A love of mark making

Three pretty designs in Nicola’s Inkwell Designs organic cotton cushion covers, Friendly Anemones, Kew Gardens and Tartan Flamingos

With my stained glass work I appreciate the therapeutic qualities of colour, the flow of lines and the process of mark-making, and I enjoy using a fun and free flowing scribbling technique as used in this panel made for our studio and here too with a panel named Swifts. With the weekly sketching sessions I ran in Lockdown as well, I found it meditative being able to make marks, more than I have before and since that time, and I loved seeing all the different marks made by my fellow participants, every one so different from the next. We sketched together for just an hour a week and I ended up with about 60 sketches by the time that period in time had ended. I’ve chosen 20 of them to make packs of greetings cards out of and these are printed on recycled card to be environmentally friendly.

I have been able to incorporate these creative elements throughout my Inkwell Designs textile design collection as well. Kew Gardens, for example, was created from sketches I made on Broad Walk at Kew’s Royal Botanical Gardens, with floral displays and The Hive featuring in the linework. It takes me back to a sunny summer’s day and a picnic we had next to these amazing plants. Through layering I like to add complexity to my patterns, it takes the eye on a bit of a journey, and I feel, makes the design more unusual. The Tartan Flamingos pattern was inspired by seeing a flock of these pretty pink birds in a botanical park when we were on holiday in Tours, France. The bright orange coloured Friendly Anemones pattern was another holiday-inspired design, from a different part of France called Le Croisic, with colourful corals and anemones featuring in a watery scene. Guaranteed to brighten up any sofa, you can find out more about my organic cotton cushion covers here.