Tech Patterns, circa '98
(heads-up: this is long. I fell down a rabbit hole.)
Found a really cool vintage pattern while poking around Ebay (Iām ~1100 patterns in, itās for a project, give me another month or two) and found this absolute banger of a pattern:
Earth RiseĀ by LORRAC designs, circa 1998. It says itās part of theirĀ āScience & Technology Seriesā, and as soon as I saw it I knew Iād give my left and right thumbs to get to see what the rest of those look like-- we talking astronomy? Chemistry? CRT monitors and the shiny newfangled Windows 98?Ā
A quick google brings up old listings or photos for three more astronomy patterns from the series (The Solar System,Ā Moons of Saturn, and Jupiter), plus a single bit of technology: Anita at Cyberstitchers.com posted a photo of one of her finished LORRAC patterns back in 2004, and check it out! It slaps, too!
It is so good! Iāve never seen a cross stitch pattern like it! Iāve been sorting through Santas and floral borders and Precious Moments Angels this whole project and this smashed computer feelsĀ life-changing.Ā (of course, itās also uh... probably 1am this is going down? once it hits 2:00 the tumblr ads will start looking pretty profound, too)
Googling doesnāt bring up any central collections, and the only contact info on Earth Rise is a residential address in Louisiana (not even an artistās name!). Doesnāt help that most of the photos are pretty bad-- heck, the computer oneās almost old enough to vote-- but the pic forĀ Moons of SaturnĀ is legible, and itās got something new at the bottom: a website address.
http://www.neosoft.com/~cac/ doesnāt go much of anywhere anymore, but pop it in the Wayback machine, and---
We are golden!! And they even archived theĀ gif of a cute little dog!
From this archive snapshot Iām able to slide forward all the way up to 2003 and their second website, lorracdesigns.com-- still only exists in the archive, and not all the images work, but the ones they have are magnificent.
And there are a LOT of technology ones.
Guys gals and pals, feast your eyes on Office Beanies:
You Have MAIL!!
WWW Logo (āShow the world that you are a Web Surfer with this WWW logo. Finish it as a magnet or pin and display it proudly.ā heck yeah I would! I amĀ a web surfer!)
Computer Kid
Evil Computer
and my absolute favorite, Please Logoff:
ā¦and this last oneās a freebie, too! The PDF download is long gone, but the list of floss colors is still up. Between this image and the list I should be able to reconstruct the pattern... so wish me luck! š¤
Only one mystery remains, then... who was the artist behind LORRAC? I canāt find a name anywhere, not on the whole site. I wonder who they were, what they were like-- they made some really funny and unique patterns, and beautiful ones, too. The pattern themes make me think that the artist was a young adult then, twenty years ago, so odds are that theyāre still out there stitching somewhere. I wish I could tell them how much I like their old art. But hey, thatās the internet for you. š„
Anyway if youād like to check out some really unique patterns and also feel nostalgic for the ancient internet, the LORRAC site archive is here. While exploring I also found aĀ fully-intact Angelfire page listing dozens of other cross-stitch sites from the same era-- some may still be up, others might be archived, either way: if you need a rabbit hole, check them out! :)
