Spoonflower's for the birds, thankfully
Kim Fraser and the gang at Spoonflower have managed to combine two of my favorite topics in a Fabric of the Week contest on their site this week. Those two topics are mass customization and birds in case you were wondering.
Spoonflower prints small-lot custom fabrics and I wrote about them quite a bit last summer. 2010 will mark their second year in business and I'm sure that anybody up there will tell you that the last two years have been one heckuva ride. Business has exploded for them and how could it not? Spoonflower allows anybody with a computer to design and have manufactured fabrics for use in home accessories or sewing with no minimums. It's incredible really and in the time that they've been doing their thing, they've built up a vibrant community around their company and the fabrics they produce.
One of the ways they build community is through a weekly Fabric of the Week contest. Every week, they pick a subject and hold a design contest based on that subject. They announce these contests through Spoonflower's blog and you can find it here . Voting ended yesterday for their Mythical Creatures contest and voting starts today on the subject of birds.
Spoonflower's contests spotlight a few exceptional fabric and some real skills. Most of the designers who enter every week aren't specialists, as an alternative they're everyday folks with a ardour for material design. What's cooler still is that you can purchase any of the fabric that trap your eye.
Paying attention to Spoonflower's Fabric of the Week contests is a notable manner to spend a while round a few critically innovative humans and it's a very good way to maintain an eye out for fabric to show into throw pillows, window treatments or something else you may think of. Check it out!
In the meantime, here are some of the fabrics from the Birds contest that have caught my eye so far. What do you think?
Caroline Blue by Giltgoods
This one's for Melody McFarland:
A Parade of Pigeons --Yellow by Charclam
Western Meadowlark by Nightgarden
Bird on a Wire by Nalo Hopkinson
Brick Bird by Nalo Hopkinson
Caroline Fern by Giltgoods
Birds by Lydia Meiying
Cardinal by Aimee Elizabeth
birdlovesky by Kim Lennox
And remember, they are just some designs that caught my eye. Believe me, there are plenty more. Hats off to everyone who enters Spoonflower's contests while I'm at it. Anybody who engages in this kind of self-expression's OK in my book and to do so in public elevates them to nearly heroic status. Bravi! And on behalf of creatives everywhere I'd like to thank Spoonflower for opening up such a great space and allowing people to do their thing.