Purple Mama

This is some sign artwork I did for my Mom who is starting a new branch of her jewelery designs called 'Purple Mama.' I love the name -- it's so perfect for her! The name was given to her by my friend's 2-year old son, Dominic, who remembers when my Mom visited New Zealand. She was wearing a purple outfit on that day and ever since, Dominic has called her 'Purple Mama.'

My Mom wanted a creative and playful design that is light-heartedly sophisticated, not serious nor child-like. She wanted a straightforward, puffy font that can be seen from a distance. She wanted 'bubbles' and 'clouds.' I think she'll like this, knowing her. It looks a bit like space too.

I started with just swashing a piece of paper with purple watercolor and threw in some areas of red and blue. Then in Photoshop, I layered in a photo of some bubbles (can you see them in there faintly?). Then I added another layer of some swirly bits -- in the upper left and lower right corners. Then cut out circles from some other watercolor I did (they look like purple 'planets'). Then I put yellow glows behind them and added other small yellow fuzzy dots and some other smaller, sharper white dots. I just love layering in Photoshop. You can really control how much of each image shows through when layered on top of each other. I particularly love the combination of traditional art, like watercolor, combined with Photoshop...most excellent!

I've also been knitting away on this...

A wee cutie of a bolero jacket for a certain lucky little lady who doesn't know she's getting this yet. I used one of my favorite yarns, Malabrigo, in Orchid. It is the softest, most wonderful kettle-dyed yarn and I love the subtle color shifts from pink to lavender. I should have enough left over for a little hat to match. It will be finished soon and I'll post the final photos.

And I'm not sure if I posted this hat. I made it a while ago and the photo looks like it's in black and white, but it's not, it's just the color of the yarn I used; very neutral earth tones. All done in Cascade 220. My own design.

 And these two I whipped out recently. The floral pattern is not my own, but I love it. Next time I think more contrast in the yarns would be better, but this is subtle and pretty. And then I did a stripey hat just using up all the bits of Noro I had laying around. I just hate having extra bits of yarn not being used. So that was a very satisfying hat to make.

So yeah, been a busy little knitter...