CloseAn English Butterfly Garden in Chelsea Green
Timelessly elegant, our luscious Chelsea Green colourway showcases many of Katharine Pooley’s favourite flowers, including honeysuckle, camellias, duchess peonies, jasmine and forget-me-nots.
Hand-painted in the loose chinoiserie style, this striking palette features delicate flora rendered in a soft, largely monochrome scheme set against a rich background of deep green silk. Butterflies, mice and hedgehogs weave among the botanical elements, providing subtle pops of colour that punctuate and elevate the design.
The name Chelsea Green is a nod to one of Katherine’s favourite parts of London, Chelsea, home to her beloved Chelsea Physic Garden – a hidden green sanctuary amidst the bustle of the city.
With every piece sold, a donation will be made to support Butterfly Conservation, a wonderful charity, whose work protects and conserves endangered British butterflies and their habitats.
Alternative colourways
SKU CODE: KP001-03
STANDARD: Hand painted and hand embroidered dyed silk with paper backing
REPEAT: N/A
PANEL WIDTH: 915mm
PANEL HEIGHT: N/A
Each painted panel begins its life as a length of raw silk which we size with a natural adhesive so that it receives paint without bleeding. We often brush the silk with iridescent pearl washes to add further lustre before backing with traditional rice paper. This forms the extraordinary canvas on which our artists work their magic.
For our embroidery, we use unspun silk floss, which in its un-dyed state is so fine as to be almost invisible to the naked eye. It is dyed by hand in small batches, and our embroiderers have thousands of shades at their disposal. It is not uncommon for an embroiderer to work with six tones of the same colour, which he or she will carefully combine to create subtle shifts in hue.
All our embroidery takes place in Suzhou, China. This remarkable city was the birthplace of silk over 4700 years ago and remains the silk capital of the world.