From The Nest

Another New Rug

"Girls Under Water"...that is what Home Comfort calls this new design..one of 3 new rugs I designed for them, always fun to see the samples. They use really bright colors and the texture of the rugs is nice and thick. Busy here in the studio, working long days with much to do. With the upcoming Atlanta Licensing and Design show getting closer, I am designing new handouts and new artwork to exhibit there in January 2010. I just finished up my new line for Peking Handicraft, hang tags are being printed in China right now for the group, very exciting. The "Enchanted Forest" ornament collection is new Christmas line for Kurt Adler that will debut in Atlanta in January as well. The alternative gift company started by the X-VP of Department 56, called One Hundred and 80 Degrees, will be debuting my new collection called "Reindeer Games" in January as well. That new group was especially rewarding to see samples of, since I not only designed the adorable reindeer, but I designed the display, sign and wrote the words. It is a new world for designers now, the more you can do for a company, the better off you are. It is not just licensing a piece of artwork anymore. Designers need to be able to draw and design and create new concepts..... they need all that talent today to make things happen! Innovation, imagination and a unique design sense goes a long way in this new world of licensing, believe me. Everyone has pared down their companies so the more flexible you are, the more creative your imagination, the more you can offer in artistic skills, the more interested the manufacturers will be in working with you. Product development skills go a long way to helping you land the license with original product ideas, not just artwork slapped into templates that 50 other designers use as well. Good to stand out and be innovative in today's new world of licensing! Lots of other things going on to be announced soon. In the meantime, I have to get back to work now, I need to finish up an ad for Total Art Licensing for the show! enjoy the rug! best, carol

New Hang Tags

One of the fun things about designing a line for a cool company like Peking Handicrafts, is that you get to design a hang tag for your licensed work. These are a few samples of the one I just designed for them to go with my new collection that will debut in Atlanta at the January gift show 2010. When the products are such that it would be too "invasive" to have the artist's copyright information printed on the item, like a beautiful embroidered towel, the company will have you do a hang tag that they can attach to the product with the design credit and information about the company, but that can then be detached by the consumer when they get the product home. I think it is a wonderful idea because it gives the artist an opportunity to do a little bio for the inside of the hang tag. This gives the consumer some info about the artist who designed the product that they just purchased and can help to establish a fan base for the designer. It also is good publicity for the designer, promoting their website and their work! Just another example of art licensing at it's best! When the process of licensing your designs to companies runs smoothly, works well and comes together for both the manufacturer and the designer, the products are wonderfully designed, sell well, make money for both parties and is a "win win" for everyone. Make sure to check out Peking Handicraft's showroom at the Atlanta Mart to see my new line in January. best, Carol

Maine Sketch Book

Just back from a week in Michigan last night, but I wanted to post some of my sketch book drawings from our week in Maine back in early October. As you know, I always take a sketch book with me wherever I go. On vacation I take the time to observe what is around me and draw what I see. I like to do this not only for the experience to keep my hand drawing, but to really look and see my surroundings, documenting where the Captain and I travel. This sketch is in downtown Greenville, Maine, population 1700. This is a really nice antique/gift shop that had plenty of vintage items as well. In the window they had moose antlers, a stuffed bear,lots of antique camp items, deer heads, old furniture, interesting vintage items. I bought an old toy canoe sculpted by a local artist along with an vintage dark blue felt pennant, they kind they used to have in the 50's that you bought on vacation as a souvenir that says Moosehead Lake. It is really cool and now hangs in my new studio.
Around the corner from the Kamp Kamp antique and gift shop is this little group of stores. The Northwoods Outfitters usually has tons of people renting canoes and kayaks, but with the cold windy weather, there was not a lot of rentals going on the week we visited.
No sketch book of Maine is complete without some evergreen trees...these I did out the window of our inn one rainy afternoon. I just love how sturdy they are, strong and tall, like sentinels standing along the front of the inn.
Along the front of Blair House Inn is a beautiful deck covered with white wicker furniture, tables, chairs and couches, that looks directly out to Moosehead Lake. I sat there one morning and sketched the lake from the front porch with my cup of Maine brewed coffee right at my side.
Our room was up on the third floor. It was a large room, painted yellow, with a window box and 3 large windows that looked right out to the lake. I sat there a couple of times when it was raining and did some sketches. This time I turned into the room and just did a quick drawing of the beautiful large queen bed that we had. It was all hand carved and quite lovely as you can see, outfitted with wonderful sheets and a duvet that was all that heavenly Egyptian cotton with the high thread counts that always feels so good.
The inn was lovely and charming with wonderful period furniture and appointments. This is the old fireplace of the house that I sketched one late afternoon sitting in a large comfy chair right in front of the blazing fire, warm and snuggy!
There were 4 of these large comfy chairs sitting in front of the fireplace, surrounding a table in the center, a great place to sit and read or have a cup of tea or just sketch like I did. They were very inviting.
Across from the fireplace was this lovely old secretary. Inside the glass doors on the top of the desk were some old books and a couple of vases. The inn keepers kept the dinner menus on the desk that they offered on the weekends. It called to me to draw it so I did.
Among the period furnishings the innkeepers so lovingly restored, were some beautiful lamps and lighting fixtures. Not something that I usually am drawn to, these were all from the 1800's, brass with silk shades and really lovely.
These Victorian lights hung from the living room ceiling. I just thought they were so pretty and interesting, a bit difficult to draw because you are always looking up and the angle was tricky, but I got the essence of the lights. The cut glass leaf designs inside the glass domes of the lights were so delicate, the handicraft of the lights so amazing, the type of design you just do not see anymore... perhaps a lost skill now with technology taking over the manufacturing of most lamps today. That is all for now, after being gone a week I have to get back to work. Just noticed another e mail from China coming in requesting more approvals on my new Christmas group. Hey, can you believe it is November already? enjoy, carol

