Spoonflower Sidequest

As long as the sidequest isn’t just a procrastination or avoidance tactic (ahem), I always try to lean into it! Doing so over the years has been key to keeping myself creative and stretching.

Often the sidequests are related to my work. I scope out prospective field trips, write resource guides, learn skills I can bring to students, etc. Most recently, however, I tried something really different. I drew and shared designs for… wallpaper.

My grandparents taught me to pay attention to the ways ordinary people decorated their everyday tools and surroundings, mostly through modeling and sharing appreciation for these items when they found them at antique shows. My grandparents are gone and my lifestyle is too minimalist for me to become a collector of pretty things myself, but I wanted to make something that would be a way to pass on what they shared even so. The result is a collection of drawings adapted from the designs on some of my favorite pieces from my grandparents’ collection.

Currently, the designs are available on fabric and wallpaper at https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/fm_collectables. In time, I may put them elsewhere also. I’d personally love the round designs in multicolor on a tote bag for school, so I’ll probably make that next unless a plagerism bot scrapes the drawings and beats me to it. It would be cool to make some cool items and extra income from this sidequest, but I’m okay if that doesn’t happen. The point was that I wanted to make something, to do something different for a week or two, and I did. The learning and inspiration that I got from the process have already made the time worthwhile.