Along with historical textiles and costumes I get a great deal of inspiration from fresh flowers. I love photographing and painting any flowers I see and they often make their way into my designs.
Although many designers create their artwork digitally without a paintbrush these days, I still love to paint my flowers the old fashioned way as I think it makes a difference to the quality of the design. I absolutely do make use of computers to do the rest of the job and now digitally print onto silk fabrics to capture all the colours and details in my designs. I like the idea of using old techniques and giving them a modern twist.
I often collage my own paintings in with historical botanical artworks to create a vintage feel, my favourites are Japanese woodblock prints for an exotic oriental feel!