NEW WORK / HAPPENINGS!

I have been working madly at some new prints for SAVANNAH TAILS. After working on the Chinese Outdoor textile prints a few weeks ago, it was the first time I really focused on drawing. So nice to get into this mode. I work a lot with graphic design clients so I had a nice little break. It seems like the perfect storm of graphic clients and surface design clients. Both some how balance me out and make me very happy. 


I was also contacted this week by ETSY Press Request - rom123 (Norway) Trender i 2011 - Etnisk chic og dyrisk natur - Rom123 - klikk.no I hope they end up using the images I sent them. They loved the Daisy Thorn pillow + the Bunny Boo pillow. They also like the framed prints...The designer told me she would be sending me a magazine so that will be super wonderful! Love love this mag--so stay tooned for that!




I have hired a few reps finally for the textile line. I have been holding out but I feel it's time since I am on the phone so much--(which I love) and looking to find the perfect shop to have the pillows. A great personal quest. But because I am only one person I have to realize that in order to get my work out there, I may need help ha ha. I am a bit of a control freak and love to connect with shop owners, interior designers--anyone who really gets design and of course anyone who is drawn to textural bliss of bark cloth and funky graphics. 


RECENT VINTAGE FIND: I also found a vintage round + square pillow that must of gone on some mid century little number. I obviously fell in love so I am having my stitcher comp one up for me. I have this round illustration that is similar to my square illustration that will be a perfect background to some funky bold pillows that are small and sweet--that will balance the line out I think--I want to have a smaller, more economical mod pillow but with all the extra detailing of the cording and such, they seem to be a bit time consuming. BUT I am in love with the shape and will show you what I come up with. 


I am also been stalling on the yardage for the moment but will hop back on the Stacked Deco print for Carol Bass. The custom screens that are HUGE are still not here. They will be 62"x 32". I am so so excited to get going on this first print-- Alfred's Upholstery & Lamp; Company - Custom built furniture and upholstering is designing the chair that will be featured in this new office space here in Maine...I will have more details on the event. I love that this will be my first upholstery piece that will be done in my fabric with the bark cloth. I am also hooking up eventually with CHAIRLOOM in New York. Molly is amazing and hopefully as soon as I am done with some serious yardage she will be putting it on something perfect that she finds..(she puts amazing hand screened fabrics on vintage pieces that she finds all over!).


A nice shout out to one sydney road - Home A nice SPRING order is coming as of yesterday! Piper Toth has been a huge Erin Flett friend and I just adore her shop! Please check out her online shop and please tell her I said hello!


Just for fun I wanted to show you some posters I did for the up and coming HOME DESIGN MID COAST SHOW  that Maine Home & Design Magazine is putting on. I did all the branding for this event a few months ago and just opened MH&D Mag this month and found it on the first page. Very cool. If you don't know about this amazing Maine Mag--please check it out! These are still comp versions. (logos at the bottom are FPO's). But you get the idea. Or better yet, check it out in PRINT for real.


Thanks for stopping by--hopefully next post I will have awesome yardage photos, a ton of new wholesale accounts and new work to show! e

Textile Designers: 10 Women to Watch

I had to post this and thank Apartment Therapy's Marketplace + Sarah Coffey for selecting me: Textile Designers: 10 Women to Watch. I am shocked and honored and can't believe I am on the same page as these other amazing women! Thank you thank you so so much! Please click the link above and check out these other designers that are changing the textile world.


I showed Breshia (my 6 year old) this little post and tried to explain the significance to her...explaining that now more then ever this dream of mine is coming around to something that could possible change our lives forever--that just maybe my little pillows have a voice. I know very dramatic---but everyone that makes anything-no matter what it is, has a distinct opportunity to say SOMETHING--could be anything. I want my prints to make people smile and feel connected...every imperfection and drawn element--collaged together...I want them to feel relevant and bring something in a home that needs to be there--something that was missing before?


