Home Help: 23 November
For many people, the most overwhelming part of redecorating is choosing fabric. The choice is staggering. How do you choose material that’s both a good price and easy to live with?
To make your life easier, here is an edited collection of pretty, individual (ie, not massproduced) furnishing fabrics made by artists and designers often working in small studios.
At present, the native flora and fauna of the English countryside is inspiring some very beautiful work. Mark Hearld is an artist who works in the English tradition of John Piper and Edward Bawden and has just produced a stunning two-colour design, Bird Garden, on linen suitable for curtains and upholstery.
Mark Hearld’s workbook has just been published showing all his paintings and collages. He is part of an artists’ collective, St Jude’s, that also sells a fabric called Hedgerow by Angie Lewin.
Meadows and woodlands have also inspired the designer Vanessa Arbuthnott. Again, many of her fabrics are in just two colours, the silhouette of dragonfly or fern against a soft blue or green. This simplicity makes them very versatile. These cottons and linens would look good both upstairs in a bedroom, or in the sitting room and kitchen.
There is a hand-painted feel to Holly Lasseter’s fabrics. Her designs have evolved from her china collection that she painted with insects, flowers and birds and sold at fairs. Now she has transferred her designs to fabric to create a cloth garden of red berries and pomegranates, agapanthus and a selection of butterflies.
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew has allowed Ivo Prints – www.ivo.co.uk – to develop a range of fabrics (hand silkscreened printed) based on drawings in its archives. The results launched this year are fine and delicate depictions of geraniums and hydrangeas, scarab beetles and butterflies on a range of materials in the Kew collection.
Ivo Prints pays a royalty on these designs that goes to fund work carried out by botanists and conservationists.
Mark Hearld Bird Garden fabric, £44 per metre, St Jude’s Fabrics: 01603-662951, www.stjudesfabrics.co.uk
Angie Lewin Hedgerow Meadow fabrics, £43 per metre: 01285-831437, www.vanessaarbuthnott.co.uk
Both main image
Holly Lasseter floral fabrics, £52 per metre: 01305-815784, www.hollylasseterdesigns.co.uk
Angie Lewin Hedgerow fabric, £46 per metre, from St Jude’s Fabrics: as above
Email design enquiries to Hugh St Clair at homehelp@lady.co.uk
To make your life easier, here is an edited collection of pretty, individual (ie, not massproduced) furnishing fabrics made by artists and designers often working in small studios.
At present, the native flora and fauna of the English countryside is inspiring some very beautiful work. Mark Hearld is an artist who works in the English tradition of John Piper and Edward Bawden and has just produced a stunning two-colour design, Bird Garden, on linen suitable for curtains and upholstery.
Mark Hearld’s workbook has just been published showing all his paintings and collages. He is part of an artists’ collective, St Jude’s, that also sells a fabric called Hedgerow by Angie Lewin.
Meadows and woodlands have also inspired the designer Vanessa Arbuthnott. Again, many of her fabrics are in just two colours, the silhouette of dragonfly or fern against a soft blue or green. This simplicity makes them very versatile. These cottons and linens would look good both upstairs in a bedroom, or in the sitting room and kitchen.
There is a hand-painted feel to Holly Lasseter’s fabrics. Her designs have evolved from her china collection that she painted with insects, flowers and birds and sold at fairs. Now she has transferred her designs to fabric to create a cloth garden of red berries and pomegranates, agapanthus and a selection of butterflies.
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew has allowed Ivo Prints – www.ivo.co.uk – to develop a range of fabrics (hand silkscreened printed) based on drawings in its archives. The results launched this year are fine and delicate depictions of geraniums and hydrangeas, scarab beetles and butterflies on a range of materials in the Kew collection.
Ivo Prints pays a royalty on these designs that goes to fund work carried out by botanists and conservationists.
Mark Hearld Bird Garden fabric, £44 per metre, St Jude’s Fabrics: 01603-662951, www.stjudesfabrics.co.uk
Angie Lewin Hedgerow Meadow fabrics, £43 per metre: 01285-831437, www.vanessaarbuthnott.co.uk
Both main image
Holly Lasseter floral fabrics, £52 per metre: 01305-815784, www.hollylasseterdesigns.co.uk
Angie Lewin Hedgerow fabric, £46 per metre, from St Jude’s Fabrics: as above
Email design enquiries to Hugh St Clair at homehelp@lady.co.uk