Julie Lynch lives in the Adelaide Hills, in a small village surrounded by orchards, vineyards,  farms and bush land, and loves it – she’s lived there her whole life. It’s a rich tapestry of inspiration for her, with many of her designs featuring native flowers and bush themes.

 

 

Quite obviously fond of flowers, she has not limited herself to native varieties – besides the  hakeas and kangaroo paws, her surface designs are filled with proteas, dahlias, chrysanthemums and more. The designs are richly detailed with beautiful flow, and while her palette is varied, it is always rich, gentle and warm.

 

 

Julie has already had a long career as a Graphic Designer working in the apparel industry, and remembers when she first started she was painting film separations for screen printed yardage designs. “I was very young then! But putting pattern into repeat and working with yardage has always been my favourite area.”

Perhaps it is all those years in the industry that has made her approach to work quite methodical. “Often when a project is coming up I will have a clear idea of what I am going to do many weeks before I start working on it. Sometimes I sketch out the design first particularly if it is more of an illustration. Almost always I redraw all my line work on the computer in a vector programme.”

 

 

I asked about her memories of craft and design. She told me that when she was a small girl, her grandmother was always bringing home “amazing” crafts from her time at the Country Women’s Association, and Julie says she couldn’t wait to grow up and go there herself to make baskets and things just like her grandmother did. Julie said she also had an aunt who was studying graphic design, and she would spend many hours watching her drawing, cutting lino, and sewing. Her aunt would often give her pencils and paper to draw with while she was working. Importantly, Julie’s mother also had a craft business when she was growing up, and so Julie followed her example and used to hand-sew clothes for her dolls  – although she says she hasn’t actually progressed with her sewing skills much since then. She is yet to use the machine to put in a zip or buttonhole – but she’s getting there!

 

 

Currently, you can find most of Julie’s surface designs in her Spoonflower shop, CJLdesigns, and other current projects on her blog. She has also recently started designing some soft toys and developing more sewing projects with her fabrics.