Seed pod and Scribble grass, new designs from 2017.
The seed pod design is inspired from a magnificent Kowhai tree at the front of our house. These pods get scattered and blown all over our property. I love discovering tiny little mini kowhai shrubs that pop up out of nowhere. The Tui's love this tree so much in Spring. More about that in Spring! I have many drawings of these pods, but wanted to create very simple, playful design, so in the end it was all about the curves!

The scribble grass design was inspired by a few pics snapped during a visit to Piha. I love this beach so much, it's half hour drive from where I live, along the very picturesque Scenic Drive. A wild west coast beach and a fabulous place to blow the cobwebs out. This grass twists and curls up out the black sand dunes. I love this green colour too in contrast to the dark sand. It is a breathtaking beach and last time I was there with my family, we rented a little cottage. I think I'm going to have devote some more design time there this year!

There is always a story to a textile design. A starting point. I'm trying to get better at documenting my processes as they all connect and intercept. I'm inspired mostly by the stuff that surrounds me. ​

The fabulous Patternity folks put this well in their manifesto:
​
"Pattern is everywhere we go and it's in everything we do 
It’s there when we look up, down and all around, outside ourselves and deep within 
Pattern speaks a powerful universal language that connects us all

We’re living in an age of overload and complexity
The systems we are a part of are failing 
We’ve become so focused on the ‘I’ not the ‘we’ 
We have lost our sense of connection to our environment, each other and to ourselves
It’s time to wake up and reconnect the dots"

https://patternity.org

I thought I'd write a little about some bespoke textiles I did last year. 

I tend to post a lot on instagram, and neglect the opportunity to talk a bit more in depth about certain projects. So here is a bit of background to a few custom orders. 

1. Kim Lane, Coastal Creative.
I have mentioned Kim a few times, she is an interior designer and stylist and was kind enough to interview me on her blog. She also sells my cushions and Tea towels through her online shop, www.thecoastalcabin.com.
I met her a while back when I worked for a commercial textile company. Then bumped into her at the Auckland Fair, my very first one, back in 2016!  She liked my cushions, but the colours I had back then had a lot of hot pink in them (I have a thing for hot pink).  I suggested to her that I'd be happy to mix colours to suit her projects.
I was delighted she took me up on this! Kim posted me some paint swatches that she had carefully curated for me to colour match to.
Here is a photo of my humble method of colour mixing! And the end results.
For the final colours, Kim decided to drop the blue as this was a winter collection and felt the blue was a little too summery, so we keep that up our sleeves for later. :-) 
I was hugely pleased with these. Most of them have found new owners but there is still a couple left www.thecoastalcabin.com/product-page/linen-cushion-1

2. Clare Wyness
Clare is part of my community, one of my lovely local, friendly, school mums. And... she loves to support her local creative cohorts.  She got in touch after seeing one of my posts on Instagram with a colour swatch I was working on, and one thing led to another. I had the honour of an on site visit, (yes we did have a glass of wine) so I could take in the existing furniture, rug, painting and art etc. that these cushions wold co-exist with. I was influenced by her big brown leather sofas and kilim rug, She also had a stunning piece of abstract art in blues and teals.

3. Deborah Ward
One of the many reasons I like having a stall at the local markets is to get the opportunity to chat! This commision came about when Deborah was visiting her old stomping ground of Titirangi and really loved my painterly pink cushions that I had for sale at the Titirangi market. However, after much contemplation she was worried they would be a little bit too bright for her newly painted pink bedroom walls. I offered to get a swatch of the paint colour and print a little sample to match it. The paint colour turned out to be from Katie Lockharts Everyday needs paint collection. Yum! (I ordered ALL the swatches). The colour I matched to is called Hessian. A beautiful dusky pink. I didn't record much of the work in progress, but here is the end result, image's provided by Deborah. 
​katielockhart.com/everyday-needs-colour/