British artist Speronella Marsh is passionate about gardening and fascinated by the ways organic silhouettes evolve as they grow. “What captivates me is how they look nothing like their original form—they have their own identity,” she tells Business of Home. “I translate these natural shapes into my designs.”
Working from her home studio in the English countryside, Marsh crafts hand-cut blocks based on botanical forms and emblazons them on antique linens and wallpapers. “My mission is to show people that you can achieve a creative and interesting look without a huge budget,” she says.
Born in Rome, Marsh moved to Shropshire in 2015, after her husband inherited a Victorian manor house from his grandfather. Tasked with renovating and decorating the expansive space—more specifically, its 90-plus windows—she enrolled in a printing course at the Chelsea Physic Garden and set out to make her own drapes. “Once I learned how to block-print, I never looked back,” she says. “My first complete work became our kitchen tablecloth, and since that small victory, all the curtains are up, and the spark is still very much alight.”
She began hand-printing vintage linens from her dining room table, and in 2020, launched her first collection, The Home, with five graphic patterns that include Lucy’s India, Zig Zag, Acorn, Boat and Seaweed. ”My design process usually starts with me taking a photo of what has inspired me, and then I start sketching it,” she says. “When I’m happy with them, I translate them into a linocut and start the printing process.”
To create a linocut, Marsh hand-carves a motif into linoleum before mounting it onto wood blocks. She then test-prints each design on paper with ink to determine if it’s ready for fabric. “The printing process can be difficult, as my initial inspiration can be hard to translate into a block,” she says. “Some designs can take a day from start to finish; others can take months.”
Marsh prints her bespoke designs on antique linens, most of which are more than a hundred years old. “I love the feel and the touch of an old linen,” she says. “They are all slightly different, so I work with a fantastic colorist to create the best inks for each piece.”
In recent years, she’s rolled out two collections of wallpapers, First Impressions and Small Scale, based on her bestselling fabrics. “Having explored different methods of production, the best outcome was digital printing on nonwoven parchment paper,” she says. “This combination enabled us to re-create and preserve the texture of the original hand-printed designs and vintage linen backdrops, whilst also not wasting materials—something that is key to the company’s ethos.”
Marsh’s latest launch, Trama, features eight plain fabrics inspired by her Italian heritage. The collection, which loosely translates to “weave” or “narrative,” is woven in the United Kingdom and offers upholstery in shades such as yellow Ginestra, green Verdura and light blue Laguna. “These are influenced by the washed-out hues of old Roman buildings that haven’t been painted in over a century,” she says. “Much like natural plant shapes, I’m drawn to the beauty of that imperfection.”
