in conversation
What excites you about patterned textiles?
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Recently designing textile pattern for a Marylebone bistro, oversized botanical motifs evoked a sense of being cradled in a safe jungle of nature's beauty.
Images of nature hold powerful mnemonic and representative qualities. They bring to our mental life and wellbeing a tactility, both reassurance and delight.
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I feel pattern can be an intercession, a celebration, a prayer, and a voice. This idea grew from my childhood, surrounded by myriad patches of cloth, watching my mother create quilts. The patterns were like little books to me; each with its own story, history, colour and characters.
Detail is exciting. Sketching from life is pivotal in my work. The detailed illustrations, created from real-life narratives, shape how I then communicate wider questions and ideas.
​Becky Johnstone launched her signature collection of interior textiles in 2021. Hand drawn and painted designs are printing in the UK.
Johnstone is a professional textile designer. Australian born, for the past twenty years she has been based around the world, designing for textile mills in the UK, US, EU, and Asia. Many projects have involved working alongside interior design and architectural firms on luxury residential and hospitality projects for brands such as Four Seasons, Andres Balazs Group, Maybourne Group, Host, W, St.Regis, Marriott, Morgans, MGM and many others. She holds a Masters degree in Design History from Oxford University, Design degrees from RMIT (Textile Design) and SIT East Sydney (Fashion), and an early training in classical drafting and life painting from The Julian Ashton Art School.
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What makes a great pattern?
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Curiosity, travel, research, time spent in collections; all are invaluable in design development. I'm often considering how our own day fits into the timeline of history, articulating responses to the past, and thoughts for the future. The most exhilarating projects see textiles eliciting a response in the viewer, which is highly satisfying and far reaching.
Sweeping gestures that celebrate the joys of creation, classically drafted characters;
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the story of nature and its bounty, both for earth and hearth.
We are keepers
We are keepers of the earth, and bear responsibility for supporting and championing nature, both now and for future generations.
Nature brings life and invigorates our attention; persistently inspiring, yet increasingly endangered. Together we can create interior products that bring that life-affirming power to built environments, through considered making and business practices.
Moving away from models of mass production and textile prospecting, which we have inherited from the industrial and post-industrial world, our processes revise traditional economic models of consumption by only making what is immediately required.