The Botanical Collection
The Botanical Collection of floral linens was printed just before Covid, a miracle that I was able to produce and launch this collection during unprecedented times! By good luck and pure chance, I spent the first two weeks of March 2020, in the run up to lock-down, printing these fabrics and then carefully organising a one day ‘socially distanced’ photo shoot.
‘Botanical’ is a nostalgic collection, evocative of elegant ‘drawing’ rooms and pretty florals of a bygone era. Imprinted in my memory are the bewitching chintz flower-patterned curtains hanging in my Granny’s Irish house where we spent every summer holiday as children.
These designs are available in delicate colour-ways reminiscent of the first ‘indiennes’ fabrics that came from Eastern India to Europe. These softly coloured, hand-blocked and hand-painted cottons which were introduced into France from India at the end of the 16th century were immediately popular.
During lockdown I was able to reflect on the past: I have vivid memories of winning a ‘tiny garden in a shell’ prize (which I still have) for my pressed wild flower collection when aged 8. Studying closely the beautiful shapes of flowers and leaves has stayed with me and is expressed here in these new designs.
The Botanical Collection consists of three brand new designs, (along with one new colourway of French Ticking), in a total of five new fabrics where for most, they are printed on a beautiful linen union woven in Scotland using 60% linen and 40% organic cotton. It introduces a new colour, a beautiful Soft Raspberry.
In this collection I have combined and linked together many of my existing colours, for example, Damson with Field Green and Clay; all complementing each other seamlessly.
The Designs:
Herbaceous Border Detail: a beautiful, printed botanical study: an array of varied large single flower heads simply arranged into an ‘all over’ print. Each flower has been hand drawn, carved from lino and then carefully printed onto the fabric, imparting the special marks of hand printing. The design was then moved onto 4 different silk screens for printing. It is available in Damson, Lily Pink, Field Green, Clay
Dainty Daisy: Here I have taken one of the pretty sprays of flowers from ‘Herbaceous Border’ and placed it in an almost ‘Art Deco’ repeat, to create a charmingly simple design. Printed with a blotch background, it and negative, it comes in a beautifully soft Field Green colour.
Fallow Deer: A delightful print in Cornflower blue, depicting stylised deer and woodland trees. I originally drew and block printed this design, taking the same marks onto screens for ease of printing: deer are depicted standing by naively drawn trees and set within an ogee of trailing leaves and flowers.
New colourway of French Ticking: This stripe is an old favourite and has been re-coloured in Field Green, Charcoal, to coordinate with the new prints.
We sell fabrics exclusively designed by Vanessa Arbuthnott, along side small, bespoke collection of Made to Measure items which includes curtains, blinds, sofas, footstools, chairs, headboards, and quilts, all handmade specially for you by master crafts people.
