I have promised to do a tutorial on flourishes, but my RSI is quite chronic at the moment so I'm reducing the amount of fine pointing activity I do - unfortunately this includes flourish work in Illustrator! I do have some free vector shapes lined up (peacocks!), but I'm quite snowed under at work right now and tend not to want to sit on my computer at all when I get home!

Right now - it's my lunch break, and I'm sneaking in a quick blog entry just to let you know I'm still alive and thinking about you.

As I approach the upcoming flourish tutorial, I've been thinking a lot about individual style, and what I'm inspired by. A lot of my flourishes are derived from the lines and forms I see in gardens - albeit highly stylised. I'm also an avid fan of lurid patterns in textiles and anything tactile in general. I try to bring as much of this aesthetic into my own design work as possible, so I keep an eye on lots of interior design, craft and graphic design blogs.

The other night I came across a mother lode of gorgeous vintage floral and paisley fabric images on ebay, so I've transloaded many of the images to my flickr account. I'll post my favourites here, along with a selection of other flora inspired items that really inspire me.