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IT ALL STARTED IN FRANCE
Muddy Jane was a spark of an idea way back when – but real life was forever in the way. You know, wake up, work, exercise, eat, sleep, wake up, work, exercise, eat, sleep … when one day merges into a month, into a year. And then an opportunity for a culinary escapade to France presented itself.
From the outset the end goal was to create beautiful, interesting, and quality products for people like us – discerning and demanding of quality, but also a whole lot of fun. The creative journey began with many directions, from photography to arranging flowers, and step repeats to designs to fabrics – it has been a learning curve and an adventure. But at the very core of all of it is a desire to create beautiful things and to remember that life is full of intrigue and is mostly hilarious and only sometimes a little serious.
This is only the beginning, there is so much more to come. As Kate Moss so eloquently and succinctly puts it – “Why not?! Why the f*** can’t I have fun all the time?”
THE MAKING OF MAKHOTI…
If you look closely at our Makhoti range of designs you will notice that the centre of each circle is a photograph of a flower.
And each flower has been photographed in and around Cape Town.
The designs are inspired by African fabrics that we have grown up with but, to which, we have added our own interpretation.
Coming from a Corporate background, and knowing nothing about graphic, or fabric design, it was a steep learning curve getting to grips with the latest software. Proof though that old dogs are never too old to learn new tricks!
Creating Makhoti has been an absolute hoot from wading into ponds to take photos of waterlilies, to floating pin cushions on air. The colour combinations are endless and if this is up your alley, drop us a message and we can custom create a Makhoti design to your brand or colour preference (volume dependent of course 😊)
THAT ARTICHOKE ….
As Julia Cameron advises in her book, The Artist’s Way, we need to do something for ourselves each week to awaken our creativity. And what better place to “adventurise” and fill up on inspiration, than at Baylonstoren in Franschhoek.
We love Babylonstoren. We love the Shop and we love the gardens. We also love the wine. And on a sweltering summer’s day (which necessitated a big summer hat which we also LOVE) we re-discovered the beauty of the artichoke flower. Exploring the garden, you feel like you are discovering each secret alcove and recess … and then looming larger than life … the tallest artichoke plant you have ever seen. Flowers like flares. Like a South African version of the thistle.
The artichoke flower has become one of our Botanical Designs and you can find it on an apron, table linen or scarf. The individual image also adorns a pocket on our Solo Range of linen aprons.
We felt we had achieved. Almost in our back yard 😊
And we celebrated with a crisp Babylonstoren Rosé.