Andante

This pattern is called Andante, an Italian term meaning "moderately slow," often used in classical music to describe a tempo resembling a "walking pace." For the Transposed Harmony Collection, I chose musical terms to name each design. While some names came easily, others were more challenging—this one, in particular, required some thought. The motif, however, reminded me of 4/4 timing in music—I can almost hear the ticking of a metronome as I looked at it! It also brought to mind the image of walking while contemplating which direction to go. The repeated motif is inspired by artwork crafted from piano parts, much like many of the other designs in this collection.

This second colorway in rust is also available in my Spoonflower shop.

I decided to add another colorway to my shop in addition to the original 2 colorways. Mocha Mousse is the PANTONE color of the year, so I’ve been trying it out on some of my current patterns. I love the softness of this pattern color. I think it would make a beautiful wallpaper in a nursery or on bedding fabric.

Cadence

A cadence is a rhythm, or a flow of words or music, in a sequence that is regular or steady, much like this blender pattern I designed and named Cadence. It is part of my Transposed Harmony collection, and is available in my Spoonflower shop as fabric in rust and mustard. It works well with the other patterns in the collection, or as a minimalistic standalone pattern. You can also buy wallpaper and other home decor in my Spoonflower shop as well.

I think it works really well at a larger scaler as a wallpaper and really makes this office space vibrant and fun. I could definitely see myself working in that space (although it probably wouldn’t look quite as neat if I did)! I also think it could be a fun wallpaper in a playroom as well with more playful decor. If you are going for a more subtle look, but don’t want just a plain paint color on the wall, I think it would be a great alternative as a wallpaper! It’s a very versatile design and could really be used in so many ways.

I like to show my blender patterns with one or two of the other patterns in the collection to see how they can work together.

Transposed Harmony Collection Logo

While still in the design process for my pattern collection, I named the collection Transposed Harmony and I designed a logo for it. A logo isn’t required for pattern design, but if I ever decide to license this collection, it’s good to have a logo to represent it. It could be used on websites and even printed on the selvage (the edge of the fabric where the pattern is not printed), if licensed for fabric.

Transposed is a musical term that means to write or play (music) in a different key or register from the original. A non-musical definition is to transfer to a different place or context. I had considered using the word Repurposed, but Transposed was the perfect replacement since it’s a musical term and gave the same idea I was trying to convey. The piano was repurposed from a working instrument to art and then from wall art to a pattern collection.

The definition of Harmony is the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progression having a pleasing effect. It also can mean a consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts; congruity. Harmonious patterns is what I have worked hard at designing in this collection so they can be used in multiple combinations and for many different purposes.

Visually, the lines in the letters of the Transposed font reminds me of the lines on a musical staff and compliments the motif used as the O. Transposed looks more structured like music on a staff would be, while harmony is a more fluid script font to stand for the way that music sounds. Music can be very technical, but there is a fluidity to it where the musician has the liberty to add emotion and stretch the timing in a way that is unique to them and the way they feel the music. I think the structured font of Transposed and the fluid font of harmony really compliment each other nicely.

I also wrote a statement that I think fully encompasses the inspiration behind my collection as well the meaning I’m trying to convey.

This collection effortlessly blends the vintage allure of an old family piano with motifs inspired by its intricate inner mechanics and its musical past. While the piano is no longer creating music, its creative transformation inspired a collection that harmoniously weaved a tale of family, music and repurposed artistry.

Forte

In music, forte is an Italian term that means loud or strong. It's a dynamic marking that instructs musicians to play a passage with a strong volume or intensity. Forte was the first pattern in the collection that I designed with a dark background, and I felt that it gave the pattern a boldness that the others didn’t have.

I also designed a second colorway of this pattern in a dark blue with teal accents. I love how it compliments the hero pattern in the second colorway. I think all 3 of these patterns work so nicely together!

Allegro

This is a fabric mockup of 2 color versions of my pattern design I named Allegro.

Allegro means “at a brisk tempo” in music, and this busier pattern has a brisk movement back and forth. All my patterns in this collection are named with a musical term. Since the musical staff is made up of lines, I want to have one “stripe” pattern that would mirror that, but since I’m not that fond of actual stripes typically, this is my version!

Musical staff

This pattern design was based on some of the pieces that are shown in this wall art below I made out of piano pieces.

I think this pattern would be cute on a baby onesie! If you sew and you decide to make anything with my pattern, I would love to see it! Please tag me on IG @rachelcraftonart

Melody

This is one of the patterns I have been working on. I named it Melody since it was the first pattern I worked on in the collection, and it set the stage for the other designs. It is one of the hero patterns as it can stand alone but can also be easily paired with some of my simpler designs.

I started out by sketching musical symbols and some designs made up of piano parts. You can clearly see the piano hammer incorporated into this design, as well as the “rest” symbol, for those of you who are musicians. After I sketched, I scanned the drawings into my design program, cleaned them up and turn them into vector art so I had more freedom to change sizes and move pieces around. Vector art can be scaled to any size without losing any detail, unlike pixels. I think there may be a time to work in pixels for certain kinds of detailed artwork, but because I didn’t know the end use of this pattern, I wanted to be able to scale it to any size. Once I finished the motifs, I then started putting patterns together and working with color.

This pattern is now available in my Spoonflower shop. It can be ordered as fabric, wallpaper or on a variety of household decor items. I will be adding patterns to this collection one-by-one to my shop, so check back for more.