Printing with resists & indigo dyeing
I’ve always loved working in negative – that’s the printer in me. When you cut a lino block you remove the parts you don’t want to keep so that the final image is the result of the all the marks you didn’t make…. if that makes sense. I’ve experimented with lots of different ways of […]
How a design goes from hand block print to factory screen print…
My wood block ‘Honoria’ for the Virginia White Collection was in this months ‘House and Garden’ and it reminded me that I’d written a blog all about how the design came about and developed from a messy wood block into a finished, beautiful fabric and wallpaper. It was a fascinating process for me as it […]
Elizabether Friedlander – designing against the odds
By lovely chance (I was just dropping off some more tea towels and pouches at the shop), Alice and I got to go along to the private view of the new show at Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft – Elizabeth Friedlander: Typographer, Calligrapher, Designer. Elizabeth was a design prodigy, commissioned to design her own […]
Rangoli – sacred patternmaking
I saw my first rangoli on the steps of the Bank of India – an intricate chalky pattern half washed away by the morning rain. I was fascinated but my friend told me not to worry – the whole city was covered with beautiful rangoli…and so she proved right. Scattered on pavements through out the […]
Crafted in the Factory
It was a lovely end to the week on Friday when Chris printed my Sompting design for the Virginia White Collection on his Gali machine. Monique and I print next to Chris on our hand-table – but we have to do everything by hand – whereas he uses a Gali which has a mechanical arm… […]
Pattern making
Each time I come to design a pattern, I am overtaken by an overwhelming desire to discover the hidden order that will transform this random assemblage of marks and lines into a living whole that will dance it’s way off the fabric – it gets kind of obsessive and I find it very hard to […]
Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft
This week I’ve had the chance to visit the wonderful Museum of Arts and Crafts in Ditchling, West Sussex this week with a new delivery of my Dora Fabrics wash bags, aprons and tea towels… I have so many happy memories of cycling through this sleepy Sussex village on hot summers day (it never rains on the […]
Our natural materials
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 […]
Hand printing
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 […]