About Donna
Donna Designs Wearable Art ... One of a Kind, One at a Time.
Come see us at the Waterfront Shops in Duck.
Originally from Hopewell, Virginia, Donna Haddon spent her summer vacations on the beaches of North Carolina as far back as she can remember. She began drawing and painting as a child and was drawn to nature as a main source of ideas, colors and patterns.
In 1976, she discovered a way to combine her art and entrepreneurial drive when she began creating designs on ladies fashion tops and wholesaling them at trade shows up and down the east coast. Back then, she would load everything into her minivan and head off to Orlando, Atlantic City, and New York City, and would come home with more orders than she knew what to do with. In a few short years she was selling to accounts across the United States and even in the Caribbean.
Donna has also used numerous techniques to paint on clothing, including free hand, batik, airbrush and gyotaku. Gyotaku is a process originating in Japan in the early 1800’s. The word gyotaku means fish rubbing [gyo=fish, taku=rubbing]. Donna paints a real fish first and then places the shirt over the fish to transfer the colors, resulting in a print that reveals the intricate patterns in the scales, fins and tail. The fish can then be repainted and used again to print. She has also lifted the prints onto rice paper for a work of art ready for framing.
Color has always been important to me. I remember things by color and I’m drawn to patterns in nature. I think it’s my use of color that has been bringing customers back year after year.
