Saturday, April 11, 2009

Spring Bada-Bing Crafter Interview with Red Prairie Press



Red Prairie Press

redprairiepress.com

Describe your business and work (please keep it to five sentences or less):
I am a one woman "sweatshop" working solely out of my basement rowhouse studio in Baltimore, MD. I print my original designs on sweatshop free apparel with waterbased inks, and heat set them all for easy washing. I draw all of our designs, except the baby onesies - those are designed by my awesome husband, Phil Davis. We sell on our website, on etsy, through shops all over the country, and craft fairs all year long. :)

How long have you been a crafter or designer?
Since April 14th, 1982.

How did you get started with your craft?
Around 2004. I have a degree in printmaking from Syracuse University (from that year) - so I learned to screenprint there... I didn't know it's what I wanted to do as a business until I started printing posters and tshirts for bands in college... When I started the business full time, in 2006, I thought I would be doing things like that - commission design & commission printing mostly, but slowly I started getting brave enough to put my own designs on my own line of shirts, on my own website... and went from there.

What are your influences?
Too many too list them all. Dutch & Scandinavian folk art, children's book illustration, vintage (or new) wallpaper & fabric patterns, china cups, old folk tales, nature, farm animals, nice aprons & dishtowels, good food, other screen printers, friends with enthusiasm for what I've already made (which motivates me to make more)

Do you have a particular item you want featured?
This is one of my newer designs, and it's one of my favorites. I really love good surface pattern design, and was working with a chocolate shop on some custom chocolate designs when I came up with the idea for this one. I could just see it as wallpaper, or the thin roll of lining that accents wallpaper (what's that called?).


What do you like best about Spring?
The Tulips & Daffodils & Forsythia (sp?), and the general smell of new life, and the people coming out of their houses and remembering the outdoors. That first big dose of vitamin D from the sun.... you can feel it!

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