Silkscreen & Scribble the inner workings of a hand printed textile studio

This is one of the many stunning views in Orkney - Skaill beach. I love the colours of the landscape and the very first leaflet I designed for the business showed my cushions sitting in the marram grass with the sea and blue sky in the background. Since then it’s become one of my favourite spots for product photography - although one does get the odd strange look from people walking their dogs on the beach, as I arrange cushions on the beach and photo them!

I’ve photographed some of my current cushion collection there this summer so I’ll have to get some images uploaded soon to share with you.

In amongst the marram grass there are also some rather impressive umbellifers which inspired my “umbels” design.

I love the sound of the word marram and so many of my designs are inspired by plants, flower and the landscape so it seems like a good fit. Hopefully this goes some way to help explain the new name and so far it seems to have got the thumbs up from most people I know and do business with.

Posted: 3rd September 2009 in it's all me, me, me, photography.
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Long time no speak folks! Well despite how things look here on the blog it’s been a very eventful few months for me. In the spring I took the big step (which I had been considering for a long time) of launching a new trading name for the textiles part of my business. Although I’m still officially Digitata Ltd, I now market and sell my textiles under the name Marram Studio.

In 2004, when I first started my business, I was mainly working on selling designs and less on making actual products but as the business has evolved handmade textiles have become an increasingly important part of what I do. Rather than continuing to try and squeeze everything into the one brand I decided to give the handmade range it’s own name and as many of my designs are inspired by nature I have renamed the brand after the Marram Grass which grows on sandy shores around Orkney.

It’s been a really positive change for the business and I’m going to be posting this week to fill you all in on what’s been happening here at Marram Studio in the busy few months since the change. Then I have lots of plans for Silkscreen & Scribble over the next few months so stay tuned!

Posted: 16th August 2009 in it's all me, me, me.
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I’m normally all too guilty of hoarding supplies (fabric, yarn, paper etc), which I plan use to make some fabulous item, that I never quite find the time to actually make. However, the ridiculously cold weather here in Orkney has spurred me into action and I spent a couple of evenings knitting this scarf (thanks to the lamp post outside my studio for being such a willing model!). As a left handed person who only knows how to knit right handed, I’m not much of a knitter because it takes me forever to finish anything but this was super quick due to the absurdly chunky yarn and it is so cosy!

Who knows maybe this will spur me on to hunt out my old knitting machine out of the loft and make some more things?

Posted: 23rd February 2009 in making things.
Comments: 1

For those of you in Scotland, I have news of an exciting new exhibition (which just happens to feature some of my work)! Winter Warmth at the Park Gallery and Callendar House, in Falkirk, features the work of 56 artists and makers including some of my work. The show celebrates the 500th anniversary of print in Scotland so there should be lots of exciting prints from art prints and handmade books to screen printed textiles and jewellery.

So if you’re in the area, the show runs until the 3rd January 2009 and is open Monday-Saturday 10-4pm. So pop along for an entertaining afternoon of culture, enjoy a nice cup of tea in the tea shop and do a wee bit of Christmas shopping (all work is for sale with something for all tastes and budgets).

Posted: 14th November 2008 in exhibitions & events.
Comments: 1

My brother lives in the States so we don’t see him very often so it was great when he came over to see us a couple of weeks ago and it was his birthday while he was here so what better excuse to make him an extra special gift. He’s a really keen cook so an apron seemed the perfect answer but I wasn’t sure if he would like my regular aprons and like me he is a big fan of black so I decided to print some nice black cotton drill fabric with white knives and forks. I was hoping to be able to show it off being worn but my brother managed to squirrel the apron away in his suitcase and avoided being photographed wearing it, so here is my “Betty” wearing it.

For the moment at least this is one of a kind but I suspect it may not stay that way for long as I have already had some not so subtle hints from other family and friends that they would like one too!

Posted: 11th November 2008 in commissions & specials, hand-printing.
Comments: 2

One of my lovely customers who had bought a pebbles coin purse from me got in touch to order a swing bag to match but she wanted the slate grey but with ice blue/turquoise detail instead of the normal natural/green stripe.  So the sewing machine was duly revved up and here it is.  So for the moment at least this one is unique but if anyone fancies one the same just let me know and I will get the sewing machine going again.

One of favourite things about these bags is the leather thong drawstring, at first I wasn’t sure how well it would work but it stays closed really well but when you do open it it’s great because it opens nice and wide so you can actually find your keys without 5 minutes of rummaging which is fabulous.

Posted: 1st October 2008 in commissions & specials, inside the studio, shop.
Comments: 1

As a small business it’s always interesting to be able to do special commissions for customers. I had been thinking about trying out printing a couple of my designs in red ink on natural linen but I hadn’t got round to printing up some samples yet. Then one of my neighbours came to visit the studio with her sister who was in Orkney on holiday and she asked me to print a couple of cushions for her home.

I’m really pleased with the way this design looks in red and I think I may have to print some more of these for the shop sometime soon. The other cushion is in my pebbles design - I like it in red too but not quite as much I can’t decide whether to make more or not?

What do think red pebbles or no red pebbles?

Posted: 20th September 2008 in design, hand-printing, inside the studio.
Comments: 7

Just a quick post to remind everyone Jacquard Woven cushion collection is currently on sale in the shop, so do pop on over and for a look.

I have also been considering offering some of my jacquard fabrics by the metre for people to sew their own cushions, but the fabric does fray so needs to be well hemmed or overlocked/serged. Leave a comment if you would be interested in this as an option in the future and if so would you prefer mix packs of fabric or meterage?

Posted: 15th September 2008 in shop.
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Thanks to Heather Moore for posting about my business on the South African Elle Decoration blog. I’m a big fan of Heather’s blog Skinny La Minx so I was really happy to see her post.

Thanks for the mention, Heather!

Posted: 10th September 2008 in press & mentions.
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I did an interesting commission last year for the Pier Arts Centre, which is a local gallery. It’s an amazing place to have on your doorstep and they have an impressive collection of work from artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicolson.

The centre is really part of the community and have a great program of educational events and involvement with local schools and they asked me to produce some floor cushions for kids to use as they take part in various activities around the galleries such as drawing and storytelling sessions.

Although it was the end of last year that I made them I’ve only recently received these photos and it’s great to see them in action.

Posted: 6th September 2008 in art, design, hand-printing, inside the studio.
Comments: 2