Back in August 2018 when I was first trying to learn how to make seamless patterns I tried to make this first pattern inspired by Art Deco designs, I have always liked both Art Deco and Art Nouveau, In fact, my biscuit tin has four Mucha paintings on its sides depicting different seasons.

Images from the same tin I found on Flickr

Unfortunately, my ambition outweighed my skills at the time, and while I did manage to recreate the little sketch I had made of the design the way I had done so was a bit of a mess.

Recently I was reminded of this pattern when Shutterstock sent out their 2020 trends email, of course being 2020 has sparked an interest in the roaring ’20s from last century, so I decided to take another look at this and see if I could fix it.

Originally I had overcomplicated things when I made this, now though I knew how to do it more efficiently, for example instead of a gold stroke on each shape the background layer is a gold gradient which peeks through the gaps between the other shapes, this also ensures the gradient tiles seamlessly as the left and right side is the exact same shade.

Working on the above pattern got me thinking of another idea, I had made a motif and was trying to put a diamond-shaped frame around it, It looked nice until I tried to make it a half-drop design, then I realised my lines weren’t right, which led me to experiment and unwittingly create something I liked even more, so the motif idea got dumped and this pattern came to life instead.

While I had chosen not to use the motif there was a part of it I did like so I took that small section and turned that into its own pattern along with some small gold squares.

It has been interesting revisiting old designs, sometimes my ideas were good but my execution was not, so being able to recreate them with the knowledge I have gained in the past year or so lets me see how far I have come. But there is always further to go.