Cornflower

Cornflower Spring was the first floral design I created, so I thought it would be fun to explain how it came about.

I've always loved cornflowers - I actually had them in my wedding bouquet. So when we moved to Sussex in September 2004, I was delighted during the following late spring, to discover them popping up all through the borders of the our garden!

Over the years I've often sketched and painted them - to me they're a perfect blend of vibrant colour and fascinating shape. So when I started to think about a flower to base a fabric around, it wasn't a difficult choice.

I created a palette of colours from my sketches of the flower heads and used that for the textured background and the co-ordinating 'Cornflower Silhouette' fabric - shown right in Indigo and Cream.

And here lies the beauty of 'print-on-demand'...Instead of having to choose one or two colour versions of the coordinating fabric to stock, clients can choose from any of the 6  palette colour ways below. Or we can even 'tweak' the background colour to match an existing paint scheme or piece of furniture!

 

Cornflower-photo
Cornflowers - straight from our Sussex garden
Cornflower variations
The original Cornflower Spring fabric with two of its Cornflower Silhouette coordinates in Indigo and Cream
Cornflower-Spring-Fabric-and-coordinates
The day the samples arrived from the printer, shown next to a page of my sketches.

The Design Process

Cornflower-sketch

From simple watercolour sketches...

Cornflower-Spring-palette-scaled

Using one of the flowers to create the colour palette

Cornflower-Spring-chair-cushion

The finished fabric in use as a cushion on an up-cycled chair.

Cornflower-Spring-bookcase

I also had the design printed on paper to use on up-cycled furniture.