MARTHE ARMITAGE PRINTS LIMITED

Jenny brings over three decades of experience to her block printing, working from her light-filled studio at Whittington Court in the Cotswolds, UK. She has an instinctive, experimental approach to block printing on fabric, creating designs organically that are as much about discovery as form. Her process, free of detailed sketching, planning or traditional registration (she often uses string or mirrored tiles), is playful, intuitive, and always evolving. Using soft-cut lino (a rubbery material without the hessian backing of traditional linoleum), Jenny shapes her blocks, cutting away the backing and hand carving designs into each form. A motif may be repurposed from a previous design, and the final composition often results from mixing and layering blocks, printing different colour-ways, and seeing how shapes interact on fabric.

Jenny’s studio is filled with hundreds of these blocks, varying dramatically in size, and catalogued into boxes labelled with descriptors such as small leaves, large flowers, stems, twigs, poppies, triangles, and birds. Folders of colour samples, stacks of test prints and swathes of fabric fill the space and adorn the surfaces of her home in cushions, runners, and tablecloths. Her studio is both a working space and a living archive. Surrounded by gardens, orchards and a thrush that sings in the evening, it continues to inspire her designs. Although Jenny’s inspiration is wide-ranging, and may come from an object, a book, or a memory, nature certainly takes centre stage. The designs celebrate the ordinary beauty of the world and explore ‘all the extraordinary things that we have around us’. Her background as an archaeological illustrator and a childhood spent near Richmond Park, with visits to the Natural History Museum, undoubtedly influenced the intricate natural motifs of her later designs.

With an early interest in both ceramics and wood engraving, her career turned towards textiles when she joined a fabric printing course at Stroud College. It offered her a way to be bold, to work large, and to integrate her creative life into home life, working from the kitchen table. The course allowed her to break from the fine-line precision of illustration; to experiment; to embrace colour and pattern and explore bolder design. The collaboration with Marthe Armitage Prints is a celebration of friendship, a shared heritage in block printing, and a deep respect for nature. Whilst Marthe’s botanical designs are a showcase of flow and repeat pattern hand cutting, Jenny’s designs explore the complex patterns and the distinctive texture of individual forms.

The fabric and wallpaper collection consists of three designs from Jenny’s extensive archive. They have been carefully selected by the creative team at Marthe Armitage Prints; Marthe’s daughter and Company Director Jo Broadhurst and Creative Director Harriet Eastman.

In ‘Jenny’s Poppy’, ‘Mimram’ and ‘Frilly Leaf’, we are invited into this playful, generous world. A place where the river bends, leaves curl, and poppies bloom endlessly in fabric and wallpaper form.

Inspired by the shortest river in England, ‘Mimram’ holds a special significance for Jenny as it is near to where she once lived in Hertfordshire. The design had been quietly forming in her mind over years, bubbling up from memory and place. The river winds its way diagonally though, giving it energy and sense of flowing water. Insects, birds, and other flora and fauna motifs appear scattered throughout the spaces, almost as if they have drifted onto the surface of the cloth, whilst soft ferns burst from the bank. The result is a design full of joy and vitality.

In contrast to the other two designs ‘Frilly Leaf’ is more visually ordered. A solid repeat. A shape softened by the hand-cut nature of the block with its organic form and texture. This design grew from a leftover piece of Lino and became the starting point for a distinctive, undulating leaf motif. Like many, it emerged directly from ‘playing’ with the process of print. Initially carved whole, Jenny later removed the centre, creating a visual tension between the interior and ruffled edge that gives ‘Frilly Leaf’ its living, distinctive rhythm. Her more fluid method of working helps to create these designs that are full of life. She admits to not having much of a plan, talks about her fascination to see what will work, and the infinite variables achieved by the process. As she puts it, she is not planning a design so much as playing.

“I might have five or six blocks in a design that may have been parts of other designs. I’m not afraid to reuse bits and just play with them”.

For further information, pricing and sample requests contact [email protected]

Marthe Armitage Prints showroom and studio is open to the public on Fridays (other days by appointment).