08/01/2018

Asta Barrington: New Fiesta tray, tablemat and textiles collection

We are excited to be launching Fiesta, a new colourful collection designed by Asta Barrington at the Maison et Objet trade show in Paris this month. Dancing spectrum stripes of joyous colour inspired by loopy lace and Nordic knitwear will initially be available on birch wood trays, placemats, coasters, aprons and tea towels. The products are available in three bright colourways and designed to mix and match. Visit us on Stand D28 in Hall 6, Maison et Objet 19-23rd January 2018.

Asta says:

"I absolutely love colour. I love pattern too and sometimes when you put them all together they just fight, so by arranging the colours in some kind of natural order they become more harmonious, like a rainbow or a set of pastels in an art shop. Whenever I start working with a new printing company for whatever product we are developing, I always ask them to print me an entire spectrum so I can easily see the potential and choose individual colours for my designs logically and try to match the colours on different materials as much as possible in daylight. The manufacturers we work with can produce incredible colour saturation and I was desperate to create a new multicolour collection when I saw their capabilities.

Border patterns as well as colour have long been a main feature of my work. Before licensing designs to Jamida I spent my post-college years as a textile designer-maker of embroidered cashmere and wool blankets and scarves. I developed a method of machine embroidering intricate wool fringes onto loom-state fabric which was then dyed so the finished article would be a textural and tonal variation of one colour. One of my favourite things was working out dye recipes and I created over 120 repeatable shades - an overwhelming choice of colours for some of my customers but useful when honing down shades to a specific palette. I loved to pile up the different blankets and their coloured fancy fringes so they would overlap and create pleasing complex patterns, like scaled up broderie anglaise fabric or woolly wrought ironwork. The layering of intricate patterns and subtle graduation of colour from one side to the next very much echoes my earlier work albeit with a change of scale and material. I have included breathing space with plain areas to give the eye a break from the busier areas, just as I used to with my blankets and scarves. The loopy lace patterns hint at fair isle, lace and traditional Scandinavian yoke patterned knitwear." 

See the entire Fiesta collection here, and register to see prices and become a stockist.