To kick off the Features series on our new site we’re thrilled to have an interview with Heather Moore of Skinny laMinx.
Many of our readers might already know her: she’s one of South Africa’s most well-known and loved contemporary textile designers – and bloggers! – at home as well as abroad. It all started with a blog way back in 2006, then an Etsy shop, and nowadays Skinny laMinx products can be found as far afield as Singapore and Nova Scotia (and of course also right here).
But despite this global success, Heather has remained low-key and approachable. Her blog has a devoted following, I think probably in large part because of her unaffected voice (as well as her keen eye) – and we bumped into her in January at the Neighbourgoods Market in Cape Town, where she was manning her own stall.
You can see I’m still working on my photography skills… but I do think it’s appropriate that she has a sunbeam on her head! (And as for the lightbulb hovering above right, is that her latest creative idea?)
Skinny laMinx designs and produces screenprinted fabrics, which are sold as furnishing fabrics, and also turned into homeware and accessories, such as cushions covers, tea towels, aprons, pinafores, napkins … and everything is designed, printed and made up from her studio in Cape Town.
One of her most successful ranges has been the series of fabrics she designed from cave paintings found at Sevilla Rock in the Cedarberg mountains of South Africa. These brought rock art back into contemporary African design consciousness and we’re really happy to be stocking products from this range. (See a blog post of Skinny’s about the original paintings, and an old one of mine for more on this theme, and check out some stuff from the range here.)
Let’s hear more from Skinny laMinx herself:
Can you tell us about your current project and/or how it relates to your earlier work?
I’m working on a new range of tea towel designs, some new screenprinted paper work, as well as a book proposal around the art of papercutting.
Yes, she’s also an illustrator and makes some pretty awesome paper cutouts – we liked this one, made on the back of another creative project – one of the many lovely DIY products originating from her ‘Making Friday’ series.
What is your favourite time of the (working) day?
Tea time! I drink many, many cups of tea during the day, usually while I carry on working. They seem to act as little bridges that carry me from one busy patch to the next.
What does creativity mean to you?
I’m very fortunate to have a set up where I’m able to be ‘creative’ in most aspects of my life, in that I don’t have any bosses to please with the way I dress, my schedule or with the things I produce.
The moment of creativity when I work, however, is a different kind of moment. Sometimes I’ll sit down with the intention of making something I’ve been planning and sketching for a while, and then I’ll start something altogether different, and not really know why.
It’s a little bit like rowing so hard you forget to look where you’re going, and suddenly, when you look up, you’re not where you thought you were heading, but it’s a good place to end up.
That sounds satisfying, but also brave… do you work from one specific idea/theme or do you just collect inspration wherever you find it?
I’m afraid my design process is exceptionally organic. There’s no specific theme or idea, and generally I just do a whole bunch of designs and then pick the ones I like best. It’s like dishing out prizes to all my little monsters : )
What inspires you in the southern hemisphere, specifically Africa?
I like the way we seem to still be inventing ourselves in the Southern Hemisphere. There’s still a lot of ‘new’ and ‘never been done’ available to us, and there’s the sense that we can all play a role in adding to our still-developing identity in the world.
And the northern hemisphere?
I love the aspiration to excellence that seems to exist in places where people have been doing things the same way for a long time. Of course the Northern Hemisphere has plenty of expediency, just like we do, but there’s also a sense that things get done properly, which is very satisfying.
What is the biggest misconception about Africa out there?
On the whole, I think that “out there” thinks of Africa as a giant game park, and they don’t expect anything world-class to come from this continent.
Well really, it’s people like you who are helping to get rid of that misconception, and put South Africa on the design world map. Thanks Heather for taking the time to answer our questions, and for your lovely products!
