The Making of the Rockpool Print
Inspiration
The beach at low tide – a place for exploring, rock pooling, playing and sunbathing inspired the Rockpool design, one of the statement patterns from our Salcombe Collection. We wanted to illustrate a cross section of activities and characters found on an English beach.
Designing the Rockpool Print
We began sketching out a rough layout to get an idea for the forms and colours:
We developed the print a lot more and then experimented with repeating the pattern, to see if any gaps needed to be filled in the design:
The final 20 x 20 inch repeat:
Sampling the Design
The next step was to separate the design into separate layers, one for each colour. This design has 6 colours, so each of these were made into films, and then exposed onto mesh screens for printing. We picked colours, mixed inks and experimented with combinations.
The first sample print:
Printing the Design
We decided to go with punchier, more vibrant colours for the final print run as we wanted the print to have a brighter, more joyous feeling.
Making Rockpool Quilts
Once all the fabric was printed, back in our studio we began stitching the cushions and layering cotton batting in-between the printed fabric for hand quilting.
