there's no need for frames!

I just adore the way she's drawn the hair in the above photo, not to mention the subtle rosey cheeks and wonderful patterns!

[Twitter] [Facebook] [Etsy] [Website]