We’re inspired by the world around us – our colours and patterns are drawn from the chalk downs and ancient villages around our workshop

My new home in the Adur Valley has inspired my new collection of Dora fabrics – I’ve discovered incredible patterns carved and painted in the ancient medieval churches along the South Down Way near where I live and have been drawing and printing these all summer.

I’ve named my designs after our local Saint’s – St Cuthman, St Peter, St Botolph and St Mary. Apparently St Cuthman pushed his mother to Steyning in a wheelbarrow – you see his picture all over Steyning and the boys climb on his statue next to the Church in Steyning.

I discovered St Cuthman while I was sitting in St Andrew’s church, and became absorbed in the fantastic Romanesque stone covering the arches and columns. It wasn’t long before I was drawing and my loopy undulating St Cuthman pattern came to life.

St Peter is a more geometric pattern from the nearby frescoed church of Coombes, which shelters in the Downs above the River Adur. I came upon these frescoes by chance when I wandered into this humble looking church and was amazed by these almost Byzantine decorations. Designing St Peter took me a long time, with lots of drawing and printing untiI I got it right. Now when I look at it, it reminds me of the shew shwe designs from my native South Africa.

The flowery design of St Botolph is based on the beautiful Georgian wood-carvings in the nearby church of St Botolph right on the banks of the River Adur. If you get a chance – do pop in and have a look at these churches yourself – they are very special places and so very English and ancient.

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Local, natural materials inspire us  – I like what we at Dora Fabrics make, to reflect and be connected to where we live. And using natural plants helps me explore my local fields and hedgerows, become aware of the passing seasons and the changing weather.

This autumn when foraging for walnut husks and leaves to make my warm, glowing brown dye, I discovered many new wild woodland trees as well as unknown plants and herbs I want to experiment with.

Each plant is a product of a passing season, changing weather and local soil – and creates different conditions for dyeing. Seasonal variety and inconsistency have become an essential part of our fabric and one we hope you will love.

When there are no more walnut husks to forage, I turn my attention to tending the rhubarb plants on my allotment. The roots of these give the sweetest pink dye – I wish you could smell it!

And after rhubarb comes weld – my big discovery of last year when I noticed hundreds of plants growing under the Shoreham flyover – weld loves poor soil. When I cut and boiled up the plants, a gorgeous, rich, yellow colour filled my dye pot and the kitchen was filled with a rich and wonderful smell – I was hooked!

In Autumn I returned to collect seeds to sow for next year (weld is a biennial plant) being sure to replenish natural plant stocks and if possible create new natural dye gardens to share.

I do all my dyeing in my kitchen and because I’m using natural dyes, I can be sure they’re perfectly safe if a bit smelly sometimes.

The dye pot can happily bubble away while I cook supper and fill the kitchen with a delicious fug. I love the way I can combine cooking and dyeing – they’re actually very similar and both incredibly satisfying.

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We make fabric that is kind to us and to the planet – we handprint using water-based ink on 100% linen

I want things in my home that are good for me, my family and the planet. I can’t make a happy home using paper and fabric that harms people and the environment and that’s why I’ve chosen only to handprint using water-based ink on 100% linen.

I’ve been a hand printer for many years, sitting on the lino during supper to get it warmed up and workable and then cutting my block in the evening when the children have gone to bed. I print wherever I can – on the kitchen floor using my feet (a good work out), in the garden if it’s sunny or in my rather cold garage if the weather’s unkind.

Over the years I’ve discovered and been inspired by other women hand printers, like Enid Marx or Peggy Angus who developed block printing into a wonderful art – full of lovely marks, movement and spontaneity.

Peggy Angus, lived not far from me along the South Downs and designed beautiful hand printed papers full of oak leaves, heraldic dogs and birds, grapes and vines, corn stalks, stylised suns and winds. They seem rooted in the natural world and in the visual arts of the British Isles. And although Peggy was very successful – designing for Sanderson and the newly built Gatwick Airport – she preferred printing by hand and would never allow her designs to be mass-produced.

Like me, she understood that the act of placing each individual block creates a rhythm and a dance within the fabric that is very special.

And the act of cutting and printing the block itself is very much a part the design process itself – never an afterthought. For me – printing is as much a part of the design process as drawing.

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