Busy Living Studio

Early in 2020, even before Covid, I found myself itching for a new design project. While browsing a site of work in the public domain, I came across several old scientific journals of botanical illustrations and immediately wanted to create something with them. I began weaving the vines and petals around typography, ending up with designs based on friends’ daughters’ names.

Afterward, I started working my way through the alphabet, making a different combination for each letter. I’d ask a friend what their favorite flower was, find a public-domain illustration of that flower, clean it up, and wrap it around their first initial. I shared those designs each month on an Instagram account I created just for that purpose. I even had a few custom commissions. This was a great design project to focus on during an incredibly hard year. Several months later, I had an entire alphabet complete, but no idea what to do with it.

I eventually decided to print stickers of each letter, then later created note cards using them as well. I packaged and sold them at pop-up markets throughout Roanoke for about a year, then finally listed them on Etsy, where they sell themselves.

I also created a collection called “Sentiments” using the same process, followed by a few more modern looking designs.

I have now deviated from the floral designs.