“Every pattern brings together layers of story which are woven together from my experiences, my surroundings and my favourite sources of inspiration”
About our FAbric
The signature hand silk screened fabric designs are available per metre (each roll is 1500mm wide) and is hand screened on 100% cotton poplin in a small print studio in Petersham. with theexception of the Cabbage Tree Palm Series which is digitally dyed on white linen. Each design can also be customised to a particular colour for small runs of 10 metres. They can be cold washed and line dried or dry cleaned.
Our fabric has been made into lampshades, duvet covers, curtains, table clothes and cushions for various clients.
our SIGNATURE fabric designs
Patterns and Inspiration
Gum Nutty
The story behind the design
The original lino cut featuring grey gum leaves and nuts was created whilst I was living in Philadelphia in 1988. For an Australian girl like me, who loved the balmy Australian climate, winter in Philadelphia was very hard to endure - icy winds whistling through our apartment windows and salty snow churned up in the city streets ...
I felt so far from home and longed for the wild abandon of a gum tree or an afternoon sea breeze in summer ...
It was in this state of mind that I discovered, to my delight, a small bunch of gum branches for sale in Reading Terminal Market.
The distinctive ghostly grey gum nuts and thick foliage seemed so much at odds with the violet coloured tissue paper the flower seller had wrapped them in.
Banksio
There is a transitional period in decorative art between the art deco movement and the onset of modernism. In Paris, this was embodied in the work of Eileen Gray whose geometric lacquered screens and furniture displayed a more economic design language.
This lino cut embodies some of these design influences - the background crisscross pattern reminiscent of Escher’s interwoven illustrations, the falling Australian banksia leaf echoing the beauty and symmetry of the natural world.
Strong tribal influences have been blended into the background lines to create a fabric which can be easily adapted to screen panels, blinds, cushions or lamp shades.It’s about rhythm, a primal design beat, strong and earthy, lending this fabric to tropical, tribal, modern or art deco interior styles.
Laxmi
The story behind the design
The simple patterns within this lino cut repeat and magnify from the centre outwards, abstract layers of flowers and leaves, symbolising abundance. This pattern has been created in celebration of the Hindu goddess of wealth and fortune, Lakshmi.
The linocut used in this fabric is inspired by the richly decorated panels and pillars from a wooden Nepalese Pavilion painstakingly carved for Expo in Brisbane by my Nepalese sister-in-law Laxmi. She began woodcarving in Nepal when she was 13 years old and travelled the world demonstrating her skill.
The fabric is designed to emulate a rich blend of Indian and Asian influences - each square connecting together - to build an atmosphere which is warm and inviting.
Weave
This fabric was created using a small piece of the ‘Gum Nutty’ lino cut, which was repeated and inverted over and over again to achieve this distinctive woven pattern - clean organic lines with subtle undulations of light and dark, creating a electronic wave-like ripple.
I wanted to recreate a particular design sensibility with this pattern, which is influenced by the work and Charles and Ray Eames and the mobiles of Alexander Calder - simple, fluid and functional.
It is, however, more personally inspired by a beach house my grandfather built after the war in Queensland in the early 1950’s with rooms full of filtered light through venetian blinds, natural hoop pine wall panels, low slung armchairs and a classic pink, yellow and blue kitchen.
Temple
The story behind the design
The woven pattern of the original lino cut for Temple fabric is reminiscent of intricately carved wooden Chinese screens.
It is, however inspired by an old engraving of the ceiling structure of the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford University, England, which was designed by Christopher Wren.
“When Wren embarked on the implementation of his ideas for the new Theatre, he was faced with a difficult engineering problem. A closed structure, without Gothic vaulting or columns and a 70 foot span of the ceiling meant that he needed a novel solution. For this he turned to John Wallis, Savilian Professor of Geometry. Wallis had been experimenting and lecturing on the subject of “geometrical flat floors” for some years. In this, a matrix of overlapping and interlocking timbers was able to provide a load bearing structure over spans of many times the length of the individual trusses. He demonstrated the concept with a small-scale model in this college in the 1650s. The idea was still being promulgated when Wren identified his needs in 1663. Wren adapted his ideas to produce this intriguing structure”
Poinsettia
The story behind the design
Poinsettias are native to Mexico.‘The Aztecs called them ‘Cuetlayochitl’. The Aztec king, Montezuma was reported to have brought them in by caravan to Mexico City because they were unable to grow in the high altitude.’
Poinsettias have always fascinated me with their crazy, sliced, iridescent red leaves, full fat green leaves and yellow stamens hovering antenna-like at the centre - all assembled collage-fashion in a moving mass of bush.
They always make me smile - bringing back memories of pasting flowers in craft activities with coloured paper and glue.In the original lino cut I have tried to capture a shimmering sense of the plant’s energy - a blend of water, sun and nutrients, the miracle of photosynthesis.
The fabric inverts as it repeats creating a delicate spray of movement and petals.
Equally at home traditional English interior styling or the easy relaxed living of a summer house.
Family Tree
The story behind the design
This lino cut features the fronds of a Queensland pine tree and an Australian silky oak. (pictured on the right)
The branches are suspended in a swirl of sea breeze symbolising their playful journey over time.
There are some trees that you ‘grow up with’ and these are mine. Both these trees hold a strong place in my Australian childhood memories-the pine trees standing in rows like sentries along the beach front as I swam in the surf every holiday and the silky oak trees filled with lorikeets attracted by their yellow brush like flowers.
Both trees are found in the Gold Coast hinterland.In the manner of the Patrick White novel ‘A Tree of Man’, these trees have also come to symbolise people - the pine tree, my grandmother and the silky oak, my grandfather.
The title of the fabric is also a call to feel connected to our natural world, to care for it as if it is an extended family, a rich heritage worth protecting