As a designer, I’ve always let the fabrics and yarns “speak to me.” The colors drive a certain part of my brain, all of the place. Up, down, left, right, I follow this intuition until I take a step back and see the piece as a whole. It’s quite hard to explain this process. I know it so well, but when it comes time to put it into words, it’s suddenly like a friend who I've known my whole life is now a stranger. I can’t seem to remember how I design or make creative decisions. I just kind of…do it. It’s honestly easier to explain my process as a small alien that lives in my head that I’ve lovingly refer to as “Eggspurt.” Eggspurt is the one who navigates the colors and design decisions in my brain, but he’s quite shy and prefers to work alone, which is why it's so difficult to put my process into words.

 

For Twistick and Gumball, I knew I wanted to go in to this artwork mostly with yarn. The bright colors of the dyes called me and lead my hands throughout the conception of this piece.

 

Once the ideation process was bubbling, I knew I wanted to make a duo. Twistick and Gumball are symbiotic; one cannot exist without the other. Having a model who is 6’ 7’’ and a model who was 4’ 10’’ was perfect for the concept baking in my brain, the silhouettes of the final product becoming ever clearer. As more of these pieces came into place, the vision that the fabric gave me (with a little help from Eggspurt) became closer and closer to reality. Before I knew it, this dynamic duo had sprung from my hands and onto the floor, waiting to be brought to life.

 

The models did an amazing job giving these two artworks personality and character. They were so dynamic; it was honestly hard to believe that Twistick and Gumball weren’t real in the first place.