I have (finally!) revisited the curiosity cabinet / specimen drawings I was working on before I went away for the month of April, and have been playing around with the 13 completed specimen drawings to create a repeat pattern design. I’ve felt a little bit like an obsessive-compulsive mad scientist, arranging, stacking and re-arranging the specimen jars on their shelves…
This is a first pass of the design (the scale is larger but I’ve reduced it here to indicate the ‘repeat’):
I’d love to be able to have it printed on to fabric, but I feel the design is way too complex to, for example, stencil or blockprint and I don’t currently have access to the equipment (or the necessary skills) to screenprint the design myself. If there’s anyone reading this who knows of somewhere in Amsterdam that offers a (shortish run) fabric screenprinting service, or that generally offers printmaking assistance to visual artists & designers, I’d be grateful to hear from you!
I’m eager to make up some samples of things to see how this design might work in practice – I think it could make pretty cool cushion covers, or book/tote bags, or a duvet cover (hmm, creepy!)…
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12 June, 2008 at 12:45 am
c.Rachel
“Muaaa-haaa-haaaa…” [mad scientist laugh]
That is awesome! Would love to see it in fabric form. Wall paper would be fun too.
12 June, 2008 at 12:50 am
karrie
I am coming out of hiding to direct you to Spoonflower a new fabric printing service that is in beta. I haven’t tried it, but I signed up and got my invite in less than a week. They ship internationally, so maybe it will work for you.
I am a huge fan of this design and would love to see what you make with it!
12 June, 2008 at 12:51 am
karrie
er… I don’t know if I screwed up that link or not… It is at http://www.spoonflower.com
12 June, 2008 at 2:56 am
sarahgraphic
I love it! What a great idea. It reminds me of a strange little natural history museum I visited in Shanghai. They had a *lot* of preserved things in jars. None of them were this beautiful, though.
12 June, 2008 at 8:55 am
sakurasnow
Thanks all for your positive and encouraging comments! And thank you Karrie for the Spoonflower link – I’ve signed up and am keeping my fingers crossed that I receive an invitation soon :-)
12 June, 2008 at 11:33 am
Bruno Banani
Wow, awesome, i want it!
12 June, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Jesse
It’s beautiful. It would work well large or small-scale. Good luck with finding a print solution! People seem to have been pretty happy with Spoonflower so far.
13 June, 2008 at 12:07 am
jess gonacha
oh my gosh, this is INCREDIBLE! if i knew of someone to screenprint it, i would certainly let you know. good luck! it is beautiful.
16 June, 2008 at 3:48 pm
sakurasnow
Thanks again everyone – I’m going to try Spoonflower, and will let you know the results. Here’s hoping they’re good! :-)
2 July, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Erik W. Kolstad
Man, this is impressive! You rock!
6 July, 2008 at 3:59 am
zach
i would most definitely buy a print of this and put it on my wall. this is awesome. you are incredibly gifted. :-)
17 July, 2008 at 9:19 am
Heather Moore
This is so beautiful! But I’m wondering if it wouldn’t work better as a poster than as a fabric? In fact, I think it would be a fantastic single colour screenprint poster.
A while ago I was working on some fabric designs using thorns on branches, but then read in a pattern book about how fabrics with motifs of reptiles and thorns are seldom made because the images don’t really combine pleasingly with the softness of fabric, and also because those images aren’t the kinds of things people drape their bodies with. I know this is a somewhat conservative view (I mean, look at the kinds of images people put on Tshirts, and skulls and bones are very popular fabric motifs), but it did give me pause.
Anyway, your drawings are exquisite!
17 July, 2008 at 10:28 am
sakurasnow
Hi Heather
Thanks very much for your positive comment and constructive feedback – I really appreciate it.
I certainly hear what you’re saying about hard, sharp or a little-bit-creepy not being the sort of things people would be inclined to drape their bodies in… but sadly I don’t possess a ‘commercial’ bone in my body and so tend to do things that no one else would want! I guess I hadn’t really thought of it as a fabric for clothing but more as a fabric for cushion covers or tote bags or similar (I, personally, would love it as a cushion cover and as soon as the Spoonflower fabric I’ve ordered arrives I’ll try my hand at making some up… but my ‘tastes’ definitely veer towards the ‘slightly unsettling’ or thought-provoking, to things with a subtle underlying sense of unease, rather than the purely ‘pretty-pretty’).
You’re so right about some of the crazy stuff that finds its way on to T-shirts! Perhaps that’s where some of my specimens might find a more natural home…
I do also have it in mind to make poster screenprints of the design. I’m hoping (fingers tightly crossed!) to participate in a screenprinting workshop a little later in the year and it will be the first thing I try printing. I’m glad to hear that you think it will work as a single colour print – that was my initial intention but then I wondered if I should be making more effort and considering ways to introduce additional colours. Although I do also have a tendency to over-complicate things, so having had your feedback single colour it will be :-)
Thanks so much again for your comments – it’s really very helpful to hear the thoughts of other designers.
15 March, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Spirits Dancing » Beautiful curiosity cabinet illustration
[...] of a seagull skull, and then more generally to her lovely blog. In particular I love her beautiful curiosity cabinet designs. And I think there are some new ones on the way! Occasionally they are available in her Etsy [...]
23 April, 2011 at 9:47 pm
Virginia
Are you going to be selling some fabric? I would love to make a dress with this design!!
14 October, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Cabinet of Curiosity repeatable pattern = I want this as one of those laptop sleeves. «
[...] the talented Sakura Snow, via the always awesome Fresh Photons. Share this:TwitterFacebook biodiversityscience careers [...]
14 October, 2011 at 7:27 pm
David Ng
This. is. AWESOME. Wondering if there’s interest on your part on maybe it being used as a card back. Specifically for the Phylo project. Let me know if there’s an interest, and we can discuss possibilities, terms, etc – I’m at @dnghub
16 December, 2011 at 7:04 am
Museum Decks Here We Go! Beaty Biodiversity Museum Deck in progress. – PHYLO: THE TRADING CARD GAME
[...] card back. This is currently being designed, but will involve minor tweaks of this gorgeous repeating pattern provided by Suzanne [...]
1 July, 2012 at 3:07 am
Daeya
What ever happened? Available as a poster or fabric or??? Love love love! What beautiful work.