Do you want to know more about the in’s and out’s of either designing or licensing? I was delighted to be interviewed by Monica Lee in her video series Smart Creative Women. In the interview, I discussed my career of over 25 years. I talk about some of the many, many things that I learned over the years in the business of designing and licensing. And it has been a very rewarding career, especially from the view of doing something that I really love and in getting to be creative on a daily basis.
I hope that you will check it out. But warning, you need to understand the “southern” way of talking! Thank you to Monica for the interview!
Frequently, I am so focused on what I’m doing, I loose track of time – you know, a few hours. But this week, I lost an entire day. I have really been focusing on creating new art and designs. I did not pay attention to the calendar on my computer or any of the other ways I keep track of time such as mentally noting each day.
Yesterday, as I was working, I wondered if it was Tuesday or Wednesday, hoping for Tuesday, but really knowing it was Wednesday. So this morning when I woke up, I asked my husband if it was Thursday. To my surprise, he told me it is Friday. Gee, now I’ve got to go double time as I’m behind where I had planned to be at this point. My husband insists that I was present and accounted for each day, no alien abduction.
So, back to the “drawing board”.
I wish each of you a great and safe 4th of July! I do know that its tomorrow, since its on Saturday and today is Friday!
The International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh this month was wonderful as usual. Color was everywhere as new fabrics were displayed (including mine – Its a Dog’s Life with Quiting Treasures). The mood was upbeat throughout the show and buyers were doing just that – buying. I took loads of pictures of great vendors as well as my friends But, if you read my last post, you know that my photo files were corrupted on the disk (the file names are all goofy symbols and Windows doesn’t know what file types they are- so if anyone can tell me what happened, I would love to know).
I am really excited about something that I purchased at the show (actually its being purchased through my local dealer). I bought Bernina’s digitizing software, “DesignerPlus Version 5” so that I can turn my art images into machine embroidery.
I plan to start with the motifs from my fabric collections. I also want to create designs to put on some of my projects featured in magazines and books.
Call me a nut, but I actually love learning new software, until I get to a frustration point! The good thing about this software is that my local shop (Robin’s Sewing Shoppe) will give me lessons on using it, in addition to the demo I received at Quilt Market. So, any frustration points can be resolved locally!
But the next step is that after getting home, I have decided that I want to upgrade my sewing machine. That actually means starting new since my machine can’t be “upgraded”. I’ve been visiting the websites of ALL the sewing machine companies to see which one has the features I want. Boy, now that’s frustration! Some of the websites have much more information than others and its frustrating looking at one that has very little information on the features of their machines. Then when I find a feature of one machine that I really like, I look back at all the sites again to see which ones have that feature. And I love features! Unfortunately, the $$’s go up with each feature so I am going to have to tone it down.
So now, I’m off to visit local dealers to make a decision on which machine I want and to see if I can find one in my budget.
Oh well, wish me luck!
Phyllis
Phyllis Dobbs Art & Design Studio
Thanks for visiting!. My art is licensed for gift, garden and home products. I also design quilt and sewing patterns available in my Etsy store.
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SHOWCASE YOUR ART ON PRODUCTS! 105 Photoshop and Illustrator templates.
ArtBizJam 2020- Art Business Conference Virtual, Sept 23- 26, 2020
UNIQUE ART BUSINESS CONFERENCE - Learn more to expand your art business and network with other artists. The 8th annual ArtBizJam conference will be held virtually 2020 with live sessions with product developers Sept 23-26 and other sessions available for viewing at your own time on a variety of topics. The live sessions will have a lineup of experienced speakers for product development from top gift and home companies. For more details, please visit the ArtBizJam website and join the
ArtBizJam Facebook Group