Freya Snow is an illustrator and surface pattern designer based in Stroud whose work I have stocked since I opened my bricks and mortar shop nearly 5 years ago. Her bold bright and beautiful botanical tea towels, serving boards, coasters and oven gloves fill the shop with colour.
Freya uses a combination of collage, watercolour and digital skills to create her signature textured designs, which are digitally printed onto homewares and accessories.
1. What’s your favourite plant or flower?
I absolutely love poppies and all of the glorious colours you can find them in. We have a gorgeous pink poppy that blooms every year in our front garden and it always makes me smile. I also think the seed heads are so cool! It’s on the cards for a new design idea, I have loads of inspiration pictures to work from as I can’t stop taking photos of them this year!
2. What’s your favourite tree?
Acer trees, because of their beautifully shaped leaves and rich variety of colours. I love anything with sunset tones!
3. Coast, woods, mountains or meadows — where do you feel most at home in nature?
This is a tough one, but I find there is something so magical about being by the coast. I love being by the beach, going for coastal walks, finding shells, exploring rockpools and swimming in the sea! It’s so special being at the seaside in the autumn. Also, there’s nothing better than getting fish and chips and having an ice cream on the beach! Close second is the woods – we have so many gorgeous woodland walks where we live and I always find my mind calms down once I am surrounded by trees.
4. What’s your favourite thing to make, and what drew you to it?
I enjoy decorating my home with beautiful things, so I was drawn to designing patterns for homeware products. Tea towels are probably my favourite product to design for as the possibilities are endless, and it’s such a simple way to add some colour and pattern to your kitchen while also being functional! I particularly like using collage when creating my designs, as I love the mix of texture and layering that I can achieve.
5. What made you start making?
All of the women in my family have a creative streak, especially my mum, so I grew up with it. I loved art at school and continued after GCSEs onto college to do an Art Foundation, and then went on to study Textile Design at university. This then led me on to starting my business!
6. What does a perfect making day look like for you?
Absolutely no admin on the to-do list. An uninterrupted day of drawing ideas in my sketchbook and designing on Procreate. No pressure for the work to become something that I have to sell – just drawing for the fun of it and seeing what happens!
7. What’s the last thing in nature that stopped you in your tracks?
We were recently on an evening dog walk and came across a beautiful fox just sitting in the middle of the field – we thought it was a dog sat waiting for its owner at first because it was sitting so patiently. There was a lovely evening light so it felt really magical!
8. Which season shows up most in your work, and why?
This is a tricky one as I have such a mix of designs now, but I would say autumn. I love to use earthy tones in my colour palettes which suits autumnal designs perfectly. My most recent autumnal pattern has mushrooms on and it’s one of my favourites! Then for the autumn harvest theme I have a super bright pumpkins and squash tea towel and a purple carrots tea towel which is probably my best selling product. I also did an autumn leaves design which was inspired by Westonbirt Arboretum which we often visit for walks. The acer trees are breathtaking there in October!
9. What do you hope people feel when they buy your designs?
I hope my designs make people happy – either because they can’t wait to display what they’ve bought in their home or gift their purchase to a loved one. I still feel such joy every time I make a sale – it is the most incredible feeling knowing that someone wants to buy something that I have created!
10. What are you working on right now, or what’s coming next?
I have a new ‘Beach Treasures’ design that I am about to launch on tea towels, tote bags, chopping boards, coasters and trays. This was inspired by the joy of finding treasures in the sand when spending time at the seaside.
As mentioned in the flower question, I would love to do a poppies design next. I have seen so many good ones this year and taken a huge bank of photos to work from. I would like to work in a similar style to how I created my hellebores design, so that the motifs work in a repeat pattern or as individual motifs on coasters and placemats, where you can really appreciate the detail in the design.
You can browse all of Freya’s lovely designs in the online shop and some lovely new trays in several designs will be coming to the shop soon too.
