Designing the World of the Water Rabbit

The Water Rabbit is my very first Spoonflower collection. I’d been interested in surface pattern and textile design for a while, and I finally decided to do something about it. So I enrolled in a pattern design class with Claudia Orengo.

The Start

Sketch versions of the Water Rabbit, seaweed and message in a bottle. The Water Rabbit done in procreate (rabbit type of mermaid) is in shades of aqua has a shaded look. Seaweed and bottle in shades of aqua is in vector style. — Procreate sketch of the Water Rabbit on same image as vector drawn elements.

I began with a drawing I’d made in Procreate for my New Year’s card — a mermaid inspired rabbit. This became the base for creating a repeating pattern in Adobe Illustrator, following Claudia’s tutorial. Once I created other vector elements, I realized I needed to make a vector version of the Water Rabbit to keep the style consistent.

Claudia taught that a good pattern collection usually has about 10 designs centered around a “hero pattern,” and that there should be a story tying it all together. I think she meant a color or visual story—but naturally, my storytelling brain took over.

The Water Rabbit Concept

Once I had the rabbit, I started wondering: What kinds of things might this creature interact with? What kind of world does it live in?

Who is the Water Rabbit?
Where does it live?
Does it have friends?

Answering these questions became the backstory that unfolded:

The Water Rabbit lives in the deep, cold sea and feeds on magical seaweed. Sometimes it shops in the shallows and plays with jellyfish and cephalopod friends.

If you know me, you know what happened next: I went down the research rabbit hole (or maybe… research rabbit whirlpool?). 🌀

Rabbit Whirlpool 🌀 Research

Sketchbook research page: text surrounded by watercolor ink in shades of blue-purple and aqua. TOP TEXT: Water Rabbit concept story: the water rabbit lives in the deep cold water and eats magical seaweed or sometimes go shopping in shallower water for seaweed. It plays with its jellyfish and cephalopod friends. Left bottom text covers the types of depth zones in the ocean] epiplagic, mesopelagic, bathyplegic, abyssopleagic, hadopelagic. Nenthic zone refers to deep sea floor. Who are my cephalopod friends? Piglet squid 100-200m? Bobtail squid up to 920m? Angler fish 10-100m? Clione, Vampire squid 600-900m Flapjack squid 200-1000m Right bottom text: Euphotic (sunlight zone), Dysphotic (twilight zone), Aphotic (1000-4000m.sunlight doesn't penetrate. Photosynthesis not possible.) Suleight can't go to 1000 m. Seaweed doesn't grow in very deep water. About 100 m would be extreme limit. Kelp 5-15 m.

I dug into deep ocean habitats—what they look like, what kinds of creatures live there, and how color changes with depth. I didn’t end up including the jellyfish and cephalopod friends in the final patterns, but I love this world and plan to expand it. Maybe with cards or some sequential art?

Watercolor swatching on white paper using aqua and viridian mixes.

🎨 Research Benefits: Color

I did a lot of watercolor swatching—partly because it’s relaxing, and partly to explore color ideas. The Water Rabbit story called for cold blues that hinted at deep water layers, and colors that looked like glowing objects in the deep.

I even tried doing some full watercolor sketches. Ambitious? Definitely. Relaxing? Not really. But I think they’re kind of fun and they helped me make better choices for my palette.

water color and colored pencil sketches of the water rabbit in different poses. The water rabbit has body of a rabbit and tail of a fish. Like a rabbit mermaid. — Colored pencil, water color sketches of the Water Rabbit

🧵 Research Benefits: Pattern (and some deeeeeep dives)

Another challenge: What other patterns would fill out the collection?

Because I’ve lived in Tokyo for decades, I drew inspiration from traditional Japanese textile patterns. I was particularly drawn to tachikwaki (rising steam) and kikkō (tortoise shell hexagons),

Rought pencil and ink draft of Japanese pattern study. On the left: Tachiwaki (rising steam). Right: Kuginuki (nail). With ideas of squids or water rabbit in in the pattern. — Left:Tachiwaki pattern study. Right: Kuginuki pattern study

Tachiwaki (rising steam) in an underwater context reminded me of ocean currents. At first this reminded me of the East Australian Current from Finding Nemo. So of course I had to research if Japan had any major ocean currents and discovered the Kuroshio Current (Black Tide/Japan Current) and the Oyashio Current (Parent Current).
Kikkō is a tortoise shell hexagons pattern (not shown in this sketch). It felt structured and organic at the same time. And I loved the idea of a peek-a-boo pattern that the Water Rabbit could be caught swimming through. You can see it below.
The biggest surprise? The hardest pattern to get right was the simplest—stripes!

Aqua color way of my variation of the Tachiwaki (rising steam) pattern. Streams filled with bubbles of different sizes and cameos of the water rabbit in different bubbles. — Stream Bubbles. Part of the Water Rabbit pattern collection. Inspired by Tachiwaki pattern and ocean currents.

9 pattern swatch of the Water Rabbit collection by Little Squid Press. Top row from left: 1. Water Rabbit and Message in a Bottle (Hero) . 2. Water Rabbit Hexagram 3: Plaid. 4.Seaweed an bubb;es. 5. Bubble Stream. 6. Wave Thread And Seed Pattern 7. Seamless net 8. Simple 3 color Stripe 9. triangle hexagram (all patterns in shades of navy, aqua and luminous green) — Water Rabbit collection

The Finished Product

A black dog with white paws and chest markings that looks like a shiba inu mix sits on a bed with a Water Rabbit pattern for the duvet cover. — Amelia gives her seal of approval.

I ordered my own duvet cover and pillowcase in the Water Rabbit design. I was a little nervous about how they’d turn out, but they came out exactly how I imagined! Now that I know about the quality, I’m looking forward to ordering more sheets or even a fleece blanket. I need more pillows and throws to complete the look.

And Amelia (my dog) loved them too—so much she chewed a tiny hole in one. 😅That means she likes, it right?

I think she was jealous because I was so excited about the duvet cover.

Want to Try Pattern Design?

If you’re curious about designing your own textiles or creating surface patterns, I highly recommend Claudia Orengo’s classes and her Design Path membership. She’s generous with feedback, encouraging, and makes the process fun and approachable.

The Future of the Water Rabbit

There are still a few more patterns I’m experimenting with for this collection, but this feels like a solid core. Claudia recommended some colorway variations. I like that idea but also feel like that changes the story a lot. Purple colors could be so fun the also don’t remind me of the deep ocean. Maybe Water Rabbit takes a vacation?

Beyond these patterns, I’d like to expand the world of the Water Rabbit world by creating some sequential art or cartoons of it playing with cephalopod friends. Stay tuned!