Anyway, enough ramblings..gotta get B ready for school--just a serious heart felt thank you for selecting me..it just pushes me to continue what I have been dreaming up for so long--just gives more solid ground and confirmation that I am not totally out of my mind! 


Thank you so much. e

Goodbye February-Hello March

Hello-finally able to take a breath and just catch up--finally caught up--well sorta. Ready for March and all the things I have been meaning to get done. My mind races trying to gather all the things that I want to work on and all the million things that I am inspired by each day. The snow continues to fall here--it's relentless, but somehow it is a time of reflection and solitude. I cherish my time alone in my studio as well as time spent reading books with my kiddos, helping with homework and talking shop with Mas. I am finding the simplest things so spectacular and appreciating having this slight lull.

Just finished a few projects..the Chinese textile prints for the outdoor + interior industry here in the US are just completed--it was amazing amazing amazing and so so excited to continue. I pray that they sell so I can keep going. It has a been a dream/goal of mine to do fabric--yardage and the past few years I have done a fair share and can honestly say it is something that I feel is apart of me in way that just can't be described. Designing patterns that go into homes becomes so significant to me since the life span is more then 30 seconds and all the hard work going into a design is appreciated on a totally different level. I think that is what makes it so gratifying. Plus drawing all day is pretty much all I want to do these days--the other few projects I have completed is the new ID for Canal 5 Studio or C5S, a new architecture firm here in Portland Maine. A great amazing group of people--hoping to do some custom interior stuff--we talked about doing some funky pillows to go into the new space--in a lounge conference area--which sounds completely sweet so hopefully that will come around. Also finished with the MUSTARD HOUSE web design which will launch this SPRING. I am totally in love with it. On another note--AU, the killer bag company that I have done two custom prints for, is coming out with a third floral print this SPRING in some kick ass colors. I am going to get well--not sure but I love the lemon yellow, olive + and the blue is pretty amazing---as soon as we get some prototypes of the new print + colors I will post. 

The newest up and coming things are prints for the NASHVILLE TAILS I spoke of last time--going to start really digging in this week. I have done tons of research and now ready to work out my first sketch round. Think MOD and MODERN with a hand drawn eclectic something---I love Dimple, one of the owners...so far have had some amazing conversations with her. I have some other graphic design kicking around but always hoping for new cool projects to round out all the other stuff...

And finally working on some custom yardage projects for local interior designers and finally on top of doing STACKED DECO--and I think Mas and I are going to try doing a few shower curtain prototypes. I have been wanting to do them for awhile..so not in love with what I have found out there--I have two new stitchers lined up which has been great and helpful to keep up with mad orders...It's a art that I just admire---wish I could sew. I see such craftsmanship and skill with my moms things, and hiring others is amazing. I love creating things to sell and so so fun working with talented people. I will post on them soon--they deserve more then a little mention...

Also been selling wholesale to a bunch of new shops and getting reorders from existing shops getting ready for Spring. I hope to focus on this a lot more in the coming weeks. I love connecting with shop owners and just plain talking pillows---ha ha. I know, how much can one talk about that but honestly I am still obsessed with them and hope to let go of this first line of prints and launch all the new stuff I have done...I may just start doing designs that are fresh in the middle of seasons. I get bored so fast and love the idea of a limited edition of some prints just to see how they do. Adding the framed prints, poster prints has been great and hope to add things that make sense in the future---the girls are still dreaming up new kiddo prints--almost daily these days! I have a list I am sure we will never print but who knows---

I am so so thrilled to be written up by Apartment Therapy last week. One of my all time favorite sites for cool shops all over and just an amazing fabulous resource for all things homeness. You can read the little blurp here: Patterned Throw Pillows by Erin Flett Designer Profile | Apartment Therapy New York

So thankful they did not toss my first constant contact email blast and wrote about me. So amazing--I can't tell you how many pubs contacted me. I was amazed...I honestly believe that this internet thing has changed the game in launching your own stuff. It has changed the way things get out into the world. We all have a little ADD since we get what we want in a flash and move on. That is the deal--you need to be more then a flash and keep people wanting more...keeping things fresh and current and constantly challenging yourself--but honestly. Getting up and doing what you do best and throwing it out--even if it's just to get it out of your head--life is seriously about taking these insane leaps and just trusting that where ever you land is where you need to be at that very moment.

