Cath Bond - Art Online

Unerstanding the textile world - my home fabrics

Thursday, 13 April, 2006 - 15:35

Two different styles of fabric dominating the world of interior home fabric – contemporary and traditional. Traditional images are flowers, chintz style leaves, conservative repeat patterns and colours. Contemporary patterns are bright abstract shapes, either repeated or not. The fabric is also contemporary, meaning that it branches out from traditional materials like cotton, calico etc. and moves into man made materials gauze, voiles, polyesters etc. The fabrics I have chosen for my home are a halfway house between traditional and contemporary:

Cushion covers made from a silk and polyester mix green fabric with dots woven into the material. The covers are lined with a band of burgundy cotton fabric with a traditional flower pattern.

A bedspread made from cotton and polyester mix, with a traditional paisley design using contemporary colours of blue and pink

Lounge curtains made from thick 100% cotton


Cotton cushion cover from Ikea embroidered with a colourful leaf and bird design. For me it is more than simply contemporary. It has the feel of a home made object rather than mass produced. Which is ironic considering it's from Ikea.

I am influenced by modern textile designs shown in magazines and in the media which portray today’s modern home as minimalist, enriched by colourful textiles. I have put my own spin on that approach by combining contemporary, traditional and quirky.



For instance, I made a cushion from my grandmother's embroidery combined with traditional patterned green cotton fabric.

Author: cath
Categories: embroidery, textiles, home furnishing,
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