This week I am sharing a bit of the back story behind my Strata design. This design might seem like a bit of a departure for me as it is lacking in seed heads and features muted colours! However, I am in fact actually circling back to some designs I did when I first started as a textile designer many years ago...
During my gap year from university back in the early 90s I was lucky enough to work in 2 design studios in New York, where I was first exposed to the vagaries of commercial textile design. It was baptism by fire as we were expected to churn out multiple designs a day, which was quite a contrast from my sleepy art college training back in Brighton.
Me looking youthful in New York in 1991...
In my spare time I soaked up everything NYC had to offer, including frequent visits to the MOMA where the work of the abstract impressionists made a huge impression on me. How I longed to throw paint around instead of the painting ditsy florals all day! My inspiration peaked when I visited the Rothko rooms in the National Gallery in Washington. His explorations with colour resonated deeply with me.
An abstract painting done in 1992, and work from my degree show!
When I went back to college for my final year I became obsessed by exploring colours and started experimenting with painting abstract marks on paper using old tins of house paints that I tinted with fabric dyes, and then collaging these into stripes. I was fortunate enough to picked up an agent who sold my work in the US, mostly to swimwear companies in LA! I loved the idea of everyone parading around in swimming costumes and kaftans designed by me. The more of these collages I created, the more of a rabbit hole of colour combinations I discovered.
Just some of the endless colour combinations I played with...
About 15 years ago I picked up this theme again, playing around with some painted stripes for my collaboration with Harlequin, which turned into my Demeter stripe wallpaper, (which won best wallpaper of the year with House & Garden magazine)
It has only been in the past few years with the advent of digital printing technology that I have finally been able to recreate all the nuances of this kind of colour work on fabric. This has prompted me to get painting and collaging again... leading to this STRATA design.
As well as bed linen it comes in 5 colourways in my bespoke mural range. Many of these colours were inspired by the beautiful pictures in the book by Heidi Gustafson, Book of Earth.