I have met some amazing people lately, connecting with souls that are striving and doing what they love. I do believe we are who we surround ourselves with. I hope to continue to meet others who demand life to be what it needs to be and keep down this path. All I want is to keep working and spend time with my family and friends. Life is just about that simple these days for me. 

Taking it all in, one day at a time. Loving every minute of the Flett madness. e

Breshia's Room + Recent Happenings

January was a blur and now settling into a new schedule and routine--visions of yardage silk screening, more pillow silk screening printing, poster printing...getting new wholesale accounts--updating website--dreaming up new patterns and working on some outdoor fabric prints for a Chinese Manufacturer--QSTYLE. The line will be small at first and hopefully expand. The prints will be focused on the US Market--getting a fresh new line of prints out there for outdoor fabrics. I am also creating different colorways for existing prints they have currently...putting a fresh spin on them. They seemed to love my colorways in my prints and really have let me pull comps together with a very modern, but vintage inspired colorways that scream american and outdoor worlds. 

I am also been asked to license some new prints for SAVANNAH TAILS a brand new lux brand of dog collars + leashes and eventually accessories. I love the concept of this new line that will feature a few designers/artists like myself that will launch a few lines along with the other prints that they have chosen to work with for SPRING/SUMMER 2011. 

I have also been working on some new brand identities--a new architecture firm here in Portland and a beautiful brand for a existing shop, THE MUSTARD HOUSE that will have a fresh new look and feel---working on the website now. I will show and tell soon. Below are the first round of web home page comps that have not been approved. Pam is still pondering what look and feel she wants to go for. I personally love all of them but especially love the last one with the more layered look. The card will be a sweet dye cut that will also be a hang tag. What I love about Pam Haines is that her style is multi-faceted collaging the old with the new creating a shopping experience unlike anything I have seen. 

And because I love taking all my vintage finds, grandma gifts and all things sweet. I wanted to share Breshia's room. My lovely 6 year old that has a totally different room then Ary's obviously--her colors are soft and quiet, sweet with a touch of whimsy. Her room has evolved a lot since her toddler days but now as a big 6 year old we have collected a cottage vintage bed that was painted this amazing blue--with hand painted florals...I fell in love with this bed at a junk shop in Limington before B was even born. I brought it home and Maslen was totally in shock since it's obviously a bed for a little girl and NOT a baby ha ha. But somehow I convinced him it was one of a kind and we had to have it--(a speech I give often and I typically win out--and have the Mr. Flett load it in the truck!). 


So the bed came first and the rest followed. The old green wainscoting cupboard was a very dirty white or cream---it came from my moms finds collected for her antique shop that she was ready to part with. So I painted it apple green and pink inside just for fun--she loved it and I had a blast painting it. 


I added the white little dresser recently with a vintage mirror that I painted white along with the antique plates my grandmother gave me that she said her mother gave her. I am so so in love with them. They are very sweet and have the loveliest colors. They don't fit anywhere in my house since they are so so sweet but they seemed to scream Breshia so I hung the set on her wall. 

I found the other things--old ladder chair, floral oil painting and the cool vintage hair salon box all at random garage sales and junk shops. Her bedding is Liz Claiborne and I really  love the shabby chic linens that have extra deep pockets for her fat bed that have amazing details like the 6" ruffle edges.  The new framed prints of the kiddo pillows are hung over her bed as she requested and the pink DAISY THORN pillow to top it off for all her evening book reading. (Notice Ary picked the same print but in Orange--) I love her room...it's soothing and sweet but I am sure once she is a bit older she will find treasures of her own. For now I love her art work hung on the walls--(king and queen illustration of mas and i--gotta love that and of course I hung I LOVE MOM on the wall as well. I don't think this will last but it's amazing and great for now that she thinks we are the king and queen. Ary the other day asked if Daddy was my prince---and of course I said yes. Isn't this why we put things together--for the stories and soul it gives a room? 

