Friday, June 13, 2014

Story of a Design: Bread & Butter Coaster

This quick and easy to make coaster came about through a conversation I had with my mentor, crochet designer Kathryn White. We were able to spend some time together at the 2013 CGOA Conference in Concord, NC. One of her helpful suggestions to me was to add more simple designs to my portfolio. She called them "bread and butter" designs. We looked through a stack of mehndi designs I brought with me and we chose one that was fairly straightforward as far as translating it into crochet.

When I got back from conference I began working on the translating. Some of what we talked about got tossed aside once I started designing. Things will take on a life of their own. I took to heart her idea of "bread and butter" and went outside of my usual color palette of purples and pinks and ventured into the territory of yellows and browns. Originally this was supposed to be a doily but when I reached the outer round I looked at it and knew it wanted to be a coaster.

It just so happened that Crochet World Magazine had an upcoming deadline for submissions and their color palette for their August issue were the exact colors I had chosen to design with. Though it looks like a sunflower of sorts, the colors are meant to represent bread, butter, and then the crust.

Available in the August 2014 issue of
Crochet World Magazine
My photo of Bread & Butter Coaster