Eat your fruits and veggies

How much more would I have liked eating my peas and carrots when I was a kid if only they would have looked like these? When you love colors, and patterns, and textures, and shapes as much as I do, you even want it in your food. Sure, the taste, that matters too I guess, but it’s the look of these veggies that would have made me more willing to eat them as a kid.

This is a collection I first brought you last spring. You can learn more about it on my posting from April 3, 2009. The collection is called Organic Fruitation and has been developed for the kitchen, outdoor kitchen, gardening area, sunroom or any place you like to go picnicking or go organic.

Much of my style of illustration is done directly on the computer, but this collection gave me the opportunity to get my pen and paper out and doodle around, play around really. I even started to feel a little organic myself. Au naturel!

This is the complete collection with a few additional ideas for the cook in the kitchen. Many of the patterns could also work well for gardening supplies and outdoor lawn furniture.

Kitsch‘N’Mixer

What’s cookin’ now? A spin on retro for the kitchen. This collection, KitschNMixer, is another that I had at the show for those looking for kitchen art. It’s a little mod, it’s a little retro, and it’s just enough kitsch to be cool.

Here are photos of the display with a variety of ideas that any kitchen could warm up to. My favorite sample is the muffin tin and my favorite pattern is the ‘kitchen spinners’ which are varying colors and sizes of twirling utensils.

It is one of a variety of patterns that was also used for products I designed for C. R. Gibson and I believe they still have a few pieces from the collection on their website. You can look to the right on my blog under “looking for Sheri Berry” to be directed to the C. R. Gibson site for these products. Some of the products are shown below.

In order from top to bottom: Recipe Memory Book, Take Out Menu Organizer, Recipe Scrapbook, and Magnetic Weekly Calendar (on bottom right)

Global Roaming

Back in the late 80’s I had an album; it may have even been one of my first CD’s, or maybe a cassette tape, I can’t remember which. The title of the album was Cosmic Thing and the band was the B-52’s. There was a song on that album that has stuck with me all these years, it is called Roam. Needless to say it is about traveling with a free spirit. The phrase that stuck with me in that song is roam if you want to, roam around the world and I think it must have had a subliminal effect of my creative side.

This is a travel collection I have designed and I think that maybe somewhere in the recesses of my mind the B-52’s are bopping around in this art. I even remember the album cover having some psychedelic blend of the same colors I used in this collection. Well, coincidence or not, here is my own free-spirited travel collection that I have called Global Roaming.

Since I have designed this collection for the younger crowd, I also prototyped a number of product ideas that might appeal to them. This is one of the collections I have displayed in my show and I wanted to share the ideas here. It is a mix between travel icons and funky patterns targeting that age group that I used to be while bopping around in my first apartment to the B-52’s.

Springtime in Paris

Mon Chéri is a collection for those in love, even if it’s puppy love. The setting is Paris, and the mood is amour. You cannot fully appreciate the mood without the traditional symbols for the city of love; the Eiffel Tower and the french poodle. Add a charming café and a flower cart and the setting is complete.

This collection was transformer from a valentine I designed for my gal pals a few years back. It is one of my favorite valentines from the handmade creations over the last twenty years. Here are a few images of the valentine with its detailed bits and a charming candy box to complete the sweetness.

Something to Cherish

In just a few short weeks we will be celebrating a first time event in our home. It is time for our daughter to graduate from high school and it is a bitter sweet time for me. She is a wonderful daughter, which all parents want, but more than that she has become a dear friend. I’ve heard the stories about difficult times with teenage daughters. Well, in this home we have been blessed with quite the opposite. The last four years, those trying teenage years, have been the best years I have ever had with my daughter. I wish for all you moms out there, who do have daughters, the same blessing I have received every day of my sweet daughter’s life.

During the past few months I have had the privilege of working on a project for mothers and daughters. I can’t share all of the secrets yet, but I hope that when the time comes, and the product is available, many of you with daughters will not only be able to get this product, but will be able to share it with her as a memory that only a mother and daughter can have.

Here are some patterns from this collection. I have named it Cherish, as I think it best describes something you hold dear. The designs are soft, they are sweet, they are graceful and a bit playful. They are how I see what I hold dear to my heart, my daughter.

May you always cherish the daughter you have been blessed with, as I have cherished mine.