Designing Rugs

I’ve designed three rugs for the Annie Selke Rug Design Challenge! I’ll need your help (in the form of votes) to bring them to production.

There are several other designers and bloggers participating.

I’ve been so curious about everybody’s take on this challenge, and they were all posted to the Annie Selke Instagram account today. They’re all so good! 10 designs will be chosen to go into their lineup, and I would love for at least one of those to be mine. I hadn’t designed products since closing my stationery business, and I’ve realized how much I missed the process.

(↑ Annie Selke)

Our family went up to the North Woods of Wisconsin again a couple of weeks ago, and I brought my markers and sketchbook with me. I drew various repeating patterns, lots of scallops with art deco influences, but ultimately I didn’t go with those. The bugs though! They inspired me.

There are cute ladybugs and butterflies on plenty of products already. Bees and dragonflies can also be found pretty readily, and I did draw all of the above. Weevils though, I found to be so interesting! Rhino beetles and stag beetles, too, but it was the weevils that made it into two out of my three patterns (here and here).

I was also inspired by quilting patterns, which as of writing this post, is the most popular out of my three. And here, a bonus peek at my favorite design in a lighter pink colorway! (Where my girly entomologists at!?) This wasn’t an official submission, but I asked for opinions on Instagram and the dark won out.

Please vote!

I need your help to make these possible. If you want to see any of these available for sale, please vote for your favorites by liking them on Annie Selke’s Instagram account. The other designers did an amazing job too of course, so I know it’s going to be tough competition.

VOTE — like this on Instagram: Snug as a Bug in a Rug
VOTE — like this on Instagram: Going Buggy Rug (my favorite!)
VOTE — like this on Instagram: A Quilty Rug

These are the silly names I’ve been calling them — no doubt they are up for changing should they become official. Voting ends July 20, and Annie Selke is aiming for a capsule collection of 10 designs to be completed and unveiled at High Point Market next April. I would love to have one or more designs in that collection! I would get to write about the process too, taking you behind the scenes of producing a rug for market. I’m always fascinated by the business end of things, from design to materials to implementation. How cool to be a part of that, and to share it with you here!

Thank you already to so many of you that have voted and shown your support. If nothing else, I loved making patterns and designing products again.