Bloom and Block: Jenny Stringer's collaboration with Marthe Armitage Prints
“Movement is something I do aim at. And also, a sort of generosity. Because this is so much a part of life. Such a crucial part of life, I think. And you get it in abundance if we take our eyes off the pavement”.
— Jenny stringer
Jenny Stringer's Cotswolds studio holds hundreds of hand-carved lino blocks, catalogued in boxes labelled with the un-fussy poetry of a naturalist's notebook: small leaves, poppies, twigs, birds. Her creative process is equally unlaboured — no detailed sketches, no traditional registration, just the instinct to layer, rearrange and see what happens. It is, she says, less like planning a design than playing at one. That spirit of discovery, honed over three decades of block printing, is what gives her work its particular vitality, and the sense that each composition arrived not by calculation but by conversation between maker, block and cloth.
Tools of the trade and the "Mimram" design in progress at Jenny Springer's studio.
Three designs from her archive are now available through Marthe Armitage Prints as wide-width wallpaper, extending a fabric collection that launched last year. Jenny's Poppy, printed in coral on 100% linen, illustrates her working method. Assembled from previously carved blocks, its tall blooms and flowing stems carry a feeling of abundance that Stringer herself describes as hopeful, a rhythm of repeat that feels both structured and free.
Jenny Stringer's "Jenny's Poppy" design, hand printed onto Linen.
Mimram, in azure, takes its name from England's shortest river, a waterway with personal significance for Stringer, which winds diagonally through the cloth scattered with drifting birds, insects and soft ferns bursting from the bank — joyful, full of life. Frilly Leaf, in a deep teal called Maya, is a solid repeat softened entirely by the hand. It began as a leftover scrap of lino, and when Stringer removed the centre of the carved shape, the tension between void and ruffled edge gave it an entirely unexpected pulse.
Jenny Stringer's "Frilly Leaf" design, accompanied by the lino blocks with which it was created.
The collaboration between Stringer and Marthe Armitage Prints stems from a friendship that has blossomed between the two since 2009, and this collection feels like a conversation between kindred spirits. Where Armitage's designs are celebrated for disciplined botanical repeat, Stringer works by instinct: repurposing blocks, mixing colour-ways, letting the composition surprise her.
Linen cushions featuring the designs Frilly Leaf and Jenny's Poppy.
Selected by Company Director Jo Broadhurst and Creative Director Harriet Eastman, the collection draws from an extensive archive. It is worth noting, too, that Stringer came to textiles via an earlier life as an archaeological illustrator — a background that sharpened her eye for intricate natural form, even as block printing gave her permission to be bold, to work large, and to let go of precision for something richer.
As wallpaper, these designs finally have the space they were always reaching for. The Mimram can flow, the poppy can bloom at full height, and the frilly leaf can unfurl and breath, edge by ruffled edge.
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Further Information:
Jenny Stringer at Marthe Armitage Prints are available now as wallpaper and linen fabric.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Jenny Stringer in her studio.
All images courtesy of Marthe Armitage prints, and as credited in captions.