Whee-ha! I’ve posted before about zazzle, but it has been quite awhile since I wrote about it. I put things up there once in awhile, when I have a new design I usually add a few things on zazzle — a card or print,
Zazzle orchid print
some funky sneakers, a bumper sticker with some hard-hitting message:
Zazzle bumper sticker
Back in 2008, shortly after I started posting my work on zazzle, I won a “Today’s Best Award” (TBA in zazzle lingo) for sneakers that I designed using my photo of a zebra’s stripes:
Zazzle zebra sneakers
Now, zazzle doesn’t tell you when you get a TBA, you have to either check the TBA list every day (which I stopped doing long ago), or you may find out if some kind soul leaves you a “Congratulations for your TBA!” message. Well, guess what? I got one of those today (thanks again JuJuGarden)!
So, first the story behind the piece that won. This is the photograph I started out with: I shot it through the window of a top bar beehive, of some busy honey bees working hard:
Honey bees in hive
I took an element of this photograph, and started making different kaleidoscopic designs using my favorite software program, Kaleider (I’ve written posts about Kaleider, just click on the tag at the right for Kaleider to bring them up, and you can check out the software at this link). I made several designs that I really liked, and this was one of the ones I loved most:
Honeybee kaleidoscope
Next, I did a repetition technique (I’m going to be teaching this on CraftEdu, so email me if you’re interested in that class). I took the repetition design and uploaded it to zazzle. The only thing I’ve had time to make so far from it was a necktie, and that won a TBA award!!
Zazzle TBA, honeybee design necktie
I’m donating 10% of everything sold on my zazzle shop through the end of July to the fund to help rebuild the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society after their fire, so if you’re thinking of buying anything — now’s the time!
Garden Delights Arts & Crafts blog 