Today, we have a guest post from MATS Alumni Linda Arandas who wrote to us to let us know how the ‘Creating Collections for Home Decor‘ class had helped her achieve a lifelong dream! So we asked her to share her success in today’s blog post. A few weeks ago I was signed on by Abbey Road Fine Art Licensing (the fresh, artsy division of Penny Lane Publishing). MATS Home Decor really opened my eyes to the opportunities of art licensing in the lucrative home decor industry. As a traditional artist (without Photoshop experience) I was hesitant to take the course, but I am very grateful that I took the leap of faith. I wasn’t flying alone on this journey…I was surrounded by a group of supportive fellow artists from around the world through the private Facebook group. We were all grateful to be taught by 2 of the leaders
MATS Home Decor Student Showcase part 4 {June 2015 class}
We are so proud of our wonderful Make Art That Sells alumni and are pleased to showcase a 4 part series of gorgeous work that was produced in our first session of Creating Collections for Home Décor Here is part 4. *** Patricia Lebedel I choose this collection may be because it’s the first of the course (METAL) and I find it very friendly. How did the Home Décor class help you grow? MATS Home Decor allowed me to compare my work with others and to tell me that my style had is place on the market, why not ? What did you discover about yourself? I saw that nothing is ever finished and I could always do better. How would you describe the course to a friend? I describe the course as a very intense moment and requires a lot of work but it’s an experience to do and
#mymatsprep Day 5: Textures
Next Monday we begin Make Art That Sells: Creating Collections for Home Décor, and I sure hope that you’re as excited as I am! What you’ve been doing for the Mini Prep has been to create awareness so that when you sit down to make your collection, you are a more savvy, unique designer. If you haven’t signed up already, get crackin’ here because it all begins on Monday. I’m really excited about today’s Mini Prep assignment. You’re going to create assets for your work in class. You’ll understand what I mean in a moment. Texture is a key feature of home décor products, as you have learned so far this week. Imagine that you’re designing products; let’s say you’re designing a tray for example. Is it made of wood? Distressed wood? Painted wood? Metal? Is it woven like a basket? See what I mean? It’s about surfaces. Textures. They make
MATS Home Decor Student Showcase part 3 {June 2015 class}
We are so proud of our wonderful Make Art That Sells alumni and are pleased to showcase a 4 part series of gorgeous work that was produced in our first session of Creating Collections for Home Décor Here is part 3. *** Mitzie Testani Home décor for sustainably-made wood products. Wood is my absolute favorite element for home décor. It’s natural, warm, rustic, textured and comforting. This is my favorite image because it’s the last project in the course and I felt like I put all of the lessons I had learned together in this collection. For me, it was the start of a beautiful alphabet series, which I would like to produce as double-sided ornaments on recycled stock or as coasters on pressed recycled wood pulp. I could envision someone buying only one or two letters (as their initials or to make a special word as a gift.) I
#mymatsprep Day 4: Once I lived in a tree house.
Copy the sentences below into your journal and fill in the blanks. Feel free to illustrate your musings if you like. Once, I lived in a tree house because ______________________________________________. I furnished it with ____________________________________________________________. My tree house had a style you might call __________________________________________. My tree house looked like __________________________________________________. People would say this about me:_____________________________________________________. Why did I create this assignment for you? Because making art is about being a bit weird. Let your inner weird come out! (Want to know more about the importance of this? Check out my free video series on ‘Why what makes you weird makes your brand’ here. And think about furnishing a tree house with your products! Extra credit for drawing your tree house. I can’t wait to see what you do! Seriously, I’m falling a bit in love with you all. Lilla Xo Join the fun and show us your images
New bonus videos for the Home Décor course!
We are thrilled to bring you some brilliant technical instruction videos in Photoshop from Corinna Buchholz of Piddix.com. These will be included as a bonus in MATS: Creating Collections for Home Décor, and will show you how to: Make a tabletop presentation for licensing using an existing template Alter the background of your presentation to make your products stand out Rearrange the items on a pre-existing template to suit your needs Turn your own iphone product photos into blank templates to showcase your artwork If you haven’t yet booked your place, hurry up and book now as class starts on Monday! About Corinna: Artist and archivist Corinna Buchholz got her start on etsy, where she was one of the top 10 handmade sellers (out of over a million shops) for five years. Corinna’s vintage and historically inspired images are in use on more than 10,000 products in retailers around the
Direct from AtlantaMart: 10 hot trends in Home Décor
It’s Reine Sloan from Lilla Rogers Studio here! I have just returned from the huge AtlantaMart 2016 trade show in Georgia, where I explored three skyscrapers (a total of 57 floors) of the freshest products and trends in Home Decor and Gifts. The sheer enormity of the show brings home just how huge an opportunity this is for artists, so I wanted to share 10 hot trends in home décor spotted at the show. THE TOP TEN (1) Vintage style clocks were popping up everywhere in all different shapes, colors and sizes. These were in the CBK showroom! (2) Lots of warm wood and nature elements complimented by a bit of fringe or girls accents (3) Plenty of golds and wallpapers with large motifs and bold design (4) Hand lettering with painterly words and expressions, particularly in wall art (5) Funky lamps with exposed bulbs and wires in all shapes
#mymatsprep Day 3: Your Collections
Ok, I love Mini Prep and what you’re all posting on Instagram. I have found, to my delight, that many of my Make Art That Sells students are wacky, loveable, and eccentric. They are collectors. Today, I want you to photograph any collections you may have. What, you don’t collect anything, you say? Even a bunch of your pencils constitutes a collection. Here are some of my dolls. Photo by Lilla Rogers A collection is a grouping of like objects. That can be very broad. Consider your collections of shoes, purses, flower bulbs, candles, pencil cups, journals, bottles of inks. What I’m going for here is to get you to home in on your own personal style and taste. Take a look at your collection and reflect upon the following: Is there a particular color that seems to run through all your objects in the collection? Is your collection earthy
MATS Home Decor Student Showcase part 2 {June 2015 class}
We are so proud of our wonderful Make Art That Sells alumni and are pleased to showcase a 4 part series of gorgeous work that was produced in our first session of Creating Collections for Home Décor Here is part 2. *** Tracey English I picked the Glass design week as my favourite. It was the group of designs I was most happy with and also because I managed to sell them in the summer to a U.S Home wares company for development. How did the Home Décor class help you grow? The Course helped me to put groups of designs together under a common theme, it taught me about different possibilities that were available in the Home Decor Market, it also helped me work within the same colour palette over a number of weeks, something I wouldn’t of dreamt of doing before hand. What did you discover about yourself?
#mymatsprep Day 2: Lamp Shades
So the course you’re preparing for, is about home décor. Your mission today is to take a photo of one of the home décor products: lamp shades. Find them in your house/apartment, in the subway, in shops, in cafés, in restaurants… I’ll go first. Here are lampshades from my studio. Photo by Lilla Rogers Photo by Lilla Rogers Helen Dardik for BlueQ “Home Décor” means things that people buy to put in their homes including… Things you put on tables that are functional like: -Lamps -Lampshades -Candles -Flower pots and vases -Candlesticks -Trays -Table linens Things that add beauty to your space like: -Rugs -Decorator pillows -Little sculptures Larger items that store things like: -Dressers -Shelving -Canisters And on and on and on… We’re just going to look at lamps and lampshades today so that this Mini gets you looking at one type of home décor product without being overwhelming.