The world of Rachel Richardson is colourful, optimistic and original, full of curated objects ready to tell you a story. From her garden located studio she does hand made embroidered and appliqué art banners, art prints, and eco friendly home decor. We were really excited to collaborate with Rachel on our Tropicana coral print for this season.After photographing her in our Francesca jumpsuit, Rachel took the time to share with us the story of precious artefacts that have inspired her over the years. Rachel is part of the E17 Art trail, a festival that reveals the spaces in which artists, makers and creators work. From the 1st until the 18th of july you can discover hidden studios, exploring faith spaces and schools where people welcome us in. Look for number 138 in the program.
'The wooden dog I got from a car boot sale for 50p, on the back it’s got the name of the person who made it. It’s a really, cute object that someone hand painted it like it’s an original painting.I used to have guinea pigs when I was little, I would totally have guinea pigs now, but I thing somehow they are a bit weird. I don’t think I can have two cats and a thousands of guinea pigs. That would be a lot'
' ‘the day of the triffids’ is my favorite book and that's my dad's copy, when he was young. So it is very precious. I really like penguin book cover designs and collect those from charities shops, especially series of covers. Then the second Penquin book is 1984, but I like how the front cover is censored. It’s very cool.'
'The hat block is from doing millinery. I bought it from a milliner who retired when I'd just started out. It’s an eighties shape.The Virgin Mary is because every school holidays we used to go and stay with my granny who was a Catholic and would take us to church. She bought that for me when I was little and there is something about religious icons I am just really obsessed with.'
'The little sword wale was from one of my friend’s wedding that one of my other friend made. The tobacco card with embroidered flowers that you can collect from cigarettes packs is very unique. The I love you heart is from my sister when she was in Australia for a year.'
'The hand print block is just an artefact that used to be useful and now it just sits on one of my shelves, but it used to be part of a printing mechanism.The fool's gold I had that since I was about five. It's so shiny and it looks so much like a precious stone, but it's worth nothing. When I was little I thought it was the most magical thing.'
'The Mexican illustration, I only bought that recently. I was told that they used to do pictures like that for shrines and then put them in churches when someone passed away. This artist does a sort of weird, ironic take on them. That one is about the fact that this pig only eats vegetables and that's the tragedy. I really like them, they are really fun.