YUMMY PHOTOS FROM A YUMMY LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY + AU / Erin Flett Comes out with NEW FLORAL PRINT!

 

Some lovely amazing images courtesy of Jodi Palmer  a great new photographer that came across the pillows online and asked to borrow for a shoot for a up and coming story in  La Petite Magazine . A Yummy Life Photography is a professional children's portrait studio based in Salt Lake City, Utah. A Yummy Life Design offers unique and modern templates for professional photographers. And I hope to do up some cool surface patterns + graphic designs for some up and coming templates so please stay tooned! Should be a lot of fun!


On another note, AU + Erin Flett is coming out this SPRING with Mrs. Robinson! The Bag collection did really well last season and they asked for a floral to help balance out the Worn Current + Island Edge I have been working, fine tuning this print for some time and finally received strike offs for color this past week! So it's getting me excited for SPRING! I am really excited for this floral print that is really vintage inspired hence the name Mrs. Robinson who is a famous character in THE GRADUATE 1967. 


I love this new blog about COLOR TRENDS in 2011 and I am happy that we are keeping the ORANGE + YELLOW and this lovely OLIVE GREEN! The GRAYS + NAVY will balance the color out and sure to continue to be the staples. LOVE LOVE this new print and it looks even more LOVELY in person and printed! ENJOY.

Happy New Year-2011 Calender now on SALE!

RURAL MODERN STYLE is colorful, contemporary painted hardwood furniture and home accessories FROM FURNITUREA out of Portland, Maine. A rural modern style is inspired by the traditional forms of rural Maine architecture and the decorative arts, re-imagined in a modern cast and imbued with a whimsical spirit. Custom designs and custom colors to order.

The company that would become Furniturea was started as a carpentry company in 1974 in Bridgton, a small town in rural western Maine. Brian Haddock, the 1st and for awhile the only employee, combined his formal design education and his interest in craft to found a carpentry company to repair and restore old houses. There were plenty of old houses that needed repair and restoration in rural western Maine. 

What I love the most about this line of furniture is the contemporary lines and colors that all are customizable for anyone who wants this fresh look in a unusual size or color--slight modifications and you have yourself a custom piece that literally sings a song to who ever walks by. As you know, details are everything to me and I love the kiln dried maple and birch hardwood and veneer harvested locally from the forests of New England and eastern Canada. Free of added formaldehyde and meet California’s 2009 clean air standards.

I have been so lucky to have FURNITUREA add my new line of pillows to this amazing space. I love love this style and hope to fill my house with it one piece at a time. I am so so inspired by these modern lines and shapes...amazing.

Attached are some photos of the store front that I happened to take the evening before MERRY MADNESS A Shop ‘til you drop event held downtown Portland Old Port!! Enjoy.

Year End

Hello and Happy Holidays! A quick post before the holiday break. Been a great year full of different opportunities and experiences. I loved my time at Maine Magazine & Maine Home Design Magazine + meeting so many wonderful people that are doing what I am doing---working at something that means everything to them and making a living at it. And of course all the people that came up to me during the few shows we attended that thanked me or mentioned how they love the pillow prints...I loved seeing people walk up to the pillows and smile. My heart melted. It was like a piece of my world was getting through the madness. So amazing how something can hopefully change a mood or bring joy to someone...color and texture can be amazing like that.

The girls are getting big fast and holding onto every moment! Pillows selling like mad and searching for another stitcher that will help us out--Loving adding new things to the existing line of home + kiddo prints---I also have 4 new designs I am excited to print that are multi colored bold abstracted flowers--one up per pillow. Simple but cool. So many ideas cooking--oh and Maslen and I are working on yardage now---so that I hope will be something that we will have come Spring/Summer! (Stacked Deco will be the first print we are trying..) Carol Bass who was the master mind behind MAINE COTTAGE FURNITURE And one more thing--AU's new print that I designed is coming out SUPER FAST for SPRING--We just approved the 3 new colorways. (LEMON DROP YELLOW/A SUPER CREAMY BLUE/ and super amazing ERIN OLIVE GREEN that will for sure be my favorite.  The new bag print will be on natural color nubby cotton fabric--(before they printed on white). Excited to see how this changes the look and feel and will be able to carry over to FALL nicely. I will post as soon as I can.

