So you guys know that last week I went on a tour of Spoonflower with my art buddies. Here are a few highlights of our tour.

Spoonflower (from their about page):

“Spoonflower was founded in May 2008 by two Internet geeks, Gart Davis and Stephen Fraser, whose creative wives asked why there wasn’t anywhere to design custom fabric for their home décor. The first company of its kind, Spoonflower was launched in Durham, N.C., on that dream of empowering the individual to create on-demand, custom-designed textiles.

Eight years later, the Spoonflower community has grown to over 3.5 million individuals who use their own designs and our Marketplace to make curtains, quilts, clothes, bags, furniture, dolls, pillows, framed artwork, costumes, banners and much, much more. Spoonflower’s digital print process uses eco-friendly, water-based pigment inks and dyes which produce very little waste. And with over 350,000 designs (plus more added every day), the Spoonflower Marketplace is the largest collection of independent designers in the world.”

We began our tour in the lobby surrounded by samples of fabric, wallpaper, and gift wrap. We were greeted by Meredith Feingold, our tour guide, and she told us how the founders of Spoonflower started the company and how far it has come.

Spoonflower offers an array of fabric. When you place a custom order you can select the type of fabric your design will be printed on. The lobby boasts a wall of these samples.

Through the door to the right is the Greenhouse, their on-site teaching studio. I’d like to spend some time in this room!!

Now on to the working bits of the factory. This is where the magic happens via huge printers and skilled workers paying close attention to color and quality control.

From the print room the fabric is then cut and sorted for shipping.

If the fabric is found to have a flaw nothing is wasted as Spoonflower has a community outreach program.

We ended our tour checking out the newest addition to the company, Sprout Patterns and the Roostery. Go see what that is all about on Spoonflower’s site! http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome

I left the tour with ideas and inspiration and hope I will be sharing some new products here on the Art Prescription.

Hope you enjoyed following along with me!