Hi Beth, we are so excited about your new fabric collection, Enchanted Wings. Your Tropical Leopard designs were so popular!
How did you get in to the world of craft?
Hi Talia! I first discovered Printed Textile Design whilst I was studying, I was actually enrolled onto Graphic Design but I didn’t feel like it was very ‘me’ so I asked to change my course after discovering what Surface Pattern Design is! I was lucky enough to be able to switch courses to Printed Textiles and I am so pleased because I think it opened up a world I didn’t even know existed. It has led me onto amazing opportunities and I absolutely love being a designer, it is so exciting seeing my paintings evolve into designs and onto actual fabric!
What inspired your second collection Enchanted Wings?
After the wonderful success of the Tropical Leopard collection, I really wanted to continue with a theme of imagined creatures, the purple and pink Leopards were a colourful twist on real creatures – bringing a real and imagined world together, allowing me to use bold, bright colours to create eye-catching animals. I chose Beetles and Butterflies for the Enchanted Wings collection as I felt these could give me scope to create detailed, pretty designs and tell a story of a magical, enchanted land. Inspired by the vibrant, incredible species of Beetles and Butterflies found in nature I combined these with my own ideas of delicate floral, leafy patterns. I have always loved these types of insects, so creating a collection inspired by them was a great opportunity to bring my own style together with nature and create five designs full of imagined colour and wonder.
Tell us a little about the process of first idea to finished fabric.
Creating the five fabric designs always begins with an ideas board, full of theme imagery, a colour palette and an idea of the direction of design styles that I’d like to go forward with. The Craft Cotton Co team and I work together to decide on a finalised idea I then start working on.
I always begin with getting my initial ideas down in a sketchbook using Gouache paints. I create individual motifs by hand as I feel this brings out my creativity in the best way, rather than sitting straight down to design digitally, once I have a few pages of ideas I will scan the paintings in and begin creating digital versions of each that I choose to use. Creating them digitally enables me to change colours easily and then I put them into a repeated fabric design, throughout the process I check in with the team and review the designs and carry out any colour changes to make sure the collection is working well as a whole.
How do you see these fabrics made up?
I would love to see these fabrics made up as a set of cushions, children’s clothing, shopping bags, plant pot holders/ fabric storage boxes!
I’d really love to see the Beetle design made up as an adult size boilersuit! I think it would be a real statement outfit!
What do you have planned next?
I’m very lucky to have been asked to design a third pack of Fat Quarters which are currently being sampled! I’m really looking forward to seeing the third pack printed onto fabric and see the designs come to life. I would love to continue designing for the Craft Cotton Co as it’s such an enjoyable process and seeing the fabrics with my designs on them will never get old.
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