Freelance has been steady and always looking for great graphic design gigs that speak to me. Did a few websites this year and a lot of brand identities that I really loved...just excited to keep going and really take my work to new heights. 2011 will be about organizing the madness and streamlining things---fine tuning really. Life is crazy but lovely and I would not have it any other way. Very thankful to do what I love and be here in my studio. Life for me is bringing simplicity to our home and loving the girls...and showing them that dreams do come true everyday. 

A little blurp from LIVEWORKPORLTLAND that sums it up nice I think. I love being apart of this amazing working community. CHEERS to you all and hope to connect soon. xo e

LiveWork Portland – CreativePortland.Me Profile: Designer Erin Flett

HOLIDAY PICNIC

Mas and I had an amazing weekend at the HOLIDAY PICNIC SHOW. Since it was our third show ever, we were excited to connect with such amazing creative souls. The amount of great work was incredible and hanging out next to ZETI for two days would brighten anyones spirits! (see me and ZETI below...) I have to say that connecting with other little kiddos with the pillows was amazing. Seeing how they loved the pillows and really gravitated toward the little critters made me smile. We sold quite a few large pillows as well and met some very cool people. We sold the barkcloth frames which was well received and sold a ton of paper posters as usual...and even my calender was printed in time for the last day. Please enjoy this collection of images I put together quickly. I hope to post about all the individual artists I met. So so many! Thank you all of you for making the last two shows a great start to a new year for studio e! xo e

Hello hello. Maslen and I had a great show at the SHOP-A-DO event held out SPACE GALLERY, 538 Congress Street, downtown Portland. It was held Friday and Saturday night and it was amazing. Maslen and I were blown away. Friday was wall to wall people buying everything from cashmere rope necklaces, (had to trade for one) handmade clothes, felted critters (these little owls that were amazing!) and fine art---AND so thankful to say a lot of PILLOWS, PAPER PRINTS + everything else we had for sale. Once I dig out I will post on some of these amazing souls I met! It was a whirl wind of amazing people and stories and time to connect with fellow mates that are doing the same thing Mas and I are doing---making handmade goods because we love it and because it's our passion. So amazing to connect with so many people that totally buy in to BUYING LOCAL! LOVE IT and thank you so much for stopping by, saying hello, telling a story and picking up something. 


Another amazing thing happened this week. I had some great wholesale orders that came in which is always amazing and fun, but a special call out to CITY BIRD who mentioned to me that a couple of my pillows are going to be shown on a set in Detroit 1-8-7 (a show on ABC set in Detroit). The set designers loved them and bought them to be used in a home that will be featured in January or February. GO DETROIT! So I will hopefully have more on that once I receive more information! 


Okay and the last thing that I wanted to post was a great feature on the LIVEWORKPORTLAND BLOG
They were nice enough to do a blurp on me for a new section of the website featuring local people living and working in the portland area. Loved it, honored and so thrilled to be apart of such a life changing organization. So please visit the site often and really get involved. The best way we can thrive here in Portland and Maine is to seriously buy local, support local businesses. I for one buy where it's most economical and makes sense for my family--but I have to say that buying from local farmers, shops and everything inbetween feels better and ultimately better for my family. So bit by bit, even if  it's more expensive for us, we are going to make more of an effort. WE have to. We owe it to this amazing state and community that we love so much!


PS. A little video from SHOP-A-DO that was super amazing: 

Shop-A-Do 2010 Time Lapse

vimeo.com

SPACE Gallery annual Shop-A-Do event December 3, 2010. Portland, Maine. Music by Alias from the title track off "Resurgam" http://space538.org/