Fall in New England

We have such a "Fall" house. It was built in the late 1800's and is a Victorian style home with a mansard roof. We painted the house a butterscotch yellow accented with brick red shutters and creme trim. The "New England" style front door was designed and built by the Captain to keep out winter winds and storms and makes a great backdrop for my wicker basket displays which I change with the holidays. The brick color of the shutters and door, along with my fall basket display, the Halloween appliqued flag of black and orange and color choices of hardy mums nestled around the topiary trees along the front steps, all contribute to the festive fall look of the house. It is a beautiful day today. I went out front to take the photo and noticed how nice and sunny it is outside, with blue skies and fresh air, a great day to go for a walk in the woods which I will do after lunch.
We have also added some Halloween lights going down the stairs to the sidewalk that light up at night for the holiday. It just all looks very pretty and ready for the fall holiday celebrations of Halloween and soon Thanksgiving, my favorite one. I thought you might enjoy seeing our house at this time of year, back to work, best, carol

Moosehead Lake Maine Photos-Part 1

This is where we stayed on our visit to Moosehead Lake Maine. Blair Hill Inn sits overlooking Moosehead Lake. It is simply gorgeous, built by a Chicago tycoon at the turn of the century as a gentleman's farm, it is now an inn with 8 rooms and a view that is unsurpassed.
This is the view from our inn down to Moosehead Lake. Just unbelievable!
Here is the menu that they serve to guests Thursday through Sunday.The inn employs a full time chef and the food is outstanding, they even grow their own vegetables and raise organic pigs and chickens. They served everything from soups and salads to the main course and a fabulous dessert. Even the coffee was delicious and in the morning we would get a full blown breakfast, served on the sun porch overlooking the lake.
Here we are in front of the fireplace at the inn before heading out for the day. The furniture and accessories in the inn were just lovely yet it was homey and comfortable.
Moosehead lake on a sunny fall day.
The foliage this year was spectacular. I think it has something to do with the cold snap in September that sets the colors, but the reds particularly were so bright. Each new bend in the road was prettier than the last one and especially along the lake, where the reflections of the foliage into the water are just so awesome.
There is something about the fall...I just love this time of year. The air is so clean, the sky is so blue, the colors in the trees is like someone came along and painted all the leaves with the most saturated colors they could find. There is nothing wimpy about fall, you know, it is a statement, Mother Nature is saying "Look at me folks, I am so splendid in my colorful fall season"...it is as if she is giving us a show before she heads north for the winter.
The Captain had a great time taking lots of photographs with his new Canon Rebel XSI camera. What a handsome fellow my Captain is!
Every where you looked, there was something beautiful to photograph.
And, with the sunshine and blue sky, the colors really popped.
One of our favorite things to do is to walk in the woods. Here is the end of the famous Appalachian Trail that starts somewhere down in Georgia.
We are standing right at the entrance to the Appalachian trail as we are about to head into the woods for a nice walk and to enjoy Mother Nature in all her glory.
One of the first things I came across as we headed down the trail was this mossy log...an old piece of wood that after many months was now covered with this soft green moss. It was so pretty.
Walking along the trail we stopped now and then to take some photos.
Walking along the trail you could smell the aromatic balsams and they smelled so sweet.
Doesn't this look like a still life...well I guess it is, one that nature provided for me, this single red maple leaf sitting next to the little mushroom poking through the mossy log.
