DESIGNER OF THE MONTH
The acclaimed textile artist has collaborated with hand-printed fabric studio Pukka Print to celebrate the brand’s 10th birthday
Having met while teaching a workshop a few years ago, Sarah Campbell and Pukka Print founder Juliet Cornell bonded over their admiration for the woven textiles of Bauhaus artist Anni Albers. They spoke about the possibilities of creating blockprinted designs that shared the Modernist aesthetic and the resulting collection is truly striking. The five spirited patterns are hand-printed in India across four vibrant colour stories: Library, Forest, Light Blue and Bright Blue.
Talk us through your artistic process.
It typically starts with a palette of freshly mixed paints: gouache is my preferred medium, as the colours are rich and opaque – great for laying a flat ground and essential for covering one’s mistakes! I paint everything by hand, brush on paper, making the repeats rather laboriously with tracing paper and a sharp pencil. Methods of production are not only fascinating in themselves but also integral to my work, spurring me on to fresh ideas. Block printing is completely new to me – so exciting – and of course influenced how the patterns might work. But the essence – interesting design and colour that repeats and travels easily across the cloth – remains my goal.
What inspires your designs?
Sometimes ideas jump into my head fully formed – as with the design Piano, which I immediately painted directly onto cloth. Others come from sketches, paintings, geometric puzzlings, colour glimpses, iPad doodlings – everything feeds my curiosity. I see pattern, or the possibility of it, everywhere!
Do you have a favourite design?
There are so many lovely aspects of the collection, it would be impossible to pick just one! I do enjoy the Library colour story, a rather sophisticated take on yellow and turquoise with Duck Egg/Larch. I also love the Kaleidoscope design in Sailor/Storm in the Bright Blue colour story.
What do you love about what you do?
I love the process of building a design, seeing it grow, and giving that sheet of paper the possibility of transforming into an infinity of pattern. From childhood, I’ve always drawn, painted and invented things, and I’ve been lucky enough to have been able to make my living doing so.
Sarah Campbell Designs for Pukka Print collection, from £180m, pukkaprintlinen.com
Take a seat
Best known for pretty table- and homeware, Sophie Allport has introduced furniture into her mix with the launch of two new collections. Witham and Langham are named after local Lincolnshire villages close to the brand’s headquarters, and initial offerings include a beautiful oak-framed armchair in duck-egg linen, £695, along with a co-ordinating footstool, £315, statement round mirror, £275, and wooden table lamp, £78. Love t
