Design Process: Making of the Cave House and Valley Views Prints

Today we’re taking you behind the scenes of our design process and hand screen printing the Cave House and Valley views prints from our Kapadokya collection.

Inspired by the history of Cappodocia

Inspired by travels in the beautiful and historical region of Cappadocia in Turkey, the Cave House print is inspired the homes, churches and monasteries carved directly into unique rock formations formed from years of volcanic erosion.

Cappadocia is also famous for hot air ballooning. Masi had been in a hot air balloon before, but I (Sarah) hadn’t, so we thought this would be the perfect place to go together (plus it was our birthdays)! It was an amazing experience, floating over the stunning landscape. The Valley Views print captures scenes that we saw from the sky; an aerial view of caves and farms, dotted with horse ranches.

Cave House Design Process

For the Cave House print I begin by drawing a rough layout, which most closely references the windy paths and structures seen in the Gorëme Open Air Museum, a large monastic complex. Slowly I figured out the repeat and added in details including painted frescoes, pigeon houses, windows and doors.

For the Valley Views print I had an idea of the design in my head and through photographic references worked with Tash, our intern at the time who developed a rough composition that would be the basis for the final print.

Sampling the Design

The next step was to separate the designs into layers; one for each colour. These were then exposed onto mesh screens for screen printing.

We then tested the screens and selected colours, which is always a process of trial and error to get right!

Hand Screen Printing the Fabric

Once all colours were mixed and the screens tested, we were ready to print the full run of fabric. The Cave House design has 5 colours, so that’s 5 screens to print. Valley Views has just one colour; so that’s a little easier!

Stitching Cave House 

Back in the studio all our fabrics get stitched into products. 

Cave House Quilt

Shop the Cave House Quilt here.