From The Nest

I'm back......

Summer was in full bloom here in Marblehead. We were enjoying our boat,having lobster rolls, swimming, going to the beach. I was playing in my garden, we were having cook outs and parties and planning trips and all the munchkins were visiting us and then suddenly my Mom got sick. What started as a simple stomach bug requiring an intervention for possible dehydration, turned into a nightmare of hospitalization and tests and biopsies and the shocking discovery of an extremely rare form of Burkitt's non-Hodgins lymphoma. I mean less than 200 people in the entire United States have this form of lymphoma. Rare indeed! This simply took the wind out of all our sails to say the least. We were in disbelief! Mom's mother, my grandmother, lived to be 97, her sister, my Aunt Alice, went on to live to 104, longevity in our family is everywhere or so we thought. Now, we have been fighting alongside Mom, who is only 89, each and every day for almost 3 months to battle this demon. We formed a "Circle of Love" and surrounded her with our family and close friends to support her, to be with her, to love her. You have to understand how this all started. Mom lives alone, drives, works at the church thrift shop, does her own shopping and cooking and is completely self sufficient. One day she is driving her Volvo to get a mani/pedi and then the next day she has some intestinal issues....a stomach bug type of thing. And now we are battling for her life. I have not been on my blog since this happened. I haven't been able to do much of anything. I have been with Mom each and every day since the inception of her illness while also trying to maintain my own life with the Captain and keep my business going. I am a strong woman...I get that from my Mom, but I do have to say it is a challenge each day to deal with the Chemotherapy treatments, the doctors and nurses, the new medical issues that seem to crop up. Scary and tiring and overwhelming and hopeful. So while we now care for Mom at home with our "Circle of Love", I try to find some time here and there to maintain my life as well. Mom is doing well and is completely competent and alert, so we are grateful for each and every day we have with her. Each day is a gift and I intend to be with her on this journey each step of the way. I am so grateful that I live near my Mom, as does my brother, so we could support her during this time. I think it has made an enormous difference to be close by. After all, family is the most important thing and ours is wonderful! Don't hesitate to tell the ones you love how you really feel about them while they are still with you. Life is always giving us new challenges to face so we never know what the next day will bring and who will be there to share that new day. So, tell them how much you love them ! Hope is a wonderful thing! The photo of Mom and I above is from Mother's Day last year.

Happy Fourth of July!

Looks like a beautiful summer weekend coming up for us here in New England. We have the Marblehead Arts Festival, harbor illumination and gigantic fireworks celebrations which are always jammed packed and fun! We will be out on our boat the "Carol Ann", a 28' Ellis bass boat,rafting up with my brother and other friends on the Fourth sitting in the middle of Marblehead harbor playing music, having lobster rolls, potato salad, deviled eggs and all kinds of summer treats that will be passed from boat to boat as we tie up together. It is a lot of fun! When the harbor illumination starts the flares are lit all around Marblehead Harbor casting a magical red glow reflecting off the ocean, making a wonderful sight for all to see. Then the fireworks start as darkness sets in around 9 pm on the Fourth of July! Coastal Living Magazine just named Marblehead one of the top 10 places in the country to celebrate the Fourth of July so come on and visit us. It's a charming town with a lot of history and all sorts of cultural events offered this coming weekend. Hope to see you there!

Focused, designing, planning, directing...

My new "Good Seasons" design group is being printed right now, my latest fabric collection for Andover Fabrics. Really terrific, I can see all sorts of opportunities for this collection to become other products besides fabrics! Trying to stay focused and directed on tons of new projects and designs to bring to meetings in Atlanta during the AmericasMart summer gift show. I have a new line launching for Blossom Bucket this July at the show that is just darling...all beachy designs...everything from my funky "Pink Ladies" flamingoes, to flip flop votive candle holders, fish, dancing crabs, stacked sand pails, my "Girlfriends on Vacation" group and lots lots more. They just do the greatest job in coming up with the cutest products ever...a sneak peek at some of the items...



With all of this wonderful product launch and new ideas, the energy level around here is staggering. One thing really does lead to another...a new Christmas collection that started as just a tiny speck of an idea is just growing and growing with new product ideas and prototypes. It is exciting and the creative juices are flowing so it is good to keep focused and directed while planning meetings and organizing ideas. Won't be long before I will be back in Atlanta so do stay tuned!!

Launching the Carol Ann

Summer in Marblehead, our favorite time of year with the boat...we will be spending this weekend launching the Carol Ann, our 28' Ellis Bass Boat, built down Maine...first we have to empty out the boat locker that has been packed all winter with all the boat gear stored safely and out of the winter weather and put all the cushions, pillows, life jackets, mats, lines, bumpers, tools, etc back on the boat. The engine has been checked, oil filters changed, the battery charged, the zincs replaced, the bottom painted and the entire cabin cleaned from top to bottom with special cleaners. The weather is gorgeous with lots of sunshine and a nice ocean breeze is blowing today. Once they put the boat in the harbor with the giant boat hauler, we then take her over to our mooring and tie her on once again and begin the reorganizing. Then we go through the boat and clean everything, washing down the decks and scrubbing the galley and head, which always gets dirty over the long winter months just from being stored and not used. Re supplying all the gear we need for the upcoming summer, opening all the vents and organizing all the lines.
The Captain has varnished the flag pole so it will look nice once again. Everything is ship shape and in it's place and ready to go. We bought a couple of new floor mats and some fun pillows just to freshen it up a bit.
Then we pack up our lunch to take along with us for the day...like lobster rolls, chips, pickles and snacks and head out for an afternoon cruise somewhere along the Massachusetts Bay. It is always fun and relaxing and a special time for us. We love it!

