Plant, Grow, Paint, Print
I have always loved painting flowers.
What began as a love of growing dahlias turned into painting them - and now into a small collection of 100% silk scarves, beautifully made in Britain & painted in Scotland.
Hermès-Quality Scarves Made in Britain (Painted in Scotland)
A couple of years ago, I started growing dahlias and it became an obsession. They're so gloriously, overwhelmingly magnificent that I started trying to paint them.
An old painting friend, Sammy Dent, has for years made gorgeous silk scarves from her huge abstract paintings. Her knowledge of the process and of silk printing fast tracked me to where I am now. She very kindly introduced me to the wonderful company Biddle Sawyer. So, Hermès-quality, 100% silk scarves, made in Britain! What's not to like?
The quality is superb, you can even see the brushstrokes, and sometimes the weave of the linen I paint on.
I'll admit, I felt like I'd jumped off a cliff. The world of silk printing and hand stitched edges was completely new to me.
Our Scarves
This dahlia was one of these glorious 'size of a dinner plate' flowers. I'd watched it grow for a few days and was desperate to paint it. It seemed to work so well with a couple of smaller " Bishop of Oxford" dahlias with their dark vermillion leaves and a pop of a Scabiosa. The huge amount of brilliant orange really needed the absolute complimentary colour of a rich turquoise to really make this scarf pack a punch.
Product size
64cms x 64cms approximately
Care instructions
Handwash cool. Drip dry, please don’t wring out as it might snap the hand stitching. Silk is strong & resilient and you can iron but not too hot.
I picked these from the garden and the woods. In Scottish Gaelic, foxgloves are known as 'Lus nam ban-sith', meaning 'plant of the fairy women' which is so fitting. I love these tall graceful wild spears, so much so, I had some in my wedding bouquet, a few years ago now. The Irises and the rather blousy blown Peonies I have grown in the garden. I painted this on linen and decided to leave the background unpainted, I think it works with all the soft pale pinks and lilacs. It was a bit of a risk having this painting made into a silk scarf as I just didn't know what the background would come out like. Luckily, the linen looks silvery and so light, the paler colours are so subtle.
Product size
Available in two sizes
64cms x 64cms
100cms x 100cms
Care instructions
Handwash cool. Drip dry, please don’t wring out as it might snap the hand stitching. Silk is strong & resilient and you can iron but not too hot.
Tartan is the name of a variety of dahlia, such a great name for the flower given these are painted here in Scotland, but a slightly misleading name for this scarf, because it isn't tartan at all. The dahlia produces wonderful large heads and each petal is edged in a dark magenta. I used to shy away from painting them as I just wasn't quite sure how it would look but paired with a few blue Scabiosa and a blousy Cafe Au Lait, the whole piece came together really well. I thought I'd complement these with rich teracotta oranges in the background, I took the green colour of the edge from the sap green stalks.
Product size
100cms x 100cms
Care instructions
Handwash cool. Drip dry, please don’t wring out as it might snap the hand stitching. Silk is strong & resilient and you can iron but not too hot.
Cafe Au Lait is the variety of the dominant dahlia on this scarf. I added a strong Honka Black Dahlia and Scabiosa in dark magenta tones, they are such a strong contrast to the subtle pale petals of the Cafe Au lait. The calming, cool, cerulean blues of the background pull the composition together, making a very versatlie and wearble colour palette, edged with a viridian green tone from the leaves.
Product size
64cms x 64cms approximately
Care instructions
Handwash cool. Drip dry, please don’t wring out as it might snap the hand stitching. Silk is strong & resilient and you can iron but not too hot.
Although this isn't technically a Pom Pom dahlia, I still think it looks like a pom pom. This gorgeous blousy pink Dahlia really was the size of a dinner plate. I love painting these in profile, they seem more sculptural and I love the petals spilling out from the tiny green leaves and stem, the little bud on the left is just waiting to explode. The soft white Scabiosa just pop with the strong pink and rich turquoise background.
Available in two sizes.
64cms x 64cms approx.
100cms x 100cms approx.
Care instructions
Handwash cool. Drip dry, please don’t wring out as it might snap the hand stitching. Silk is strong & resilient and you can iron but not too hot.
No dahlias here! These early flowering beauties really signal spring for me. A great friend and neighbour has often let me have a branch or two to paint in the last few years, they have a couple of rather glorious and old magnolia trees growing very happily by an old stone wall. The bold azure blue in the bottom left of the scarf gradually blends to pale blues and greens in the top right. The print quality is so good that the brushstrokes and subtle colour changes are visible and help the silk shimmer. I picked the border colour from nearer the top right area, it really seems to pull the whole piece together.
Product size
100cms x 100cms approximately
Care instructions
Handwash cool. Drip dry, please don’t wring out as it might snap the hand stitching. Silk is strong & resilient and you can iron but not too hot.