Designing fabric is a way of life. Like most creative industries, it's not just a job. My creative process is merely a starting point. The beauty of designing fabric is that I make a raw material that exists as a jumping off point to inspire others to exercise their own creative aspirations.
It is one of the most unique and beautiful
exchanges I have ever seen. I like to look at my "job" as a
collaboration between my self and every individual that takes my
textiles home and makes something out of it. Its like watching your
children grow up. I swell with pride, not just for myself but for
every person out there that makes, pets, gives and receives something
that started out as just a picture in my head.
I'm old school about my process, pencil to paper, a calculator and tracing paper. It all ends up digitized in the end but it starts the way it has always started. I traded my crayons for mechanical pencils in junior high and that is the way it stayed. The drawing is the foundation, everything is built on top it. If the foundation is cracked then everything will tumble. Once the pencil sketch feels real and complete I can begin building the digital version directly on top of the drawing. It looks a little something like this:
The "thing" about creativity in general is that it's not on a
schedule. It doesn't know that I had plans or that I really just want
to take a nap.
When it's ready I have to be ready. An idea will crowd my mind until there isn't any room for any other thoughts. I must execute or else it will torment me.
~Tula Pink~
Tula who?
Once upon a time I had a funny little bio that didn’t really say much about who I am or what I do. Times have changed, now a few people actually want to know.
I graduated from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, with one degree in Graphic Design and one in Illustration. It was fun but I was tired of being broke so I decided to get a job. I worked briefly as an Exhibit designer for Museums in L.A. and when that became too quiet I relocated to the music industry. After about 6 years of that my ears began to bleed so I left California and went in search of a new home. The plan was to move as far east as I could get without renting a boat and work my way back west until I found a place I liked.
I now live in a small mid-western town where my closest neighbor is roughly four miles away. I have a cat that I never see and a lawn that requires more attention than the cat.
My main function in life is fabric design. I live for it. Through all of the moving and mind changing one thing was constant; fabric and sewing. I designed my first collection in my living room, after work and on weekends. The day I left my job in L.A. I sent it into Moda Fabrics and by the time I got to Albuquerque it was in production. A few years and several collections have passed since then. There will be many more to come.
Seeing my name on that selvage was the only thing that had been missing from my professional life. So here I sit, an exiled rock princess on a throne of bolts and bobbins. My website (http://tulapink.com) is where I tell my story and share whatever there is to share about my world of fabric design and sewing.