Back from Michigan-Back to work

I am back from a week in Michigan with the Captain. We had a great visit with our youngest daughter Sarah and her family...lots of fun! It took some doing for us to get home with all the crazy storms they had out in the mid-west. Our flight was delayed and delayed and finally we made it home on Tuesday. I am slammed with work!! I mean it is incredible the amount of product development I have to accomplish this week. It is Memorial Day weekend. Sometimes everything hits at once and that's the case for me right now. I am not complaining at all. Just saying it will be challenging to get it all done and keep everyone happy. It is also our official planting season here in New England, so the tomatoes and other plants need to be planted along with all our window boxes and new perennials I bought to add to the garden. The above design is from my new "Four Seasons" collection from Andover Fabrics and this is part of the Fall group. I just love how this group came out and I have decided to have a quilt made out of this fabric when it is printed. Just a quick hello since I have to get back to work! Lot of new items coming out this summer at the Atlanta Gift show so I will be sure to post photos when I return.

Working on New Designs

Things are always busy here at the Carol Eldridge Design Studio. I am developing new designs for all sorts of product lines, including several for new licensing clients. This fun summer design is part of my latest fabric collection called "Four Seasons" for Andover Fabrics, debuting this week at the Spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake City. Keeping up with all the design work and life is often a challenge, but I think passion goes a long way to helping me meet those challenges and successfully continue my artistic journey. When you love something you do you tend to work at it tirelessly because it means so much to you. I wake up each day eager to get to the studio and get to work. I love what I do.

Persistence

Here in New England it's that time of year once again where the backyard is bustling with birds fluttering around building their nests. I love to watch them. I sit each morning looking out past the deck at the trees and bushes while I eat my cereal, watching them fly back and forth and in and out carrying sticks and twigs. It always amazes me how busy they are, how directed they are, as if someone is orchestrating their every move. One seems to stay in the nest, padding it down, weaving the twigs and sticks around in a perfect circle, blending them to form a safe place, tamping it with their beak and their bodies. The other is the hunter and gatherer, bringing in the moss and ribbons and strings they find exploring in my garden. They work in unison, with a single-minded goal to build their nest.
Their persistence really is so admirable and I think it is contagious to watch it being played out each day for me. These little creatures wake up extremely early each morning and work tirelessly all day long until the sun finally sets, when it seems that then they quiet down for the night. The next day it's the same thing all over again. Persistence is a wonderful thing. I think when you focus on something that you want badly enough, create a strategy and work towards fulfilling that goal, your journey is motivated by your passion to reach that goal. Like the birds, their love of building together this little nest home to lay their eggs, then to nurture their fledglings is somehow similar the same journey we are on as artists. We fly around, fluttering here and there, gathering clients and inspiration to create new works so we too can make a home for our families, earning money doing something we love. We try different mediums, we weave together various interesting things we come across in our travels, we are constantly on the lookout for new and unusual materials to use in our creations, making them special and unique. Ultimately, we want to create something new and different that we can be proud to put our names on. I think in my next life I will come back as a little bird. I love that they are so pro-active, that they twist their little heads all around and are so aware of the world around them, all the time chirping and singing and seemingly so happy. They flutter and fly and twist and shout and sing and seem to have so much fun together. Then, at the end of a long and busy and always productive day, they settle in for the night in their tiny work-in-progress, huddled together, keeping warm, sleeping and resting to make way for another new day. It just doesn't get much better than that! Tweet!

Thoughts on Art Licensing

In licensing your artwork to manufacturers, it is always advantageous to be able to suggest ideas with your designs in a format they are familiar with...their product. I thought you might like to see several examples that I have created. These are not templates! These are my own original drawings showing my artwork and designing a piece that reflects my look and vision. An art director or product development person of a major manufacturing company greatly appreciates the insight and creativity an artist has to show their versatility in this way. It shows so much more than just flat 2-D art...it shows that you understand product development which is key to success in this field. You went the extra mile because you understand the manufacturing process, you are a professional!
While it takes an extra step to create product concepts to show to companies, what in life doesn't take an extra step to get things right, to make a great presentation, to be the best you can be? That extra effort has paid off for me big time with dozens of successful product lines on the market because I took the time and have the expertise to create something new. I am dismayed sometimes when I read forums of licensing groups by artists on the internet and hear them complain about how much work it is to license your artwork...how stressful...how competitive.....how do you find the time...how up and down the market can be. Art licensing is a business just like any business, that is why it is called WORK. To complain about creating designs and all that entails is like complaining about life to me. Hey, if it were easy everyone could do this. So buck up there my artist friends, put pencil to paper and create and originate and be joyful that you are fortunate enough to have a talent that can earn you money doing something you love to do. Going the extra mile creates fun products. For example, this coffee mug I designed for Boston Warehouse Trading Company has a nice shape and a tiny coffee bean added to the handle...a small touch..but one that takes an ordinary mug and makes it extra-ordinary and more interesting.
For me, part of the real fun in this business is thinking about creating the product and what it can be. This candy dish is one of the products for my new "Batty Babes" line licensed to One Hundred 80 Degrees. This is a paper mache candy bowl with a bat wrapped around the back of the pumpkin bowl wearing a "Bone Appetite" sign around it's neck. I had to create this product, there was no template. I had to think how this would come together, what the materials could be, how would the bat be attached, how large would it be, colors, styling, etc.
This was something the client and I originally discussed when I presented the idea of the line with these funky bats for a Halloween group. The creative challenge was that I had to think how this could be manufactured, what size it would be, colors, textures, materials...and here is the finished product that is on the market now. It is both rewarding and fun to see your creation come to life and know that you worked hard to do the best you can do to be professional, to be creative and to be original. It is very satisfying indeed!

Happiest Easter

Happy Easter!