Post by Jamie Kalvestran, part of a series of interviews from the 2015 International Quilt Market. (Previous interviews found here: Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4, Part5.)
While at Quilt Market I was excited to meet and interview the folks at P&B Textiles. I had the opportunity to speak with both Marion Murray and Katerina Alexakos.
What are the new P&B collections that you are really excited about?
1. Love In Bloom – this digitally printed fabric collection was guest designed by P. Carter-Carpin, an artist and book illustrator. We choose some pieces of her Original artwork, then built the collection around it, utilizing artistic elements to create the coordinates. The colors in this collection are so vibrantly colored that we chose to print this collection digitally, instead of traditional screen printing, which just wouldn’t do the color palette justice. Love in Bloom arrived in shops in June 2015.
2. Joy of Life – Inspired by a fine artist from France, Sylvie Demers, Joy of Life is another digitally printed fabric collection. The artist states, “Inspiration comes easily. Just looking outside the window in my studio, nature is giving me all the reasons to be joyous! Beauty is blooming all year round in my backyard!” 4 SKUs total this collection set to be released in July 2015.
3. Contours was designed in-house and is a modern floral collection created from organic elements. Leaves overlapping in a modern color palette of grey, coral and gold set the theme for dots and dashes to playfully coordinate. Packed flowers work well with this tightly coordinated grouping where any and all can be mixed and matched to create a lovely modern yet classic Quilt.
Can you tell me more about digitally printed fabrics? You have branded your digitally printed fabrics “Next Generation”. Can you tell our readers why you choose to print some collections digitally?
The digital printing process allows the multiple layers and myriad of colors to show themselves to their best and brightest advantage, as traditional printing can’t do. With our traditional printing methods we are limited to 18 colors, with digital printing the number of colors is unlimited. With highly saturated colorations and designs not requiring the limitations of repeat or number of colors, this allows us to freely create designs we would not normally be able to.
Can we talk about trends and how you use trends at P&B?
We have the philosophy of “Know your customer” and “Know your company image”. We think colors should work with home decor colors because quilts live in homes. There is usually a one to two year delay from when the home decor colors are trending. Our customer expects us to have a wide variety of basics, blenders and textures. Along with that we are a more “transitional” design based company blending modern and traditional looks.
Please tell us about your submission process for designers.
Designers can contact me via email (marionmurraypb@gmail.com) directly with a link to their website where I can see their style and technique. If we like what we see, we will be in touch.
What type of artwork are you currently looking for?
• Modern
• Sophisticated
• Tonal
• Textural
What advice would you give designers regarding their portfolios?
Make sure it works in other industries. You will want to broaden into other categories i.e. dinnerware, gifts and stationery etc.
Visit P&B Fabrics online at http://www.pbtex.com/ and on Instagram @pbtextiles.
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