Sarah Lewis

Sarah Lewis is a textile designer and printer based in Bath, using hand-carved blocks and acid dyes on silk and wool to make scarves. She loves the process and character of block printing, including the subtle variation caused by the human hand at work - the odd mistake showing that it was not made by a robot! Most of her blocks are made of lino, but she also uses strips of wood glued onto a base, or even balsa. She works on ready hemmed silk scarves, which she dyes before printing, and on different qualities of wool, which she usually does not dye as the natural cream colour is so attractive.

Leaves prints

Leaves prints

Leaves prints

She finds ideas for pattern and pattern repeats in many places, from architecture to the natural world, for example, Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin with its amazing medieval floor tiles has been a recent mine of inspiration, and a trip to Japan reminded her of the virtue of simplicity. The work of other block printers, for instance Susan Bosence and Peggy Angus, have also been inspirational.

She develops designs to suit the scarf, for example, a design for one of the woolgauze scarves, which are wide, will do better with a bolder, larger scale block, while the silk scarves can invite more detail. As for colour, one might be tempted by what is the fashion of the moment, but she finds that most people know exactly what suits them, and lets that be a large influence. She often has one of her friends in mind when mixing the colours.

Tree in a pot

Tree in pot

Inspired by tiles print