Meet Katrina, chief maker, and creator at UK based textile studio Petal Cloud. We spoke to her about her process and what makes her designs specials. We hope that this conversation with the maker gives you a little more info and inspo behind the maker.

Petal Cloud is an artisanal, print-to-order textile studio inspired by flowers and nature, the studio explores the vibrancy and playful ways nature creates shape and space.

Katrina says: “We create hand-crafted fabric responses from original paintings, drawings, and colour findings. We take a process of abstracting these natural forms through mark making and painterly expressions to create spirited and lively designs for textiles.”

What makes Petal Cloud Special?

The designs are created from very large-scale paintings that sometimes take a few weeks to paint. Then they are reduced in scale to work for interior fabrics.

They hand paint every element in the design, sometimes even the background. This is then transferred onto beautiful Belgian Linen using a sustainable digital printed process.

When she launched her studio just over 18 months ago she wanted to transfer her paintings, which she has been creating since she was a little girl, directly onto fabric from canvas or paper – that component of the process was really important to her. She felt that this was a way to engage with the end user of her products. “I hope some of the energies and senses I experience when painting them come through into the designs” she says.

Eco-conscious processes

When starting out, Katrina wanted a product that was as eco-friendly as possible whilst still maintaining the painterly marks from my paintings. Printing digitally seemed to be the best fit to fulfil all of this. Being eco-conscious is an important value for Petal Cloud studio.

During the printing process, they use water-based inks on fabrics so there is no excess water or ink waste which helps reduce the harmful impact on the environment – a common issue which some textile design processes have. As a print-to-order business she does not stock large rolls or quantities of fabric which may sometimes lead to waste if sales are not met.

Inspired by…

Katrina has always painted, she was a textile designer for many years before starting her own studio. She draws inspiration for her collections from Traditional Eastern art and Primitivism. She believes her bold prints hold a story of pattern, art and colour.

She honours the traditional Japanese art-form of wabi-sabi, centred on transience and imperfection. Appreciating beauty that is ‘’imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete’’.

Katrina believes that “every mark as its own tale and plays a role in the bigger story. Without it, there would be no design.”

To end our discussion, we ask our makers the same question: Who would your dream job be for (dead or alive) and how would you make your mark?

That’s a hard one she says, it would probably be working alongside one of my favourite textile designer artists like Sonia Delaunay or in an artist’s studio like Matisse or Georgia O’Keefe.

You can find Katrina’s full collection here.

Please allow 2-3 weeks for your Petal Cloud Order to arrive from the date of order.