Author Illustrator Designer
Hello, li’l blog. Sorry to neglect you for so long. Let’s make up for lost time, shall we?
Here’s a happy recent event- one of my Fred and Friends products is featured in the February 2015 issue of Family Fun magazine! It’s a kid’s plate that encourages you to eat the healthy stuff before getting to uncover a “prize” at the end. Hey, there could be anything under there!
Read more about this particular item on the Fred website here.
So, it seems that after an eternal period of bad and/or middling weather, it’s finally summer! Let us celebrate, shall we?
Maybe you’ll hit a Newport Creamery sometime soon, and grab an AwfulAwful… while you’re there, pick up one of my children’s menus. This one is Block Island themed. It was fun for me to work on this one, as I spent many summers out there courtesy of my uncle, Captain Nick.
And maybe, in your beach bag you’ll have a copy of the current July/August 2014 issue of Rachael Ray magazine. If so, you may find one of my design items in there… it’s TingTing Tongs, which are salad tongs shaped like one of those cymbal-bashing monkeys. Thank you Rachael and staff for featuring it!
So, one of my recent design items has been making the rounds and getting a lot of notice lately. It’s a little tea infuser called Manatea, and yes! It is shaped like a manatee and hangs out in your tea cup while brewing the leaves. He recently showed up in the Oct/Nov. 2013 issue of KIKI Magazine. That made me happy, because not only was it my girls who discovered it while reading, but KIKI is such great magazine! I am glad to have the shout-out in a mag that that I really respect!
(Note: Perpetual Kid is a great online retail shop that carries many of my Fred/design items. Check it out if you’re interested!)
Here’s something I didn’t ever expect to happen- four of my glass designs are currently on display in Shanghai, China. The Shanghai Museum of Glass contacted me a few months ago for information regarding these glass items (which I designed for the FRED company).
They are appearing in an exhibit called “Keep It Glassy”, featuring all kinds of glass works from around the world. It’s an honor to have my designs on display there, though I will not likely manage to see them in person! Check out the place:
Here’s one of the exhibit posters:
There’s me!
You never know where art will end up. It’s exciting to think some of mine is on display on the other side of the earth!
Well, hello, little blog- so good to see you. I’ve been away for while, mostly getting a kid through an extended hospital stay (she’s good now!), and scrambling to catch up on everything else. But hey! Here’s some stuff that showed up recently!
One of my new FRED items, Mr. Tea (a tea infuser shaped like a little guy), was on the Today Show today. Here’s the mighty Al Roker mocking it now!
Watch the whole segment HERE, whereby you can hear Al declare, and I quote, “Oh, that’s disturbing. That’s just not right.” HA! He’s right, you know.
More good stuff:
The December 2012 ELLE Magazine: After you’re done checking out Jennifer Lawrence, perfecting your rosy cheeks and dramatic eyes, check out my Pizza Peddlar on the Gift Guide pages! And now you know how sexy women REALLY think.
Changing themes, here’s the December 2012 Issue of Family Circle (not to be confused with Family Circus, Little Billy). They have Mr. Tea featured in their 50 Presents Under $50 Gift Guide.
Ooh, la la! Qu’est ce que c’est? It’s one of my older-but-wiser items, the Chopstick Kids, featured in the Canadian style magazine, Signature. This is the Fall 2012 issue. Très bien!
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to come speak to RISD students in the illustration department about my work. It was great fun to be able to go back to the very building I spent many hours in (the ISB, which hasn’t changed a bit) and talk about the post-RISD experience!
There’s the unchanged ISB. What has changed is in front of it- a beautiful waterfront complete with art tile-encrusted walkways and arches. It’s about a million times nicer than the late 80s landscape I saw as a student!
Here’s my first indication that I would have to be “professional”!
A Professional Practice flyer about me!
Check out those great student watercolor studies to the left!
My talk was mostly in the dark, with a Powerpoint display, so no pictures there! But afterwards, the students could come up and play with the array of my products, toys, children’s books and kid’s menus that I brought along.
I like seeing peoples’ initial reactions to these things… it’s very telling.
While I was in the vicinity, I had the chance to walk over to the always-fun risd/works store nearby, which is now part of the cool new wing of the museum.
risd/works carries a lot of my design items, and displays them in a gorgeous setting!
Here’s a wall o’ fun from the Fred Co. My designs shown are: CooKeys, MonKeys, EarRing, TropSticks, and Cool Jewels.
Aristocakes is a new product of mine. Crown-shaped cupcake bakers!
Pastasaurus sighting!
A great array of my art glass items… Winestein, Half Pint, and Calf and Half.
If you go to risd/works, and you really should, be sure to say “hi” to the ultra-friendly and helpful Evan and Dinah!
Aren’t they cute? Be sure to tell them Liz sent you! 🙂
TODAY, I was surprised to see that my Aristocakes cupcake bakers were featured on the Today Show! Yep, there they are with Matt Lauer and Bobbie Thomas, the style editor, in a segment about giving your mom the royal treatment. Well, this was a treat for me!
Later, I was flipping though the June/July issue of the Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine that had just come in the mail, and there’s another one of my current products in the Fun Faves section! These are called Tropsticks… flamingo-shaped, easy-to-use chopsticks.
Yeah, it was a good day.
As a product designer, I am never sure where my items will show up, and I must say, it’s frequently a surprise.
Here’s the Winestein in the hands of Hoda and Kathie Lee on the Today Show!
If you follow this link, you can watch the whole opening sequence in all it’s glory… towards the end, they actually play with their Winesteins and talk about them. WooHoo!
It’s that time of year again, kids! It’s the new Spring Line of the Fred company. One never knows from season to season which items will manage to make it allll the way through the design and manufacturing process and become real products. The process reminds me of The Bill from Schoolhouse Rock. Your proposal could get vetoed, it could die in committee, it could be argued about indefinitely. Only, I’m not making laws, just products!
Anyhow, good news! Here are a few of my new items that made it through! They will be making their debut at this week’s New York International Gift Fair, and at a number of other nifty shows across the continent.
AristoCakes are silicone cupcake bakers that are perfect for your next royal party. William and Kate should definitely consider using these for the Royal Wedding.
TropSticks make eating with chopsticks easier, if you are chopstick-impaired. They also make eating more… tropical. Yeah!
Here’s GloBoy. This one took a long time to figure out technically speaking, and I never thought it would see the light of day (ha)! He is a solar-powered nightlight. During the day, he’s sleepy and recharges. At night, flip him over and he’s wide-awake and glowing. He’s designed in a way that you can take his arm and pick him up for midnight bathroom trips. Shiny!
You can currently see the latest products on the Fred Facebook Page.
And there you have it! Spring is in the air, product-wise. NOW, if we could only ditch this infernal snow!