Molly Meets Molly Mahon

A simple repeating pattern makes my heart sing. Molly Mahon’s beautiful block prints have been calling out to me for quite some time and I’m thrilled to be incorporating these characterful designs into our bed linen collection. It was such a pleasure to sit down with ‘the other Molly’ to talk patterns, colour and inspiration.

Enjoy!

Molly

I am a mother of three, married to Rollo and I live in the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. My business started as a kitchen table hobby as the children were growing up, with me printing fabrics and wallpapers in the garden studio of our cottage that we bought 14 years ago.

Molly Mahon Studio has grown into a team of amazing people both here and in India. I love pattern and colour in my home and we offer a range of wallpapers, fabrics and homewares expressing this. A large percentage of our fabrics are hand block printed in India. Having learnt the art here I then took myself to Rajasthan to further my education and have been hooked on the craft ever since, journeying to and working with studios across Jaipur and Delhi. 

We now work with a growing team of highly skilled block printers, colour mixers and block carvers in a newly created space in Delhi that is focusing on good work ethics, clean paints and a forward-thinking approach to the future of block printing. From here in Delhi we ship our fabrics all over the world. 

I am becoming ever more passionate about maintaining the option to produce with our hands and through the creativity of a human being and continue to explore and develop designs employing this beautiful and time-tested process. As our business grows we are proud to be able to support apprentice block carvers and invest back into the art of block printing. 

The first time I printed using a wooden block was quite a marker in my life. It has taken me on a journey that now shapes my life. Never do I feel more alive and wholesome than when I am printing a piece of cloth or seeing our fabrics being printed. I have gone from playing at my kitchen table to running a studio that crosses continents, offering items made with integrity and passion that will go on to add a charm and quality into all sorts of homes and lives. 

Molly Mahon Studio is a journey of craft, pattern, colour and most importantly joy. 

All our designs have to be able to be carved into wood or lino and printed by hand, so this give me some lovely boundaries to focus on when I am choosing and creating new patterns. This has been a very personal journey and so I have that very personal connection with everything I create.

When I had my first child, Lani, I found myself at home with a long day ahead of me, which was not in tangent with the hectic events company I had been running prior to that. I needed to fill my mind and hands with something other than the baby and so started to seek a creative project to focus on. After a few trial and error courses, I went on a one day block print workshop and my heart was full. From that first lift of the block I was smitten.

I think there is inspiration all around us. It depends on where my life lands me, so mostly there have been three main areas - nature (I live in the Ashdown Forest), Charleston (the very decorated country home of the Bloomsbury group) which is just down the road, and of course India, where I have been going to back and forth over the last ten years. I recently went to Florence for a weekend and then Morocco at Christmas and I can see so many new ideas from those trips, so it really depends on where I immerse myself!

Bohemian – Rollo and I like to collect things on our travels and mix it all in – and non-segmented – we have items we have inherited mixed in with new things etc. I like to think that it is welcoming, relaxed, fun and interesting. I love colour, so there is plenty of that and I try all my designs in my home first, so you could say it is a bit of a Molly Mahon showroom too!

Layers. Firstly, a welcoming space created with the right use of wallpapers, paints and curtains. I love a padded headboard to soften the space and add comfort. For the bed itself, I love a really full duvet, often layered with a blanket for added comfort and warmth, and loads of pillows with cushions in front of those. I have snuggled into bed with my children over the years to read books and we have needed cushions aplenty so we aren’t fighting over them or trying to share!

Just do it! Life is too short to live in greige, unless that of course makes you feel your most happy. I do it because it brings me and my family joy. We love our books, cushions, patterns, delicious-coloured wall paints, fun wallpapers. Our home is in itself a document of us, it’s a very personal space and tells a very personal story. Our home is our sacred space, that we are grateful for every day, we celebrate it and we celebrate in it. Adding colour and pattern adds life and energy.

Originally I would draw everything by hand with pencil and tracing paper, carve it in lino and print it in my garden studio. It might have been as simple as drawing around a holly leaf collected on a walk with my children or sketching an oak tree from my bedroom window. 

As I travelled to India I became more and more beguiled by the architectural paintings on the buildings, the exquisite miniature paintings and the Mughal floral motifs that are hundreds of years old, but still feel so timeless and fitting for today. There is a romance in how the Indians have designed and executed their patternmaking that I really want to anchor in my own work. 

As the business grew I embraced the help of a creative team and we play around on Photoshop a bit more first. The blocks are carved in India, by highly trained carvers, and all the printing is now done on super long print tables. I am choosing to expand our name to Molly Mahon Studio as my final designs certainly appear as the result of a huge team effort. No longer is it just me squirrelled away in my garden studio.