Friday, February 09, 2007

ParaPrawns

I like to think of myself as a pretty creative gal. I have my own fairly successful silver jewelry business on the side and like to engage in artsy, craftsy type shenanigans of all kinds. (Although I utterly suck at sewing. I can manage a fairly simple square bag with little difficulty and no pattern, but if you asked me to make anything that included arms or legs, I could probably successfully create a thriving industry for mutants.) I am rarely at a loss for design ideas, but occasionally, VERY occasionally, I’ll see a design I just have to swipe for my own personal use. Although I would never DREAM of marketing someone else’s design for gain, if I want it on my very own personal wall, you’d better believe I’m going to have it.

This is what I have done in regards to the decorating of the Prawn’s room. A friend of mine introduced me to a very talented design company who I must give 100% credit to for coming up with THE PERFECT PRINT for my nursery wall, the parachuting prawns pictured above. The catch? It was part of a limited edition run and was completely sold out. Well, quite frankly, one cannot mess with perfection and I was damned if I was going to let that fact that I could not BUY this design keep me from adorning my walls with it. So, being the little Photoshopping minx I am, I blew the design up, traced around it and made it printable. I made stencils out of it and have been duplicating the design in several different mediums and colors.

My utter favourite was care of my hugely talented father, who’s woodworking skills have yielded the most lovely baby gift: a parachuting prawn mobile. He has lovingly cut out three perfect prawns with parachutes and two clouds to hang from two cleverly designed mobile attachments and has sent them to me for final painting. I just about cried when I opened the package this morning- they were SO well done; better than I could have possibly hoped for.

I admit it is a vaguely unconventional design for a nursery. Prawns aren’t particularly cuddly. In fact, most crustaceans give me the creeping horrors. Despite growing up in Maryland, famous for it’s crabs, I am still only able to eat crab meat if it bears no resemblance whatsoever to an actual crab. (Let’s face it, they look like giant spiders, you have to boil them alive to eat them on the shell and ANYTHING that still has it’s eyeballs to stare at you with while you’re eating it is just plain ghoulish) Despite this horror of undersea monsters, I adore this design and figure that, if anything, it’ll make the Prawn less likely to ask me to fix him or her Prawn cocktail later in life. (Blergh.) Mr. DD loves the design too, but if you ask me, I think he also likes the idea of our children finding this thing in our attic long after we’re going and going “WTF?”

I hope no one thinks I’m a big, fat thief or anything for skanking this design. Like I said, I would never even consider trying to pass someone else’s work off as my own and would CERTAINLY never try to sell it, but I imagine that the Prawn will probably be called “The Prawn” well after his or her birth, and we liked the idea of being able to celebrate the nickname. Plus, neither of us could live with teddy bears or other fuzztastic baby clichés on the walls.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

What fantastic jewelry! I love it. Very delicate.

And I adore the paraprawns. They're perfect.

Thalia said...

I love that design, please can you tell me the name of the company?

And you know that no one else will have prawns in their nursery!

Dr. Grumbles said...

I love it! I love it! I love it!

I understand the crab fear. I have always lived in southern Louisiana, where we have entire get-togethers centering around boiled crabs, crawfish, and shrimp. Still, I can't eat them! They look too much like carcasses to me! I love prepared shellfish though, like in pasta or gumbo.

lisalou said...

You can't imagine how awesome I think this design is! You totally rock! How creative and unique. The prawn is bound to become some sort of genious with such an inspired nursery! Parachuting Prawns! Brilliant.

Meg said...

Ooh, you clever girl! I have been thinking about doing some kind of border (we're renting but we have been here years and I think they'd be ok about it) What techniques did you use to get it so smooth?

katty said...

Gosh. How impressive. I can't make anything at all with my hands, I don't think I can even draw a straight line, and I'm so impressed by those - like you - who can.
Lucky baby!

Unknown said...

I think this may be the coolest nursery theme I've ever seen. Awesome.

rockmama said...

Meg- I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "smooth edges". The Prawns pictured are actually little pieces of wood that will be strung together for a mobile for the celing, but I can see how the picture might make them look like wall art! I've never tried wall stencils, but I think the technique to get the edges smooth with stencils is to only put a little bit of paint on the brush and "dab" rather than actually using brush strokes that'll get the paint UNDER the stencil as well. (I found the same problem when I was masking walls to do the trim- I ALWAYS ended up getting paint under the tape. ANNOYING.) I think most art shops sell specific, poofy brushes and paint for stenciling!

Thanks to all of you ladies for encouragement! I'll take some pics when we've got the room done. :)

Reesh said...

I can't decide if I love it or hate it, and isn't that the sign of really great art?? In either case, I think it's absolutely hilarious and I wish I'd thought of it first! And yes, I think your husband is right and I can't wait to read the prawn's blog post X many years from now when s/he finds the mobile in the attic.

Anonymous said...

Adorable! And who knows, maybe prawns ARE really lovable and huggable but no one has given them a chance.

Jessica said...

I love it, totally cool and unique. Yup, not the fuzzy usual stuff. :)