Like Father, Like Daughter
By: Nichole Grant
When you think of a flatware designer you don’t usually picture a 7th-grade student but, sometimes it takes an imaginative mind to develop a whimsical design.
Isabella Lawrence holds the Owl flatware pattern that she helped to design
Isabella Lawrence is the daughter of our Tooling Designer Eric Lawrence and she has been his inspiration for many of his design concepts.
The Owl sketch is scanned into the computer where the design can be finalized for tooling.
Recently Eric has been working on a new flatware design, that of an Owl. During the beginning phases of designing, he reached out to his daughter to help complete the design. Isabella, who is no stranger to sketching was up for the challenge. She said she likes to sketch and you’ll often find her doodling. Interestingly enough, Isabella is quite inspired by her Dad’s career and skills. “Ever since I knew what he did as a designer I wanted his job.”
Now, Isabella truly has a taste for what her father does because she’s a big part of bringing the new Owl pattern to life. Eric asked Isabella for her help with sketching the owl design and he said she had the sketch down in about five minutes. She hand-drew the owl after looking at real-life reference photos of the animal.
The Owl feather images used to create texture on the Owl flatware handle
To continue the owl theme, the handle also mimics actual Owl feathers going down the spoon handle. “I did my best to re-create feathers on the spoon,” said Isabella.
Another neat feature about the handle design is that some of the textures were inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night painting. Eric used the image as inspiration to implement texture.
Once completed, Eric took Isabella’s drawing and scanned it into a computer. This allows him to continue working on the design with the ability to move the sketched design around and adjust it. It’s during this process, he adds in different elements like the circles on the moon. Finalizing the design on the computer also helps to darken and thicken the lines which makes for a more seamless transfer to the tooling process.
Owl flatware design prototype
Isabella’s artwork brought the Owl design to life. Eric said there was a certain look he was trying to obtain when he first started working on the design, but he couldn’t create it alone. “There was a certain type of whimsical element that I was looking for and she was able to do that, she’s very helpful.” Thanks to Isabella’s keen eye she was able to help her Dad create something he may not have been able to otherwise.
Isabella Lawrence with her Dad Eric Lawrence showing the Owl spoon design they created together
Isabella said she is looking forward to working on creative pursuits in the future and hopes to do art in school or take an excelled art class.
As for upcoming flatware patterns, Isabella is ready and willing to assist! She said, she always has fun helping out her Dad with the design process. And, it wasn’t her first rodeo, as she’s also helped with designing the American Garden and American Outdoors flatware pattern however, working on the Owl pattern was different because it was the most hands-on design experience for her so far.
Isabella said she really likes the unique Liberty Tabletop Affinity designs and she hopes to work on future patterns that feature foxes and maple leaves and planets in space.
The Owl pattern is a conceptual design with tentative plans to first create a set of spoons.
Pictured below is a close-up look at the Owl design tooled on a brass flatware prototype. Brass is used for flatware prototypes as it the material is easily molded for design purposes.
Conceptual Owl design brass spoon prototype
The Owl Spoons Set of 4 is available for pre-order! shop the set by clicking here.
Keep an eye on our website and social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) for future updates on the Owl pattern!