I’ve always loved textile designs, which is something I probably picked up from my mother, who’s always collected beautiful fabrics wherever she travelled and encouraged me to do the same.

I’ve got my own little collection I’ve been building over the years, some keepsake prints I picked up in India along with raw silks and beautifully toned linens, and other more unique designs I’ve been gifted from my mother or nanna in hopes of one day upholstering some cushions or transforming into an item of clothing.

I was fortunate enough to be asked by eco-friendly Melbourne based swim designer, Baaby Swim back in 2018 to design my first published print featuring Australian waratahs, poppies and roses for their first-ever printed swimwear pattern which was SO much fun! Experimenting with the repeat pattern and alternate colourways was eye-opening and a great taster for me into understanding more about how the textile industry works.

It was thanks to digging through my old college work from Enmore Design Centre (TAFE) that I found an old project where we had been asked to recreate the alphabet with our own fonts. (Believe it or not I had used chicken skin & pegs to piece together all the letters and photographed them all - it was very fleshy and super gross but I still reckon it was a good concept!)

This inspired me to try out the project again but using my library of illustrated florals I’ve been growing for the past 5 years through many different jobs and projects. I chose a nice serif font to use as a template and set to work on illustrating some additional flowers to help create better structure to build up the letterforms and after about 3 weeks of putting them all together, I had created my very own illustrated botanical alphabet!

Alphabet Botanical Prints available HERE

I ended up launching the full alphabet as an art print series and sent out a newsletter to everyone who had subscribed to my website, and all the clients and people I had worked with in the past sharing my new range.

Thankfully 2 Green Zebras saw this and contacted me with a VERY exciting proposal! An 8 piece textile range appropriately titled Alphabet Botanical Illustration Collection (ABC Collection) featuring 5 beautiful colourways, my full alphabet print, an all-over fabric pattern and a wreath printed on linen for embroidery.

After only a couple of weeks of compiling the files, signing off on layout and colour it was up online and that was it! My very first textile range!

Alphabet Botanical Collection - Textile range available via twogreenzebras.com

I am so grateful for taking the time out from work to create a passion project for no one else but myself. Sometimes when you make time for yourself it can help you achieve so much more than you can imagine!

I think it’s easy to get caught up in the demand of designing and illustrating for others and so important to take the time to just work on something just for yourself. You never know where that little project can take you!