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Tomorrow there will be the announcement (finally) on PARISDREAMTIME, MY NEW BLOG of the winners of the Lottery for the little Paris souvenirs, and more pictures from the IRON LADY, also TODAY I have put a new "suscribe" option on Parisdreamtime blog, so that you can get news about Paris in your mailbox as soon as they are out:)

love
Andrea

PS: HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY AMERICAN FRIENDS, I'D LOVE TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU ALL

Come to the new blog and have a look at the goodies:)

click on the image to be transported to my new house "Parisdreamtime" and look at the souvenirs you can win if you participate in my lottery.
(as I haven't yet installed a "follow" or subscribe button, I have to use this blog here to attract you:)

PARIS DREAMTIME

HELLO DEAR FRIENDS

NEW BLOG IS READY, I INVITE YOU TO COME AND JOIN ME AT PARIS DREAMTIME WHERE WE (Miss Doodle and the Metroheads, other Parisians and you and me:) HAVE SET UP A NEW VIRTUAL HOME!

1ST COLLECTION OF MISS DOODLE'S LTD EDITION TSHIRTS

MISS DOODLE'S LTD.EDITION T-SHIRTS ARRIVED!!!!
They are here (on Miss Doodle's Blog) and available!
First Collection of
Miss Doodle's ltd. Edition (39!)T-shirts, Design n°1 and n°2
designed by CESTANDREA, Paris, France
(handsigned and numbered ) .
ILS SONT ARRIVES!
1ère Collection
MISS DOODLE'S LTD. EDITION (39!) T-SHIRTS,
DESIGN CESTANDREA PARIS
(signé et numéroté à la main)

Big peace of work, I love the outcome and hope you too,

have a great Wednesday

love

Andrea

Pictures of an exhibition

Pictures of the exhibition for you! It was such an exciting event, which passed so very quickly ...too quickly. Approximately 90 persons came to the vernissage, friends and also people I did not know, invited by the school.

Unfortunately time was too short to get to know everyone, this is the one thing I regret, but everything went so well, the speeches were funny and interesting, introducing Miss Doodle and the Metroheads, the Masks and the textile design (while pictures of miss doodle passed as a PP presentation in the background) and one of the school classes had prepared culinary surprises, delicious soups and drinks. Then I took the visitors on a tour and answered questions and talked about the ideas and techniques...which is so rewarding!

I had prepared a little speech too, which took time, one sleepless night, lol, cause I'm no speaker but could not let pass this occasion to thank all the people who came, and all those involved in the preparation of the event, the charming directors, my brother who did a great job in coordinating the whole thing, the friendly students who did the service during the vernissage and their teachers who helped them preparing the dishes, and all the visitors.

I sold work too, until now mostly Miss Doodle and Metrohead prints, and am very happy about that. The exhibition hangs until February next year and I hope that more people will find their way to it.

A bit of emptyness right after the event. On the other hand now one year and a half of artistic work hangs there, ready to be viewed, and I can concentrate on future work. It was a great experience and I learned a lot, especially about organizational questions when it comes to preparing an exhibition.

I also have to thank all my friends here in blogland for their comments on my experiments and work in progress. Without this positive feedback (which means constant motivation), I'm sure I wouldn't have done half of it!

love
Andrea

PS: the African mask and statue you can see in the first pictures is original African artwork which my brother brought home from Mozambique and which normally has it's place in his house and garden. As African Art was my inspiration for the textile mask project, we thought it would be nice to create a visual link on the night of the opening.

Earringmask at the show opening Nov. 11th, 2008

Just a little hello from Germany, with a picture of the recently finished earring mask, taken at the opening of the show... (this work is about 1m50 high and 1 m large, or so:)

love
Andrea

Notebook Page - Earring Mask (or: Earth)

Here another glimps into my notebook, for you. I have to finish this piece, which is lying under the bed, by Nov. 2nd. The sketch (and showing it to you) helps me to re-connected with the project which has been sleeping for months. New ideas for the finishing emerge...

Love
Andrea

click to see the details
Copyright ©estandrea - All rights reserved

click here for : Miss Doodle and the Bluetoothed Dogs

The Big Draw Day 8 - Café at the market- Exhibition N°1

The Big Draw Day 8: I went to the market this morning, and afterwards while waiting for the "Fromagerie" (cheese-shop) to open, I had a café crème and a tartine beurré ( french white bred with butter) and draw the inside of the nice Café. More people were sitting outside and some minutes after I draw the outlines of the sketch, lots of people came in to have a coffee while standing at the bar, but it was too late to draw them "in":)


Exhibition of three textile works in my husband's company: He took pictures yesterday, and will take more tomorrow at the opening of the exhibition. The organizers hang the 3 pieces right at the entrance together with sculptures, cause they do not fit into the rest of the exhibited artwork. I thought that they did a nice job, cause I love the little buffalo-sculpture:)

I showed you one spiritpocket/vessel and the watching spirit months ago, when both were almost finished. The second one I finished only a week ago.

