Patternmaking workshops
During lockdown I’ve had more time to explore and document my pattern making process – and share with other makers too. I have so enjoyed the online workshops I’ve done with students all over the world – something I would never have expected and which has been a real treat in these other wise quite […]
Slow Beauty
I’ve always been a bit of a hippie – I worked for the new economics foundation for many years where our slogan was ‘economics as if people and the planet matters’ so I’ve always been interested in alternative ways of doing things and making the radical alternative not only possible but real. When I left […]
Learning how to block print with natural dyes
This is something I’ve been fascinated by for a very long time and over the years pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have gradually fallen into place. Finally after much trial and error I have developed a simple process of block printing with natural dyes that I’m reasonably confident in and am able to reproduce and […]
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 […]
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 […]
Made in the factory
I had a great day this week printing 20 metres of my hand-dyed cloth in the factory – these will all be sewn up into lovely cushions, purses aprons, teatowels, lavender bags… by the talented Beverley. We’ll be selling them at Christmas markets at the Downland and Weald Museum and Crafty Fox Market in Peckham. […]