Prosodia Lab: making flowers

Liza asked me to design the table numbers for her wedding at MASS MoCA in August. Draw flowers for a lovely friend for her nuptials? Yes please :).

Liza has beautiful taste. Her wedding was soft, warm, polished, approachable, fun, handmade, and so representative of Liza and Steve. The flowers took a couple attempts, but I think in the end they fit the sophisticated and relaxed vibe of the wedding.

When Liza asked if I'd create the table numbers, the countdown to the wedding was 3 weeks ~ cutting it close if I wanted to sketch, draw, create, possibly print, and ship them. Dave and I were also going away for two of those available weekends. So Liza whipped up an inspiration collage for me post-haste.

The collage reminded me so much of The Sill (the bottom-right Eschevera is from The Sill, and also got cut off from the collage photo). She had also mentioned Rifle Paper Company (center), so of course I checked out their adorable designs (I have these). When I whipped up the first mockup, I was thinking about the golden yellow flowers, the birch holders, and the gold votives.

Quick mock - poorly photographed. Gold branch frame, painted branch numbers, small flower illustrations.

It didn't feel right. I tried honor the inspiration collage components, but it wasn't me and certainly didn't feel like Liza.

At the time, I didn't realize she already had the holders (bachelorette weekend discussions over champagne and tequila = poor retention). The card holders were made from fallen birch trees on Liza's grandmother's property in Lake Placid. Gorgeous.

I texted Liza a pic of the mockup, and she writes back "Big luscious flowers, and more you!!"

Sketches and prelim. drawings

Base drawings

Adding green watercolor and gouache, bringing them to life

First layer

Development

A photograph of 7. I later scanned them.

I had the pieces scanned, and sent them to a printer I've used before for work. Mind you, I have not printed an art-quality piece in some time, so I was unsure what to expect of the business-friendly printer I've been comfortable working with.

True to last-minute form, virtually everything went wrong. I had three days to get the scans and prints right. In three days they had to be scanned thrice, and printed twice ~ only costing me once, but the stress of returning to a business so many times and requiring a reprint nearly destroyed me. The scanners were simply not paying attention, and made several errors. The worst error was when the scanner FTPed the wrong files to the printer - they wouldn't be ready for me to see/pick up the next day - and T-minus 2 days to ship discovered they had to be reprinted. Lol -- I didn't tell the bride. I knew we'd find a way. Dave even often offered to have my dream printer overnighted -- what a guy. Printers take a while to calibrate, though, and I was stressed enough as it was.

Late on Wednesday evening, with a shaky voice, I convinced the printer to open the shop early and meet me so we can find out what happened. I was staring at horrendous prints that cost over $100, and it was unacceptable. At 730 Thursday we realized they had the wrong files. I went home, grabbed the right disk, and brought it back. I picked them up Thursday evening and they were just fine. Phew. Good thing because we were leaving Saturday morning.

I was a bit unprepared for printing this level of detail. The size of the water color prints were unusual, and the company did not have the paper I had hoped in the proper size. At the eleventh hour, shopping around for a printer was no longer an option. My words of advice for anyone accepting a custom job with little time to spare:

Identify your weakness up front

I don't have a handle on printing processes

Tackle your biggest problem right away, and develop the parts that come easier to you in tandem/next

I need to find a scanner, explain my needs upfront, request a portfolio of their work, and perform a test
I need to find a local printer for fine art illustrations who carries a lovely card stock for a wedding

The drawing and painting come easily to me, and I can do them in bed, on the weekends, at night when I can't sleep...printers and scanners need to be found during the day, and preferably on a day when I'm in the office downtown, and not working from home.

Keeping a plan in order, and identifying gaps up front saves a lot of stress later on. I have this project planning capability at work, and there's no reason not to apply this skill to my craft (which I hope to grow into a business).