Vessel 1 50 x 60 (19 x 23") - Palm tree bark, Silk, linnen thread, acrylic and textile paints
Vessel 2 60 x 80 (23 x 31") - Palm tree bark, Silk, thin copper wire, acrylic and textile paints
Watching Spirit 50 x 60 (19 x 23") - Cotton fabric, acrylic paint, goldmetallic thread, dyed silkthread, textile paint,
For the hanging I used bamboo branches.

Copyright ©estandrea - All rights reserved

Brush and Ink

I'm reading a book about chinese classical brush painting and experiment with calligraphy techniques. This can be a nice basis for a textile design. Have a nice day and do not forget to learn about Miss Doodle's Day;)

Cool mediation:Love Birds

This weekend has been dedicated to Designs for the "cool mediation" textile collection.

"Under the ocean"

This is a little collage, watercolour and silk, from my "Submarine ballad" theme.

I am working on the set-up of my Cestandrea's Etsy Shop right now, that is why I haven't posted or commented for so long. Lots of images to scan and to be worked on, and I am still pondering the adequate words for the "presentation" of the shop.

The items you can buy there will be mostly signed and numbered prints from limited editions of orginal drawings, paintings and collages, as well as digital creations. Later on I'll add some textile wallhangings too. I love Etsy, it is such a great way to show your work and to find the artwork you'll fall in love with and which will inspire you on your own artistic journey!

Soon I will be back with a tale of Miss Doodle's Day! In the meantime, come and visit Cestandrea's shop to have a look at the "Submarine ballad" and other colourful things

Contemporary Buzz n°7 "Terrarium"

I know that it is not obvious what I'm doing here. I have to explain it.

Doing these "trendboards" is like giving myself a theme to play with. It is a way of organizing ideas according to the current decoration trends and thus creating a "Leitmotiv".
You give yourself a target, you categorize ideas in order to make it simple to "view" your designs.

I will follow these themes once I'll begin to create new designs. It is very helpful to create imaginative places with special colourways and atmospheres based upon trends. There is always a certain synchronicity throughout the world concerning the need of colours or shapes.




Contemporary Buzz n°7 "Terrarium"
coloured rubber-coated wall lamps, candle-holders and sofas, baroque furniture with a crazy touch, monkey-vegetable-peelers and high-heeled laquered pumps, mulitcoloured stripes and dots. The little guy on the lower right edge is a creature designed by famous french fashion designer Christian Lacroix and his name is "Monsieur Doudou":)

Contemporary Buzz n° 4/5/6

Contemporary Buzz n°4 "Groovy Hustle"
exotic and a tiny bit seventies, with bold big patterns and colours, Contemporary Buzz n° 5 "YB"
happy marriage between black and yellow, straight lines and fluorescent plastic,

Contemporary Buzz n°6 "Beanbag invasion"

Contemporary Buzz n° 1/2/3

The trends are full of contrasts. We hop from cool to warm, from rough to smooth, from opaque to transparent etc.

"CONTEMPORARY BUZZ" (n°1 Rush Hour, n° 2 Shopping Bag, n°3 Lounge) are about bright, sometimes fluorescent colours, chinese dolls, LED lamps, transparency, illuminated graphic spaces:And also bright green, orange, yellow, red, reflecting in glass surfaces,

red and black laquered furniture and objects, simple versus intricate shapes:

Cool Meditation n° 4: "In The Air"

"Cool Meditation is a combination of light and warm pastel colours like what I call "young pear", "sandcastle" and "winterpeach" (I'm having fun inventing these names) and a very cool palette like "spring blue", "school white" and "icy lilac". You can either combine these colours on one board, which I did here, or do separate boards...

Cool Meditation n°3: "Delicate Flowers"

I decided to put this composition into the "Cool Meditation" Theme. It is better there than in the romantic theme cause it is so cool and "veiled" as you said:)

Cool Meditation n°2

(in the sidebar you can see some of the prints and watercolours I have made for an Underwater-theme some time ago, they are matching the COOL MEDTAION trend boards)


Colourways Cool Meditation "Straw and Honey"

COOL MEDITATION - "Crystal Silver" Trendboard with painted paper samples and fabric-swatches.

Crystal Silver is a very cool, soothing atmosphere, soft natural fluffy fibers and silver leather, glass bowls with sparse etched decorations, mother of pearl on reptile patterns, oyster-shells next to iridiscent ceramic artwork and laser-cut fabric and paper.

COOL MEDITATION - "Straw and Honey, Stone and Truffles" Trendboard collage with fabric and fibre-swatches.

Straw and Honey presents natural fibres like silk and cotton, abaca, bamboo, banana, in modern design combined with transparency expressed in glass bowls and light airy patterns, creamy and powdery colours - this atmosphere invites us to "empty" our mind.

Stone and Truffles (right side of the page) leads us into a modern den, with materials like concrete, marble, stone next to dark wood and fabric, grey crysals. It is like a protection from the noisy outer world.

Loreley Princess 1/2/3/4/5 and 6

LOVELEY PRINCESS - "Mermaid's Treasures" : Fishes and pearls, oceangreen and indigoblue, seaweeds, sea-anomones and friendly greenyellow turtles...

