The Mount Haven Hotel, Marazion, Cornwall

Those who have followed my blog for a while have seen my large wall panel screen-prints develop, starting with the Chrysanthemum panel grown from a little plug plant in May 2012 (here), and the pen and ink sketch that inspired the panel and colours noted in November 2013 (here).

Earlier this year I had a wonderful commission to screen-print three of these panels for the Mount Haven Hotel, Marazion in Cornwall. The hotel has been recently taken over by the St. Aubyn Estates who wanted to introduce a new evolutionary design and colour scheme that would fit with the hotels long established reputation for comfort and relaxation. I met Lord and Lady St. Levan when they saw my stand at Cornwall Design Fair last year and they later visited my North Devon studio to see more of my work and select the designs, colours and fabric. The hotel is due to re-open on June 1st with the three panels framed and sited in the bar area of the hotel in front of a vast window overlooking St. Michaels Mount and the Cornish coast. Here I am in front of the finished Fern, Chrysanthemum and Beech panels before they headed off earlier this month.

It's lovely to think that my work will be on show in such an amazing hotel and seen by so many people! Some of the panel print developments are documented on my Instagram photos (here) and of course if you would like one of your own, the panels are available to commission either via my new web-site (here) or by contacting me directly through the contact link.

Screen Printing in the studio Fern collection

Drawing isn't work for me, even though it is of course an important part of my work, it's also how I unwind and relax. Rather than pick up a book in the evening or watch TV, over the past ten years years often I've preferred to draw. It gives me a huge input of inspiration, as well as original imagery to use in my designs...

...or that's until this year, when my days have been so full on and labour intensive I haven't had any spare energy or even inclination, and drawing in the evening has been squeezed out! (I have at times wondered if I will ever draw again, but let's not head off down that train of thought!).

It's not all doom and gloom however as some of those sparks of an idea I've had whilst drawing have filtered into new textile designs. In particular a new Fern panel, as well as Fern cushions and napkins have hit the print table. They were a great success when I exhibited them last week at 'Handmade at Kew' and I thought I'd share some images here...(as I'm not drawing!)

Super size ferns drying on the print table..

With Luna! (she was not overly keen to pose, but she does give a sense of scale!).
Ivy fabric in the background...

With a fellow panel...

Two by two napkins drying on the rack...

Folded Fern napkins with Beech and a few Rabbits, not unlike the woods here in North Devon...

All now available from my website shop! 

I've just joined the 111 club set up by Patricia Van den Akker of the Design Trust. In 2017, I intend to take time, along with one hundred and ten other creatives (internationally), to properly reflect on and make informed choices about running my business in 2017! and thereby (hopefully) make more time for the things that matter most.

If it's of interest to you there may be a few places left  - find out more about it here ...

Colour from the season - Hard Fern green

As a self-employed designer/maker,  I'm pretty disciplined on the whole. I rise early, walk Luna and start work by 9am. I usually work until 6pm, but sometimes later. I also often work on Saturday and if I'm running a screen-printing or Photoshop workshop, I work all weekend. The plus side is of course that I love my work and as long as I don't beat myself up for not getting something done, in the main, no-one else does either.

These attractive little ferns, which grow everywhere here in North Devon are called Hard Ferns or Blechnum spicant (slightly strange name so called because of their leathery form (?)). I've made time to sketch a few of them, to feature in a new wall panel along with a couple of other ferns, which I hope to put on screen and print at a super-sized scale next week.

I generally design what I would love to live with myself. As Oscar Wilde so aptly said -

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken"...

In case you wonder what soft ferns look like? I'm attaching a photo of a Soft Shield Fern (Polystichum setiferum) below...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.