Kezia works full time as a colour separation artist for a large textiles printing company, and fits in designing for herself between times. Working out of a small and chaotic spare room at home, she says that the best designing moment for her came when she won a Spoonflower contest. “It was a realisation that other people like my work too. I quite often don’t have much confidence in myself and my work. I’m quite critical of myself!”
kezia – tumbling flowers
Graduating with a degree in woven textiles she was lucky enough to then get a job at a screen printing company working on designs for the top end of the fashion and furnishing market. The company was also pioneering in digital textile printing so it was a fabulous opportunity to learn about those processes.
Now in her job, she works on designs and collections for furnishing fabrics. “I take an original design and prepare it technically for rotary printing. I’ll set out the correct repeat and scale and make any amendments to the design that have been asked for and then separate each colour into a tonal file which is used to make a rotary screen. This can be tricky when you are working on a hand painted water colour design and have to get it to print with 12 colours only. It’s a bit like a puzzle and I enjoy it. Sometimes things go wrong at work, such as a mistake in the repeat or something like that and it gives me the fear. I’m super careful and check, double check and triple check… It’s always worth getting a fresh pair of eyes to look over something as you can get so absorbed that you miss silly things.”
kezia – flower power
Kezia’s own childhood was filled with the romance of illustrations by the fabulous Kay Neilsen, and they have made an enduring impression on her, in her choice of soft, muted palette and flowing lines, and cfredits her Nan with introducing his work to her. “My Nan was a big influence on me with regards to instilling a love of art, music and literature and encouraging me to be creative and inquiring from a very young age. She had a beautiful book of Neilsen’s work and I loved to look for hours at the wonderful enchanted fairytale landscapes and details.”
kezia – floral and bird
kezia – folky floral
Kezia’s own work is full of soft arabesques, rich florals and damasks, reminiscent of traditional Indian and folk florals, with wonderful depth in their choice of muted and rich colours, and occasionally punctuated with brights.
I asked Kezia what was her best piece of advice.
“Play to your strengths, work hard and never give up.”
kezia – organic damask
You can find more of Kezia’s designs in her Spoonflower shop, and on her blog.