Collection: A Study In Ornament

I have always been fascinated by ornament and our instinct to decorate the things around us. A border on a painting, a patterned tile, a detail on a building. These small elements can transform something ordinary into something beautiful.

For this collection, I returned to one of my late father’s paintings, a work I have always loved for its extraordinary color and detail. Looking at it more closely, I began to notice the smaller elements within it: borders, repeating motifs and geometric forms. They reminded me of the decorative tiles I had encountered in Portugal and Italy, and the way a single motif can be repeated and arranged to create something entirely new.

Looking closely at the painting became an exercise in discovery. A cross was isolated and reworked until its original form became less apparent, transforming it into an ornamental focal point. From there, I began pulling in the smaller motifs and details that surrounded it, rearranging them to create new patterns and compositions. For Carrie, a manuscript canon found within the painting was doubled and mirrored to create an entirely new tile.

This process of taking something familiar and seeing it differently became the heart of the collection. Each design began with something already there, but through color, scale, repetition and reinterpretation, became something of its own.

A Study in Ornament is the result. Sonia, Carrie and Zella. Three scarves born from one painting, each exploring the beauty and possibilities of ornament in its own way.