Xenia Taler

I wish I had known about Xenia Taler's designer tiles when we remodeled our kitchen last year. When it came time for the tile selection I was not happy with what I had to choose from. Hummm.... I think it's time to remodel our bathroom:)

Xenia Taler is a Toronto based designer that is creating a big splash in the world of tiles. Her nature inspired tiles can be viewed here. The business is a husband and wife team. Xenia's husband, Steven Koblinsky prepares the clay slabs by either feeding the clay through an extruder or manually pressing clay into molds. After air drying to give them a rustic look Steven fires them and applies multiple layers of glaze before handing them over to Xenia for her design touches.

They produce two kinds of tiles. One is a wall hanging tile that comes with a groove in the back for hanging purposes as well as cork on the corners for using as coasters and trivets.

The installation tiles are thinner and have unglazed sides for grouting, making them perfect for kitchens, fire places, bathrooms and table tops.

I have added patterns and color palettes using colors from her tile designs.

Paramount Wire Co.

I have been using wire recently in my design work. For my necklace pictured above called "Ring of Fire" I knitted red, orange, amber and natural copper wire. I have found that Parawire works the best for me. It is a strong copper coated wire that comes in many colors and gages and on large spools for a great price.

Broken Fingers Art

I was on Esty looking at Jewelry and ran across these designs by Erin of Broken Fingers Art. These wonderful whimsical designs of bright colors and shapes are hand drawn on plastic with color pencils and ink. What a wonderful treat!!!! Shown below are a few color palettes taken from her designs.

Kato Clay

Most polymer clay artists know who Donna Kato is. For anyone that has not heard her name before, she is the woman behind Kato PolyClay, written many polymer clay books and a great artist. I love Kato Clay. I use only Kato PolyClay when I work with polymer clay. Recently she has introduced a new product called Kato PolyClay Color Concentrates. This is exciting news for anyone that loves to mix colors. This product comes in three concentrated colors, red, blue and yellow. Just a slice worked into your regular PolyClay will produce wonderful jewel tones. Try mixing these colors with translucent Kato PolyClay to see the wonderful results. I am very excited about this new product. I have made some color palettes using only the three primary colors. All colors are made from the primary colors.

Dancing Lady

This is my entry into Bead Dreams 2007, you can view it at the Bead & Button website.

I used Aiko hex and regular shaped seed beads along with Swarovski pearls and crystals in this design. Aiko seed beads are made by the Toho Co. LTD.. The Toho Aiko cylinder beads are 99% perfect. I very rarely have to spend time culling through the beads. I use Aiko cylinder beads exclusively. Bobby Bead is a great source for buying Aiko beads. Please do not confuse the Aiko with the Toho Treasures which are made by Toho but are not as perfect. Treasures are similar to the Miyuki brand Delica beads.

Another great source for buying Aiko beads is Dichroic Beads by Kawahara. Jamie has coated the Aiko beads in a Dichroic coating that is unbelievably beautiful. I have used these beads in many designs and still continue to use them today with my new work. The Dichroic Aiko beads come in Red, Orange, Yellow, Light Green, Emerald and Blue. I used the blue Aiko's in my design called "Blue Sky as Ocean's Blue".

The color palette below.

Les Perles de Frany

Frany is a French beadweaving artist that creates amazing designs with beads. When I saw her recent creation " Franenette the Frog " I knew I had make a color palette from it. View the wonderful shades of purple found in her beaded creation.

Elizabeth Johnson

Elizabeth Johnson is a glass artist who makes wonderful realistic fruit. Her designs can be seen at "Mostly Glass Gallery". Click on her name to view her work.



I used the colors of the Cherries and Gooseberries for my palette. I like the combination of reds and golds with the green as the contrast color.

For the pallette below I stayed with the deep reds and deep blue purple shades.

Joie de Vivre

Kimberly Applegate is a painter. She paints chairs. No, I do not mean she physically paints chairs but she creates painting with chairs as the theme. The painting above is named "Dream in color (part IV)". I made a color palette from this painting. I loved the greens and blues mixed together.



The next painting is also of part of the "Dream in Color (part III)" series. The bright yellows, blues and greens called out to me.

Country French Antiques

I ran across this wonderful blog filled with photos of France and French antiques. The blog's owner Shawn is an antique dealer but she would prefer the word "guardian" over "dealer". I took the "Guardian" picture off of her blog and made a color palette from it. I love this sculpture very much. The entire blog is a delight, I enjoyed reading and viewing the pictures very much. This blog is a real treat.

Shawn's website inventories include antique furniture, architectural elements and other items from the 17th century through the Brocante of the 20th century.

Saturn Press

Sunflowers- Work from the Arts & Crafts movement syle. From a design by Willian de Morgan 1885, Great Britain.



This design is based from matchcovers, an advertising tool used in the 1920- 1950's.



Vaszary Kittens- Work from the Arts & Crafts movement style. From Janos Vaszary Kittens are based on a tapestry woven by Sarolta Kovalszky in Hungray in 1901.



Work from the Arts & Crafts style movement. Tree & Swallow was designed by CFA Voysey in 1857- 1941 in Great Britain.


Jane Goodrich and James Van Pernis partnered up with their talents to start Saturn Press Printing company. First setting up in Jane's garage they later designed and constructed a larger shop to move into. Saturn Press is located on Swan's Island a remote island located six miles from Bass Harbor Maine. Isolated from the world but not stopped from progress, Jane and James have crafted a line of greeting cards that uses orginally designed artwork published anywhere from 1870 and 1930. They print one color at a time with a letterpress, a method of pressing paper between two metal plates with pressure.

They do not have a website but you can find their greeting cards at Cronin & Company under Saturn Press. For more information on Saturn Press or request a catalog contact: Saturn Press, 463 Atlantic Road, PO Box 368, Swan's Island ME 04685. Phone: 207-526-4000

Marimekko

Marimekko corporation is one of the leading Finnish textile and clothing design companies. Established in 1951 this company has high-quality clothing and interior textiles. I especially liked the designer fabrics.

The fabric pattern I selected is called Fiesta by designer Elina Keltto. I selected this pattern because of the colors and pattern could be used to inspire a jewelry design. There are three color patterns available, I used two of them for my palettes that were similar in colors.

Designed fabric by Elina Keltto