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Paula
Seifred O'Brien - Artwork - Sewing Patterns - Colorful Home - Inspiration
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My real name is Paula
Seifred O'Brien.
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| Pavelka
is Russian for Paula and I have used it as my art name
since I was 17... which was a while ago. The name sprang from
my biggest source of inspiration, the Ballets Russes of the
1920s. Their exotic dancing, avant-garde costumes & set
design took Europe and the Americas by storm. Look them up for
a visual feast! |
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| I
was always a dresser. My parents were both designers
so I got used to having different clothes and finally, tearfully
learnt to sew at about 16 on my Bernina 830 which I still use
today, more than 20 years later! After Fine Arts at college
in home town, Montreal, I traveled to Europe with a girlfriend
for a 4 month tour... but never went home. The rest of my life
happened instead. After 2 years as a professional
sailor/cook on a 56 foot French charter sailboat in Mediterranean
and Caribbean, I met my future husband, Dennis. It was all over
the moment I saw him and he had no chance of escape! |
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| Our first 10 years together were a huge blur
as we experimented with many different businesses on several
different continents, including singing
telegrams in London for one year. In our first 20 years
together, we moved more frequently than every 1.25 years, dragging
sewing machine and textiles artwork along as we went. |
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In England, I did 2 years of Embroidery/textiles
at Goldsmiths College in London
where textiles are used purely as a fine art medium and not
for commercial or technical uses. For my final show, I created
a wonderful group of dresses with painted backgrounds, full
length "Fortuny"
pleated silk dresses
with fabulous machine embroidered yokes and beaded hems.
I nearly went ahead to produce this sort of thing professionally
but instead had a matching set of 2 boys. Several transatlantic
moves later, we ended up in Gibsons, a small town of 4000 just
north of Vancouver, Canada. |
| In 1992, I had a large one-woman
show at our regional Art Center with over 100 pieces
of exotic decorated furniture, eclectic jewelry, ceramics, paintings,
banners, wallhangings and garments. It was a joyous riot of
color and happiness and had many ecstatic viewers. Unfortunately,
some got too fond, came back after dark, cut through the alarm
system and made off with 7 fabulous
garments! Away went the pleated silk dresses and in a
way, it released me. I turned towards making beautiful clothes
that were really wearable wearable
art as opposed to exotic, expensive, fragile things only fit
for Oscar night. I have created nothing for the dry cleaners
(toxic) since then. |
| When
my boys finally got off to school, I decided to put my creativity
to the test. I started to market my interesting
embossed polymer clay jewelry which led into making handmade
buttons. As I tried to sell these "end points", people
kept asking about my great clothes and I got the idea of making
the "starting point" instead. I took a couple of months
thinking about it then I blasted in on the quilt pattern business.
In 3 1/2 months, I created my first 9 patterns, all quilts,
and took them to the biggest international trade fair International
Quilt market to see if I had a business. Well, it worked
and off I went! |
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"4 Funny Teapots"
This was my very
first quilt pattern. It had fringe, rickrack, corduroy,
satin, ribbons & braid. I have toned them down since then
and found out A LOT about what buyers out there want. Eventually,
some of these came back as Mainly
Teapots.
If you look at these quilt patterns, you will see that I am
not exactly a "quilter", rather I do applique and
pretty soon I found myself producing clothes patterns instead.
After my first 6 garments, "I saw the light" and
expanded my sizing to fit up to plus sizes up to 60 inch bust.
Fortunately our pattern lines are fairly easy to scale up
anyway.
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| I never planned to be a designer (like
my father) but it happened anyway through osmosis I guess; that
and by attending sewing seminars and lectures whenever they
came to Vancouver. Sandra Betzina,
Clothilde, Margaret Islander, Sharmane Fouche & Lois Ericson
were very influential. I have always made myself original
interesting clothes and hope you will enjoy these created
with you in mind. I have more simmering on the back burner but
have I now have other obligations and desires that I want to
focus on. I consider myself a painter who happens to sometimes
use cloth as the medium. |
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Oh yes, the
pink hair. I always wanted pink hair but it took the
sudden death of my first contemporary to make me take the plunge.
What the heck was I waiting for? It has been pink or violet
on and off since age 40, but I'm letting go of that these days.
Hair is just a toy, as my friend Lou says. It's not a tattoo,
it's only fun. Besides, with hair that bright I had less of
a need to put a jolt of color in my clothing so things have
turned around to less color in the hair and more in my funky
eyeglasses and everyday colorful garb. |
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Some
views of the ever-changing studio. This end has my trusty
Bernina 830 and my Bernette serger.
The white wheeled trolley hold my threads.
I overlook lovely Gibsons harbor. |
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Aha! The
Great Wall of Fabric! Here are my fabrics in wire baskets
on open shelves. When I want to do painting, the wall is covered
up with white curtains creating a much more serene space.
My worktable moves around as needs change,more storage units
underneath.
Overhead daylight tubes hang underneath a big plywood shelf
on chains, storage above for lighter thing like rolls of silk
and vanishing muslin. |
In 1998, my family set off on a BIG
FAMILY ADVENTURE. We sailed our 42" sailboat
Sandingo from Vancouver, Canada down to Mexico and
spent 2 long winters exploring small Mexican villages
and meandering along the coastline with our 2 boys
who did home-schooling of grades 6-9 while we were
afloat. I had to ditch the pink hair as it was just
too much upkeep, especially when water was at a premium
on the boat and since then I reverted back to a more
natural look. If you would like to see pictures from
our trip and read more about it go to Pavelka's
Mexican sailing trip.
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Today 2006
After our 2 winters in Mexico, 9 months in total, we
returned to Gibsons and plunged into a whole new business.
We create those fun and informative colorful
kids placemats and activity books you might find
in restaurants or in schools. TableToyz
and KidzSmart
were brainstormed because we had kids and took them
to restaurants and thought that the things given out
for kids to play with could be done much better. Two
months after our return from Mexico, we launched this
business at Chicago's National Restaurant Show, the
biggest of its kind in the world, and it's been hair
straight back since then!
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With my kids grown now, I am finding more time in my ever-evolving
studio. I still create wonderful wearables but only for myself
these days. I am currently back to working on mixed media
paintings and have just discovered stamping and scrapbooking!
What fun!
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Bringing more color & happiness
into the world is my mission.
Enjoy, experience & love as much as you can while you're
still breathing!
Lots of love to all,
Pavelka
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