Deck the walls with kate spade new york’s holiday artist prints

Chocolate, by Katie Evans

You know how excited we get about paper, but paper and chocolate together is a dream come true, so we are thrilled with Katie Evans’ paper collage of chocolate truffles for October. Evans, a freelance graphic designer who also works in the Creative Marketing department of kate spade new york, says she watched as each print came in, enabling her to see what the other print artists were doing.

“Nobody had gone the paper collage route, so I decided to go in that direction,” says Evans. “I love infographics, and I thought showing the interiors of chocolates would look really nice in the cut paper. Of course, I had to eat a lot of chocolates in the name of research.” What a lucky gal! Evans reports that a few of her favorite places to feed her chocolate fix are Fat Witch Bakery and City Bakery.

Multicolored, by Evelin Kasikov

Evoking the popular image of a horn filled with native vegetables for Thanksgiving dinner, November’s print contains a cornucopia of colors. Best known for her CMYK embroidery, artist Evelin Kasikov says she first thought of “the illusory nature of color: What we see is not actually there, it is the brain that creates the color. The phenomenon of optical mixture, first explored in Pointillist paintings, where closely arranged tiny dots create the illusion color. It is an exciting process, how the color blends in the eyes of the viewer. I am interested in how to transform this into tangible experience. Color structure and dimensions are my sources of inspiration.”

Commenting on the design and collaborative process, Kasikov says, “From the beginning it was clear that we aimed for an abstract/geometric shape. I loved that, because this is exactly what inspires me: mathematical embroidery, analytical, very accurate, carefully calculated. Once the design was established, I did several material tests to work out the best thread thickness, screen angles, color order and dot sizes. I decided to use quite thick thread, to maximize the effect of stitching in the final photographed prints. The finished piece consists of 2542 stitches, and was stitched in five colors: yellow, cyan, magenta, lime green and navy blue, and I really enjoyed the challenge of doing something different. It was my first piece stitched with multicolored thread — not just cyan, magenta, yellow and black.”

Navy, by Anthony Zinonos

Like us, Anthony Zinonos admits to being “a bit of a hoarder when it comes to different papers and ephemera,” and describes his piece for December as “a collection of organized blue bits.”

The objects — stamps, a piece of film strip, a ticket, a puzzle piece and others — weren’t chosen simply because they share the similarity of being blue, but also because they are different from each other. Says Zinonos, “For me an important part of collecting is sorting, and this piece was inspired by that collecting, sorting, and the need to group together different objects to create something new.”

And, finally, here’s the whole series of prints, all together, all in one place. We have loved discovering each set of beautiful prints during spring, summer, fall, and now winter, and sharing them with you. We hope kate spade new york decorates our walls with just as much color and vitality next year.

Speaking of decorating the walls (or possibly decking the halls?), Felt & Wire has one limited-edition Artist Portfolio Print set to share with a lucky reader! Tell us what you love most about this time of the year and on Wednesday, Nov. 16, we’ll pick a winner at random. The holiday portfolio series is a set of the three above 10 x 8-in. prints. Designed for salon-style hanging and printed on super-thick Mohawk Superfine with an eggshell finish (blind debossed), the set is available in kate spade new york shops and online. Need wall-hanging inspiration? See some super salon walls here.

Photos by StudioAlex.