Textile Swatches

ALETA artisan fabrics for Interior Design

Aleta Bartel-Orton, a Canadian living in London, founded her fabric company Aleta in 2003. She is best known for specializing in fabrics inspired by the decorative arts of 17th century Mughal India, from the finest reproductions of ancient textiles to contemporary reinterpretations of classic motifs. The 'Aleta' line consists of 100% natural fiber fabrics- cottons and linens and is manufactured in England. 

                        

                                                

In addition she distributes the renowned block printed floral textiles of Brigitte Singh and she has a specialty paint collection with bespoke paint company- Francesca's Paint. The colors coordinate with Aleta's fabric collection. Colors such as Mughal Spring, Indian Summer and Monsoon Rains.

  

Designer Profile: Hella Jongerius

Hella Jongerius is a multi disciplinary product designer. Her products are created giving not only thought to form, but also history, tradition and contemporary inspiration. Her work deliberately shows the traces of how they were made, embracing imperfections and unusual mixtures of materials and techniques. She calls her approach 'form follows feeling'. Her work combines craft with industry. which is a strong focus in my work and that's why I admire her groundbreaking efforts. 

She started her Rotterdam-based company 'JongeriusLab' in 2000. They create products including ceramics, textiles, tableware and furniture. Her clients include: Manufaktur Nymphenburg, Vitra, Ikea, Maharam, etc

Two of my all time favorites of her products are-

Repeat big bowl with green embroidery- produced in 2002 for the store Moss in New York. Porcelain with embroidery. Produced in a limited edition of 7 pieces.

From her Layers collection for fabric company, Maharam.

Is Layers Park Double

The process  involves machine embroidering 2 layers of wool felt with the pattern and then using lasers to cut 'windows' in certain parts of the top layers to reveal the lower layer of felt.

Below is Layers Vineyard

 

Check the link for a video of Hella describing the process of producing the Layers collection.

Anek Taanka... infinite stitches

Anek Taanka means infinite stitches and is run by Varsha Sharma, based in Ahmedabad, India. They do a line of home furnishings and textile wall art- all based on embroidery and stitching- using traditional motifs and skills with a contemporary twist. 

I particularly like the fun playfulness of colors and motifs.

More about Embroidery...

To continue the thread about embroidery... There are so many companies, designers and craftsmen working with embroidery today. Here is one of my favorites, more tomorrow...

 JUDY ROSS. Her work combines the centuries old traditional hand embroidery technique of Crewel embroidery with modern designs. She has a Fine Arts background and this is evident in the 'painterly' style of her work. Here is an example of her work. I like her products because she has really pushed the boundaries to develop a new look for this traditional art form- she is partly responsible for the revival of this technique. 

Traditionally, we've seen crewels that look more like this- 'Himachal' from Beacon Hill fabrics.

What is Crewel Embroidery?

It is a decorative form of surface embroidery using wool thread and a variety of different stitches to follow a design outline applied to fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old. Crewel wool has a long staple; it is fine and can be strongly twisted. Modern crewel wool is typically a fine, 2-ply or 1-ply yarn. Chain stitch, one of the primary stitches used in Crewel, is a technique in which a series of looped stitches form a chain-like pattern. Here's a link to a great book on Crewel Embroidery.