Featured Designer – Kristen Doran

25
Nov

Featured Designer – Kristen Doran

Posted by tacha

One of my favourite local fabric designers is Kristen Doran. Kirsten is Sydney based and produces some stunning screen printed designs that are both fresh and unique.

FQ: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your artistic background? “I am a graphic designer/textile designer/mother (of two awesome little boys). I hope they will grow up big and strong, make their fortune playing NBA basketball and buy me a loft apartment in NYC. But until then I spend my days selling hand printed fabrics and trying my hardest to ignore the housework.”

FQ: Everyone has a dream – what’s yours? Are you living it? “My dream is to sell fabric to a store in NYC. In a few months a new craft store will open and… they have ordered some of my panels. Insert insanely wild happy dance here.

My next dream is to hand deliver fabrics to a craft store in NYC. I hope to be living that one soon.

And then there’s the dream of my own office and all the fabrics OUT of my house. A little gallery to showcase my work on the weekends would be nice too.”

FQ: How would you describe your designs? “One of the hardest questions to answer. So I might just take the easy way out on this and direct you here: www.kristendoran.com

FQ: Can you describe to us your design process? “Think, think, think. Procrastinate. Think. Sketch. Hop on the computer and work madly into the small hours of the night until a print is done. Look at it for the next few days. Make some changes and then send to the printer.”

FQ: Your website showcases some of the wonderful things you create for yourself. Clothing, stitching, bags etc. Do you have a favourite craft? “Hands down, embroidery. That’s where it all started for me as a kid and I’ve loved creating my own designs.”

FQ: How do you juggle motherhood and designing? “It’s both hard and easy. Hard because there’s so many distractions. Easy because I get to do what I love and spend lots of time with my children. Before kids I spent many years working in offices and it has given me a great appreciation to be able to work from home.”

FQ: What’s next for Kristen Doran? “At the moment I’m at the thinking stage (procrastinating) about a couple of new yardage prints. And I have a few embroidery patterns on the boil, almost ready to get printed. I’m also thinking about running a few workshops locally and as soon as I’ve done a test run on some willing friends I’ll get that up and running.”

Kristen blogs at: http://kristendorandesign.blogspot.com/
You can find Kristen’s fabric here: http://kristendoran.bigcartel.com/