Page 54 - Designing Ways 260

PATTERNS

Patterns, colours and curves.

by Design Team Fabrics

he designers at Design Team It is not only the vegetation of Africa
Fabrics have always drawn their that inspires our designs but also
Tinspiration from Africa’s nature, the wildlife. We created the Carapau
combining it with a Scandinavian design based on the colourful fish of itself we came across the perfect design.
simplicity to obtain simple yet delicate Mozambique. We have used the patterns The stamen of the flower, created by
designs. You only need to look at an aerial of the scales of the Carapau fish to create nature, gave us the perfect pattern for the
photo of the patterns formed in a maize our Scale designs. By adding an Art small scale print we needed to accompany
field to see the inspiration for our Crop Décor touch to the patterns of the scales the bigger design. The fine detail and
Field. Add in the earthy yellow tones of we are able to modernise the design to pattern of the stamen can clearly be seen
the maize field together with the bright fit into any current outdoor scheme. The reflected in the Filum and Floret design.
blue African sky and the design almost vibrant colours of all our designs are a dw
creates itself. go to for the brave decorator wishing to www.designteamfabrics.co.za
move away from the browns and greys of
the past.
Our Okra design has its origin in
the Okra pod grown in Ethiopia. The
patterns seen in the cross section of the
pod of the Okra plant reveal where the
inspiration originated. Again, patterns
found in nature have been used to create
our designs. Our connection with the
patterns of nature, and our use of cotton
and linen base clothes wherever possible,
have driven us to be as sustainable a fabric
house as possible.
We decided for our new range that
we would focus on the Aloe plant
found across the country. We created
the design of the full Aloe plant which
we printed on a loosely woven linen
base cloth. But we needed a small-scale
design to complement the large design
printed. For this we looked at patterns
created within the Aloe plant itself.
By deconstructing the actual flower,

54 Issue 260 • dw