From Britain with Love

I studied for a nursing degree and after working mainly in Intensive Care, I went back to university and became a primary school teacher. It was whilst doing art and craft with the schoolchildren that I realised that this was what I loved doing. I then studied Surface Print at Stroud Art College one day a week whilst bringing up my own four small children. I actually decided to start the business eleven years ago because I needed to earn some money and didn’t want to go back to teaching or nursing! 

My husband and I were renovating an old cow byre with lots of large windows so I hand printed lots of fabric to save money, and these became the first designs that I sold. I started the business at my kitchen table, working after my children (then aged 8, 10, 12 and 14) were tucked up in bed, cutting up all the samples with pinking shears and rolling out the first orders on a table tennis table! After some very lucky coverage in Country Living magazine and the Saturday Telegraph, followed by a Country Living Fair, the business took off!

I work in a converted barn attached to my house. We live very rurally - the nearest house is half a mile away. My designs are inspired by the surrounding countryside…with swathes of Cow Parsley and beautiful hedgerows all around me, and I also keep chickens, ducks and geese.

The cloth I print on is specially woven for me in Scotland - it's a blend of organic cotton and linen. I feel very strongly about not using non-organic cotton which requires so much pesticide that the cotton pickers can be harmed. Some of my fabrics are hand bock-printed using traditional wooden blocks cut to my own designs, while some are hand screen-printed, and others are printed by machine. 

My most popular design is Cow Parsley, followed by Flora and Fauna in all colourways. Our woollen Floor Rugs which are woven to my design in a small mill in Wales are also very popular. I'm currently busy designing a new range with a Scandinavian feel which will launch next May. I think I will ring the changes a bit and print these new fabrics on a 100% linen cloth.

The best thing about what I do is being able to print my fabric designs onto organic cotton. I hope that by using organic cotton this will encourage others to do so, and improve the health prospects of the cotton pickers. I also hope that by commissioning our woven floor rugs, I am helping the small Welsh Mill to survive.

I choose to make my most of my fabrics and products in the UK for environmental reasons... trying to keep my carbon footprint as low as possible. I use an upholsterer two miles away to make all my furniture and upholstered bed heads. The workshops we use to make our made-to-measure curtains, blinds and cushions are also within just two miles of our office.

I was very proud when Liberty asked to sell my fabrics…and also when J K Rowling used my Cockerel and Spot fabric in her Edinburgh kitchen!

I sell all my products through my website www.vanessaarbuthnottfabrics.co.uk, as well as through designers and interiors shops around the country.

I admire fabric designers Rapture & Wright, and also the work of artist Madeleine Floyd. The designer Celia Birtwell is also someone I aspire to, as she has had such an interesting journey through her life.

I do make an effort to but British food and try to always shop at a wonderful farm shop nearby called the Abbey Farm Shop,where all their produce is organic and they make their own delicious cheese.

Pembrokeshire…we have a simple cottage near Solva on the coastal path…it's so dramatic but also very quiet.

To relax, I like to read a novel, walk my whippet Ruby, and play cards or chess. I also love watching films and plays on the TV or at the cinema.