Freckled Fuchsia
"I started my design career as a UX/UI designer and it was a lot of digital design; a lot of time on the computer. And I was really missing the handmade aspect of the design process like I had been used to during school. So that's kind of what re-inspired me to get back into what I do now and I was working in that profession for about, I'd say two years. Until I just started, you know, tampering with the idea of getting back into that and one of the first things that I started playing with first to get my hands back into the feeling of that was block printing. It's something that's pretty, pretty simple to pick back up because it doesn't take a lot of space. It's a pretty low-cost craft that you can, you low-cost to the art store, get what you need for under $50... I picked up some tools and some printing supplies, and I just got back into it and it had been, I think, you know, seven years since I had touched it. So it felt really good to start making something with my hands again, instead of pushing pixels," said Chandlyr Jackson, owner, and designer of Freckled Fuchsia.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Chandlyr Jackson, founder and designer of Freckled Fuchsia.
Chandlyr came to Portland over a year ago and brought along her printmaking business and fruitful designs that make one feel bright and positive. She is known for her popular banana and cat illustrations that you can find on tea towels, prints, and much more.
"Everything starts on pen and paper, I never start digitally, because I think it feels very limited from the get-go if you start that way. So it's usually a really quick pen and ink sketch in my notebook. I focus a lot on fruits and foods and you know, flowers recently. So those are the illustrations that I'll just start with very roughly. Then creating thumbnail compositions that are about two inches by an inch in size, really tiny. Then once I get something that I like, or I'm excited about, I'm like, okay, let's bring this, you know, into something that's a little bit bigger, and add some color and playing with that. So I'll use posca pens, which are acrylic paint markers, which have a really vibrant and juicy color to them. I'll take that onto a bigger sheet of paper or another medium and start drawing those forms with the markers pretty loosely. I don't plan things out to the tee on paper, I do a lot of you know, more of the planning digitally. So I keep it pretty free and loose, to begin with. And then again, once I've applied color, and I've applied textures, with the markers, I'll bring in digital. So basically, I'll you know, just take a photo of what I've created, and bring it into Adobe Photoshop. I will illustrate on top of, whatever I've created, whether it's a pattern or an illustration composition. I'll clean it up and get it exactly how I want it and then once I've done that, I'll save it out as a JPEG, and then I'll bring it into Illustrator to then vectorize the image. So basically, taking that and creating a vector file so that you can scale it as large or as small as you want and then you can easily change colors or edit colors to how you want to...After that I have to make the decision, what am I going to do with this? I think it really just depends, you know what that artwork is going to go on." said Chandlyr.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Mood board posted on Chandlyr’s studio wall.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Freckled Fuchsia prints are truly unique.
The printmaking skill, especially block printing, takes precision and patience. Chandlyr has become an expert at not just illustrating designs but to apply them to various materials. She went through quite a challenging process with taking on the Makers of Maine logo and applying it to a linen table cloth.
"What I'll do is I'll print out the logo that you provided me on a piece of paper to full scale on a printer that I have in my office. Then once I printed that out, I'll take a very soft lead pencil, and basically trace over that logo and all the linework that I want to be carving out. Once I've traced that on top of the paper, I will flip that piece of paper over on top of the rubber stamp. I'll just gently rub on top of it and that basically transfers that soft lead pencil onto the pad. Then once I peel the paper off, I will see your design on a stamp. So once it's on there, that's just the transferring part and then, that's when I'll start carving. So I'll just start carving out the negative space so that any of the whitespaces that's around your logo, that's what's going to be carved out and anything that's black, or the dark color is what will stay. So that usually takes I mean, especially something that's your size, it's going to be about 12 inches by 18 inches, it'll probably take about an hour or two. Maybe I'm being optimistic because I do clean it up a little bit afterward. But that's usually how it gets carved out," said Chandlyr.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Chandlyr taking on the challenging yet rewarding task of putting the Makers of Maine logo on a linen tablecloth.
Chandlyr has recently worked on a collaboration with a jewelry maker where her designs are placed on brass.
"It's with a maker out in Minneapolis, and she creates handcrafted brass jewelry and it's all hand cut. It's really beautiful. So basically, we've been working together for the past two months, just going back and forth on my design. So I sent her a couple of my illustrations that I've been using on tea towels or art prints. She's basically taking those and creating, dangly earrings and studs, which is super exciting to see kind of come to life in a 3D form because a lot of my work is 2D, whether it's on tea towels or prints. So it's something really different that I haven't done before," said Chandlyr.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Chandlyr’s latest project, putting her designs on jewelry.
Chandlyr also has a big focus on sustainability as she utilizes eco-friendly materials including linen, organic cotton, and much more. She hopes to grow these efforts in the future and continue to look for these sources in the United States; however, it's hard as there aren't many manufacturers that focus on eco-friendly materials.
"I try my best to source things locally, or at least within the US. But there's a couple of things that are tough to find, or the price difference makes it really hard to source it here. But I'm always on the lookout for new sources or other sources that I just don't know about yet," said Chandlyr.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
From her labels to gift wrap to tea towels, Chandlyr puts sustainable practices first when it comes to the materials she uses.
You can find Chandlyr at her studio in downtown Portland illustrating new fruity designs and filling orders for her customers and wholesale clients. She brings something different to the Maine area and she has a lot of fun things planned for the future.