The Captain and I have traveled to Maine dozens and dozens of times over the years. It is one of our favorite places to visit. We usually go along the coastline of Maine, you know, lobster boats, lobster rolls, cute little houses nestled along the rocky shoreline. Well, now we are in the North Woods of Maine, almost to Canada. And, there are no lobsters but lots of moose. This is a place that is so beautiful, so rural, with only about 1700 people living in the area. People here love the outdoors. They hunt and fish and canoe and hike. There are 3 times as many moose as people. So you have to be very careful driving around this area, especially at night, since the moose do come across the roads and can cause accidents.
And we were fortunate enough to run into some in the woods just north of Greenville. The follow photos of the ones I took as we approach this mother and her 2 young calves.
When she turned around and looked at me it was such a thrill. You just cannot imagine how big they are!
They did not seem to mind us being there. They were doing their thing and it seems we were just an annoyance more than anything else.
We headed down the road after our moose spotting to have lunch at this rural country store. We saw the sign for Harry the moose and wondered what that was all about.
When we came in we noticed all these Maine guys having lunch so I asked them if I could take their picture for my blog. Really nice guys, they filled us in on what was going on with Rut Season ( mating season) for the moose.
And, let me introduce Harry the moose. Apparently he is the store's mascot...I love the red bandana they tied on him. He looks down on you while you eat your lunch.
This is Joe Munster. He is a North Woods Maine guide... he will take you moose hunting or just about any other kind of hunting you want. He is showing me the loud speaker on his jeep that he plays when he is hunting for moose. It is a recording of moose during rut season and that attracts the bull moose to come and see what is going on. It was so funny listening to their bellows and grunts as they court each other during the mating season.
more photos tomorrow continuing our trip to Moosehead Lake Maine, best, carol

Back from Moosehead Lake

just a quick hello to say we are back from Moosehead Lake and did we have fun! Just take a look at this Mama moose we ran into in the North Woods of Maine. It was rut season while we were there ( mating season) which was very appropriate since it was our anniversary! The moose were everywhere with their calves which are born in May so they were about 5 months old. The females bellow to the males, the bulls, and then the bulls call back, it is quite a courtship that takes place each season. You cannot imagine how big they are. It was so exciting to see the moose in their natural habitat and this one turned around and looked right at me, I was only about 15 feet away from her. Our inn was really lovely, wonderful food, amazing view, gorgeous comfy room with hot tub, great innkeepers, just a luxurious place. We could have had better weather...the weather was a bit grey and cold, rainy, windy. Very cold for this time of year everyone said. We had plenty of warm clothes, boots, parkas, etc, but since it is an outdoor place and we were going to canoe and hike and fish, the weather put a bit of a damper on our activities. We did have one fabulous sunny day. Have more photos and stories, but have to make some revisions on a Christmas line that just came in from China before we left and needs some tweaking and attention right away. Mostly color changes and some drawing revisions on the display that the items will be in for the stores. Lots going on here in the studio which is wonderful after a year of lean royalties and companies going bankrupted. Things are starting to turn around now and companies need great product development to be ready for the retail market rebound. much to do today. more later, carol