More pages of the trend-book I am creating at the moment. The trendbook is a workingtool which permits me to stay focused. And it is not something that I will sell, it is strictly personal, and the basis of my new design-collection (handpainted design using the artistique techniques I'm familiar with as well as new techniques I still have to discover, then translated into CAD design for industrial textile use.)

Inspired by the three trend-lectures given by very inspiring "trend-gurus" I have had the chance to listen to in Frankfurt, I have put together 6 overall themes or tendencies. Each of those themes has 3 or more different sections and two or three colourways.

I take pictures I made myself, or magazine-cuts or images taken in design-books, also free images I can find in the Internet ( I expressly underline that these images serve only as personal inspiration). I scan the images and then create a "board", according to the theme I'm working on. These are the 5 sections of "Loreley Princess" , my most romantic theme, a nice contrast to the "Cool Meditation.


LORELEY PRINCESS - "Cristal" is about pastel coloured flowers, crystal bowls, shining material like mother of pearl and silver paint, mobiles, lace, pink dresses, free birds and empty white bird-cages...


LORELEY PRINCESS - "The Peacock's Dream" dreams peacocks, birds, William-Morris Flowerprints, pink clouds and galant historical scenes...


LORELEY PRINCESS - "Lilac" sings of dandelions and graceful doves. It may look a bit rigourous but I think it is still romantic...


LORELEY PRINCESS- "Orange Heart and Polka Dots" is about pink, lilac and orange dots, felt hearts, simple plush-flowers combined with fake fur.



LORELEY PRINCESS - "Silhouettes" is about jade and goldbeige - coloured faded ornamental shapes, silhouettes of climbing vines, deer, dragon- and butterflies.

I am working on the last Princess-section this evening and will head to the next theme tomorrow. And the next post will be about the other "COOL MEDITATION" boards!

Have a good weekend!

Cool Meditation n°1

COOL MEDITATION n°1 - Survey of the interior decoration trends for 2008 and 2009

Happy New Year to all my blogfriends, your comments are always so inspiring and motivating,thanks for being there!

This is the first page of my personal, brandnew TRENDBOOK.

Just back from the textile fashion fair, this is the first thing I/we need. Cool Meditation.

Conclusion: A total of about 2900 exhibitors , about 200 of it textile designers.

I have worked with and for friends who have been exhibiting their designs on a stand there each year for 4 years, they did not sell this time, and neither did I. NOT ONE DESIGN ! but I am lucky cause my investment was not very important, as I did not have to pay the stand.

My little pile of 45 designs was often looked at and admired but people apparently were looking for "something else". So I shut out any feeling of frustration, which came up the first and second day and instead opened my eyes and my senses and tried to get in as much ideas about new trends and what is "wanted".

I listened to and watched trend conferences and walked miles and miles through the halls in order to get a glimpse at what is going on in the interior decoration business. For 2 years I have been observing the textile design business and I guess, I wasn't ready to really jump into it because it looked to me so hermetically closed. Now I'm back with so many ideas and very motivated to really go for it, to try to make a new collection, very well researched and adapted to the 2008/2009 trends, which are really inspiring. This means that I'll have to plan my designs carefully, follow my personal trendbook which I'm creating at the moment. This is the fun part. The other thing is that I'll have to be my own commercial agent - I have to make appointments and go and see the buyers at least 2, better 3 times a year.

In the meantime I was informed that the show in Germany for my ancestor spirit masks is postponed to September. Many pieces are ready and I can also exhibit works from "before" there is no hurry.

So I'll jump onto the design-business-train right now. Here and now. I feel like I watched and learned long enough. Now it is time to act. Learn more while doing. I'll make my own trend book, my own colourways, a real design "strategy". Make handpainted and CAD design and then take them directly to the interior decoration companies. Find a way in.

I'll take you along on my journey, without showing the final "product", I'll still share my research-sketches with you and my daily thoughts and feelings about art, design and the world we are living in. Have a wonderful day,

Andrea

NEW YEAR - NEW DESIGNS

Happy New Year to everyone who visits my blog, I wish you health and love, peace, joy and success, hope and happyness. Be well. To the friends whom I visit regularly in normal times: I apologize for not being present at the moment - I am neglecting everybody and I will make up for it as soon as I can.
In the meantime brace yourself for the big hug I send you right now: 1 big HUG ! , I'll be back soon.

As a reward for coming here in defiance of my silence, hereunder I show you the latest designs I'll take to the fair!

I gave them names which remind me of my childhood's fairy tales ...

THE KALIF OF BAGDAD
THE PRINCE OF SAMARKAND
THE SHEIK OF ALEXANDRIA THE KING OF KONSTANTINOPEL

THE EMIR OF ISTANBUL
One day later: I woke up in the middle of the night and began thinking about copyright. It is so easy to take these pictures and copy them. If someone out there from the textile industry is hunting images, I better reduce the pictures so that it won't be possible to use them "industrially", but I hope that the little ones still give you a hint of what I'm doing here. Have a wonderful day,

Andrea