All Things Design

London based textile designer Nichola Taylorson, fuses traditional aesthetics with the vibrant energy of India.

Nichola Taylorson creates bespoke handmade luxury textiles, hand printed and naturally dyed, combined with digital and hand embroidery, creating a tactile contemporary range of fabrics.

Her ideas and inspiration come from an extensive stint living and working in India, where she learnt many new design techniques, and her love of craft and traditional processes grew. It was while in India that her business idea was born and began to blossom. She combines contemporary design methods with traditional craft and natural materials.

Nichola’s design journey began in 2011 after graduating from Leeds College of Art in Printed Textiles & Surface Pattern Design. She pursued an opportunity in the heart of bustling Mumbai working for a furnishing fabric manufacturing company as their European designer. This is where her passion and expertise for digital embroidery grew. She found herself immersed in the rich Indian culture and was inspired by traditional craft techniques of block and mud print which is the concept behind her designs. She works closely with artisans in Jaipur and Bangalore using 100% natural fabrics.

The process used predominantly for the fabrics is mud printing, the mud acts as a resist to the dye, and here are the steps. 1. the block is carved

2. Mud printing 3. colour matching 4. Dyeing 5. Drying

6. Washing

7. Finished fabric

8. Embroidery