Moosehead Lake Maine

The Captain and I are off to Moosehead Lake down Maine for a week tomorrow morning. This is a photo of the lake from the inn we will be staying at, looking down during the summer months. We will be there at the height of the foliage season, so the colors should be spectacular. Why Moosehead Lake do you ask? Several reasons...first and foremost we love Maine and have been visiting Maine forever, since the girls were babies. We usually go along the coast because we love the ocean and boating. We had never been that far north in Maine, it is almost to Quebec, Canada, which we visited a few years ago, but not that part of Maine. Also, I have always wanted to see moose in their natural habitat and they are very prevalent this far north and the inn even has boat trips to find them. We love to canoe as well and they provide canoes for their guests so we are planning to do that, some fly fishing and to take the boat trip that explores the lake which is enormous and hunts for moose so we can get lots of photos. The inn that we are staying at is lovely, right on the lake, with a full time chef, spa and all sorts of wonderful amenities. I will have my camera and sketch book in hand at all times so I will have much to report next week when we return. Just a few notes before I leave. I am signed up to exhibit at the Atlanta License and Design show the first week in January 2010. It is a new show, just the second year, that runs in conjunction with the Atlanta Mart so all the manufacturers that I work with will be there in their showrooms so it is a great opportunity to connect with old and new clients. The Captain will be joining me to help out so it will be fun along with a lot of business. I am excited to exhibit and I am already working on new collections to show. I am part of a Linkedin Forum titled "Surface Designers who License" and the last few days the discussion has been around "What is acceptable when using other's peoples art in your designs..??? This basically refers to the craft industry and collages, where designers take papers and ribbons,buttons, scrapbook stuff, magazine cut outs, clip art, etc to make another design. In some instances they are actually using designs from Dover Books that they then glue down and paint over and manipulate into another form.( a form of a clip art book) There are a large number of crafters and designers who are using other people's copyrighted designs within their collages without the artist's permission. They are also using images from the public domain, which, while legal, is still a bit dangerous to me. Potentially with so many designers using these methods, some of the same images are beginning to show up from time to time because they are all using the same sources. The question has been around the copyright issue and who can claim it along with whether it is even right or acceptable to even do this. Many designers are now creating scrapbook art using vintage pieces and images that are not their own, but are in the public domain. They find these at antiques shops and paper shows and they just glue them down, design the page, add embellishments and their own touch to create a new piece of art. One of the collage images in question was created by a designer featured a famous Marimekko fabric design within the collage. No copyright credit was given for the Finnish designer who created the textile design. It just seems wrong to allow someone to make a buck off someone's elses design, no matter how small the image of the Marimekko textile design piece is. For me, who is a trained artist with a BFA degree along with a year of graduate school, trained in illustration and printmaking, painting, design, drawing, color theory etc. this whole idea is foreign to me. I know about collage of course and have used newsprint in some of my designs from time to time. But, never would I need to use another artist's design in my creation whether it was legal or not (public domain). It is just not part of my creative process. Plus, I have so many ideas of my own to express that I really don't need to use someone elses art to create my images. That is my personal feeling. I know that there are artists out there who are licensing images that are using these methods. That is not how I choose to create my images. Manufacturers license my designs because they like my "hand", my designs sell well and I have a successful track record of over 20 years in the business. My work is created from the heart and my hand. It is how I feel and how I choose to work. As I have said many times.... "In a world full with copies, here's to the ORIGINALS". off to pack, now where are those hiking boots? best, carol

Autumn Festival

A simply gorgeous day today, the kind of day I just love. Blue skies, sunny, but crisp and clean, like great graphic artwork. Everything is so pretty. It's a "makes you happy to be alive kind of day"! The leaves on the trees are turning all sort of delicious colors, the burning bush is burning red, the brightly colored mums are all decorating my yard and front porch, the purple asters are in full bloom, it is the garden in all it's fall splendor. I also like this time of year because it is our wedding anniversary this weekend, October 4th. We are spending the day on the Carol Ann then meeting my brother and his wife Marian for dinner at Pellinos, this wonderful Italian restaurant we love here in Marblehead. Their speciality is a rack of lamb dinner with this amazing balsamic vinegar over the lamb and of course they serve Prosecco, from the Veneto region of Italy. Then the following week on Thursday we head down to Maine for a fantastic week at Moosehead Lake. We are staying at a charming B and B right on the lake that is quite lovely. We will be in Moose country looking forward to our photography trip to actually see the moose in their habitat. We will be canoeing up the little inlets and fly fishing and walking through the woods and seeing the Autumn Festival of colors at peak season. This year the foliage is suppose to be especially magnificent because of the cold month of September. Now last year we went out to the Pacific Northwest for 2 weeks at this same time of year. We spent time in the beautiful Cascade Mountains and walked for miles along the river that ran along the mountain range. The colors were lovely, but mostly yellow aspens, not the reds and oranges we get here. As pretty as it was, it could not compare with the fall in New England! It's really as if someone painted all the trees with a magnificent color palette with lots of red! Moosehead lake is almost up to Canada so we are bringing all our snuggy clothes, hiking boots, sweaters and jackets so we will be prepared. But, the funny thing is, sometimes at this time of year we get an Indian Summer where after a frost, the weather gets warm again so you have to dress in layers to be prepared. It can actually be hot. In the meantime, I am finishing up some work for a client, painting away on a new Christmas line that needs to be to the manufacturer by the end of October. I also have 2 other product lines in the pipeline right now, work is very busy once again, so the retail market is picking up finally. This Autumn Festival is really a gift from Mother Nature to all of us here in New England and if you get an opportunity to come and see it you really should. It is awesome! best, carol

