Tammie Bennett
94 // Tammie Bennett is originally from North Carolina, USA, and is now based in New Jersey. She is a self-taught artist, and although she has taken a few classes on art and business she has learned most by playing around with Adobe software. Tammie has also found that her daily sketching and pattern designing are teaching her more than she ever imagined. She often feels fortunate not to have had any formal schooling in design, as she is unaware of any rules she is breaking, which she feels gives her more freedom. Tammie is particularly inspired by her love of vintage children’s dictionaries, her children’s artwork, children’s toys and nature. She also loves the bright colours found in urban settings. All of these things have an influence on her work. In the future, Tammie hopes to see her designs on fabric, stationery, home goods, children’s toys, tote bags and more. ‘I don’t think it ever gets old seeing your work on different products,’ she says. Her dream brief would be to illustrate a children’s book.
Design Heroes: Lisa Congdon (see pages 184–7), Helen Dardik, Heather Ross
Scales
Bold semicircular scales contrast with the fine detail of the mesh ground.
Bitty Rows
This design of small motifs was painstakingly hand drawn before being scanned in to the computer. The pattern is given a tribal feel by arrows and crosses.
Under Arches
Little imperfect arches like horseshoes or magnets are arranged in rows for this colourful design.
Tiny Houses
It is possible to represent the image of a house in its simplest form just by placing a triangle on top of a square, making this geometric design an illustrative print.
Split Circles
Selected parts of these linear circles, which almost have a leaf-stem structure, have been filled with solid colour.
Bowls
All of the pieces shown here were created as part of a personal #365patterns project, for which Tammie created a pattern a day for a year. In this quirky stripe, semicircles are arranged in one direction and then the other on squared paper.
Pillbox
Colourful bisected shapes inspired by pills dance around in this fun print.