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

Ok so I’m officially a bad blogger, I have all the good intentions and grand plans but in the last year the actually blogging hasn’t really happened. What can I say – life just kinda got in the way – but in a good way (more on that soon).

I considered quietly letting Silkscreen & Scribble slide off into the ether but then I thought about how much I enjoy participating in the blogosphere, all the great artists and designers I’ve discovered through reading blogs and how despite my lack of free time I’m still excited by the prospect of having a blog – a place to share my own adventures in designing, screen printing and running Marram Studio.

Also I have one really great excuse for some of my absence…

In November my studio in Orkney went from this…

TO THIS

The emptiness being on account of the fact that this photo was taken right after the removal men left to take everything down to my new studio in Glasgow!

Posted: March 30th, 2011 in it's all me, me, me.
Comments: 3

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: September 3rd, 2009 in it's all me, me, me, photography.
Comments: none

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: August 16th, 2009 in it's all me, me, me.
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So I guess I should fill in a few of the details. I live in Orkney which is a tiny group of islands off the north of Scotland and from here I run a studio designing and making a range of hand-printed textiles. I’ve got lots of exciting changes planned for the business over the next few months and hope you’ll come along for the ride.

One of my new projects has been setting up a wee studio shop in my workshop and the printed leaves fabric on the print table has become a lovely curtain to tidy up the sink area in the workshop. Unfortunately the sink is at the door and although the inks I use are all non-toxic and water based, I wouldn’t want anyone to spoil their clothes by getting ink on them.

Until the end of September my studio at the Old Academy (in the town of Stromness) will be open Wednesday and Friday afternoons 2.30-5pm. I’m not sure how often I’ll open in the winter, it does get pretty quiet around here once the weather becomes more wintery.

Posted: September 3rd, 2008 in hand-printing, inside the studio, it's all me, me, me.
Comments: 2

The scary first post. Mmmm, where to begin…

Well I guess you could say I’ve been a serial lurker for the last couple of years, reading lots of blogs but not managing to fully participate in the whole blogging community. All the while thinking how great it would be have my own little blog to let people know about my designs and what I’m up to in the studio but not quite managing to find time to get started. Until today that is so here begins Silkscreen & Scribble.

I hope you’ll visit often…

Posted: August 29th, 2008 in it's all me, me, me.
Comments: 1