16 Sep Hand Picked
Molly Mahon’s latest collection for Schumacher celebrates the glory of the English garden, with the dahlia taking centre stage – perfect for a launch at Focus/23, since these flowers are some of the showstoppers of the early autumn garden.
The Bloom collection is “designed in Sussex, hand-block in Rajasthan,” and is a true celebration of colour and pattern. The five designs include ‘Dahlia’ with its clusters of flower heads jostling for position and ‘Mughal’ (above left), whose blooms are more formal and stylised in the tradition of Indian or Ottoman prints.’Chequer Block’ (above right) and ‘Wide Stripe Block’ complement the more complex patterns with graphic simplicity.
How the fabrics come to life is just as fascinating as the finished products. Specialist craftspeople in Rajasthan build up the pattern colour by colour using intricately carved blocks. It’s painstaking, but the finished result reverberates with the character and charm of something made by hand.
Visit the Schumacher showroom during Focus/23 on Tuesday 19 September at 1.30pm to see Molly Mahon give a demonstration of hand-block printing, and introduce the collection.