jellyfish made out of PET bottles + gabriel gastelum's photography

I love jellyfish to the point where I’ve considered getting one as a pet. unfortunately, pet jellyfish are notoriously difficult to care for. another option are these fake LED pet jellyfish tanks. even if I was feeling impulsive enough to drop $170 on LED jellyfish I wouldn’t be able to because they’re sold out. a more realistic option would be to make some of my own like miwa koizumi’s PET bottle jellyfish designs. time to buy a heat gun.

and to the right is a fantastic self portrait by photographer gabriel gastelum. found on flickr.

julia galdo and ophelia chong's work

white hair by julia galdo. her love by ophelia chong.

these girls are both extremely talented. that’s about all I need to say.

fashion photograph "bearing gifts" by draman via flickr

- orange/white reversable corsette belt by duende via etsy

- sand and seashells dress by amour sans anguish via etsy

- the doily dress by amour sans anguish is ridiculous and awesome, though I think I like the back view better

I like olga ert’s sculptures of little creatures covered in flowers. I think she’s primarily an illustrator and most of her work is done under the name “inkpanda”, you can check out her work on behance, blogspot, and flickr. I believe she’s japanese, but lives in russia and speaks russian on all her online profiles. obviously I can’t read anything that she writes so that’s about the extend of my knowledge of her work. but hey, it’s pretty, right? that’s all I need to know.

bumblesea loves: flower horse sculpture by olga ert aka inkpanda

bumblesea loves: flora / fauna flower creature by olga ert aka inkpanda

I’ve been pretty busy keeping up with bumblesea and working on bigger projects so this art print idea is reserved for me to work on in the wee hours of the morning when I find it impossible to fall asleep. I’m currently working on an illustration of the hatched necklace (the egg only- I’d go crazy trying to paint the chain), and it’s about half way done. the photoshop file size is already up to nearly 2 gigs. luckily I have a few extra hard drives laying around that can be dedicated to holding all the original files.

bumblesea indie jewelry silver hatched egg necklace

right now I’m focusing on launching the much anticipated (and more affordable!) acrylic line. (I know I’ve been promising the new line forever..) the jewelry studio will be able to cruise on autopilot once it’s launched. I’ll still be on twitter and of course I’ll still update the blog- but it’ll give me more time to spend with friends and family.

bumblesea photoshopped polaroid with honeybears

original polaroid - lightning heart challenge

I finally cracked open photoshop to work on the lightning heart polaroid design challenge (mentioned here) and I also ended up using one of the free les brumes textures (mentioned here) to layer on top of the illustration. I love honeybears.

polaroid design challenge - lightning heart

current blog obsessions/inspiration/you know the drill:

- polaroid design challenge for all you illustrators, doodlers, photoshoppers etc via lightning heart. take the original polaroid and do what you will with it, check out the blog post for some examples/ideas/inspiration. submit your entries by the end of august!

- stephanie teague’s clothing via mint

- blushless wedding line available via aspiring couture

- buzz asked me for some input about the pros/cons of selling on etsy, mini-interview is up on the blog

- there are obviously too many hours in the day so I’m fiddling around with tumblr

Artist Robyn Rognstad was kind enough to answer my lengthy email asking about her artistic inspirations and admirations, as well as a few questions from the timeless Proust Questionnaire. She does a variety of works from prints to installations to paintings and drawings. A lot of the subjects of her work are animals like rabbits and turkeys. Her style is dreamy and eery all at the same time. And as a self-professed girly girl, I’ve got to say that I love her use of very girly colors – pinks, magentas, plums, reds, etc. But don’t get me wrong. As much as her work seems dreamy to me, it’s not fluffy.

Fleeing the Scene by Robyn Rognstad, mixed media, 2009

Pink Turkey by Robyn Rognstad, ink and watercolor, 2008

Brown Rabbit by Robyn Rognstad, reduction linocut, 2008

What/where do you find inspiration?

Who are some of your favorite artists, whether they’re dead, alive, local, etc.