BJ's visit to Marblehead

This past week my artist friend BJ Lantz came to Marblehead to stay with us for a few days. This had been planned for many months since she was going up to the Squam Workshops in New Hampshire which isn't all that far from us to take a couple of art classes, so we invited her to come to visit Marblehead and stay with us on her way back home. Here we are at the Boston Yacht Club out on the deck overlooking beautiful Marblehead Harbor. It was a lovely day, actually quite warm for the fall. Shorts and tee shirts were fine because it went well into the 80s that day which was good since BJ is from Florida and she needs warm!

Of course the Captain had to come early the first day BJ arrived so he could take her for a ride on the "Carol Ann". A couple of BJ's friends from Connecticut Rob and Kathy drove up to see her and they joined us as well for a harbor cruise and then over and around Brown's Island and Salem.

BJ is an experienced boater as well since she and her Captain Hubby have a sailboat named "Adios" that they love to go out on like we do on the "Carol Ann". Here she is being nice to the Captain, which is always a wise thing to be when you are out on a boat! You just cannot be too nice to the Captain!!

The next day I showed her all around Marblehead. Here she is in my favorite flower shop run by my friend Nancy called "Flores Mantilla". Nancy is from South America and has a passion for flowers and her shop has the most magnificent plants ever. BJ was quite taken with it as well and ended up buying a few goodies while we were there.

It was a gorgeous sunny day and we walked and walked, hitting almost every little shop and doing some damage at most of them. We stopped for lunch, we chatted and talked about exhibiting at the Atlanta Design Show coming up in January 2010. We both have taken booths at the show and are really excited about the potential business that could be generated there. Both the "Captains" are joining us in Atlanta to help with the exhibition, so that will make it even more fun along with doing lots of business. Then we wandered down to the town dock and sat and just enjoyed the scenery, talking to a couple of folks doing the same thing we were, just taking in the prettiness of Marblehead and the harbor, simply enjoying the day with a friend.

We came back home I gave her a tour of my new studio and my home, showed her all my collections and goodies and we just vegged for a while. Then the Captain came home early and we headed back down to the Boston Yacht Club for drinks on the deck and a lovely dinner.

Here are the 3 of us enjoying the deck of the yacht club overlooking the harbor. It was still quite warm out so we were able to sit outside and chat for a while before it was time to go upstairs to the Commodore's lounge and have dinner.

The Captain and I were so surprised as BJ handed us this absolutely adorable little bag while we were having some libations before dinner. She had made this for us....it was a gift bag featuring a photo of our boat the "Carol Ann" with a big THANKS! written in white type under the boat set against the blue ocean. The bag was perfectly made, with handles and everything and inside was a very generous gift card to West Marine, our favorite marine supply store. How cool was that. We were thrilled! A wonderful thank you!

Here is a close up of the "Carol Ann" gift bag and gift enclosure card that BJ made for us. Now, perhaps you can understand the distinct advantage of having friends who are artists! Not only are they free spirits and fun to hang out with, enjoying colors and flowers and things in life with a special creative sense of the world around us, but their gifts are one of kind, fabulously interesting, unique and personal. Created from the heart... Very Special indeed! BJ we loved having you ...come back anytime, your room is always ready! It was fun! best, carol

Shine on Harvest Moon

Where did our summer go? I am still wearing shorts. My garden is still blooming. My flower boxes are bursting with blossoms lush and full. But, all of a sudden the air is much cooler and windier, people are wearing sweaters and long pants. I had to close the windows. I still haven't put the heat on yet. The boat is still in the water. We are going for a cruise this weekend no matter what. Now don't get me wrong, I love the fall, it is my favorite time of year, but it is only September 18th, it is just too early for it to be this cold. Sometimes we get an Indian Summer in September where the weather is so glorious, warm and sunny, blue skies but cool at night that you are just amazed that it can be that wonderful. It is absolutely nature's best. I am hoping that will come. In the meantime I am getting ready for BJ. Lantz to come and visit us next week. She is up at the Squam Workshops for a few days in New Hampshire, crafting her brains out and then is coming down to spend 2 or 3 days with us. She is from Florida. I am sure she is freezing. Welcome to New England! best, carol