Textile design and my inspiration.

I'm often inspired by nature and what I see around me at the time. Flowers and birds seem to be the main ones, I'm always looking and marvelling at the blooms that come up and the swallows that sweep the sky. I like to study the texture, form and colour and where possible bring it home, but that's where my camera comes in handy! It's great these days to be able to instantly capture beauty, either on my phone or with my DSLR. Bellow are two of my favourites that inspired me to design the linen shown.   

   

My China Blue Roses linen is a slightly oriental chintz, extremely delicate and subtle with a pretty blue hue. It's an original watercolour of mine which I have digitaly printed. The reason for my watercolour designs being printed digitaly is because they are tonal. It is great what they can do today, and this probably has to be my favourite fabric, I've designed  eight for digital print, although I love them, I much prefer to handprint either by silk screens or blocks as I love how instant and unique the process is.

I still draw from the same inspirations whatever method I chose to print in, but I'd have decided in my head first which tool I will be creating with. The initial process starts by studying the object and taking photos, then I draw it and sometimes paint it before tweaking it to be made into screen or block.

This year I'm looking at producing some more structured stuff in blocks and screens, I'm taking inspiration from tall plants and will be visiting lots of gardens, I'm looking forward to it!

Emma