Something that really captured my imagination while travelling around Africa last summer was the dutch/wax print fabrics that were popular in Rwanda. As is plainly obvious, I’m a total sucker for bright colours, but what I also loved was the sheer madness of the designs themselves.

Like the woman casually walking down the street with the weight of a small Vespa in potatoes balanced on her head, wearing a dress adorned with chevrons and plaice fish. Or this cheerful lady wearing a skirt emblazoned with itnernational currency symbols:

It really made me wonder how they settle on the random objects to turn into these wonderful patterns. I love a good pattern, and I love drawing strange things, so I’ve gathered up some of the irregular patterns I’ve been drawing into this new page on my portfolio.

I’ve put a set of ten up in the portfolio – look at them here! It’d be amazing to see a pattern I drew turned into fabric one day. I would be so honoured!