New design – Sussex Oak
During lockdown our church in Steyning was closed for the first time in 1,000 years – Covid had succeeded where the plague and world wars had failed. Sometimes, I would imagine being inside this very special place which I love very much and I would think about the beautiful medieval carvings of fruits, leaves, animals, […]
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… […]
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. […]