PRINTS AND PATTERNS

MOLLY MAHON, FABRIC PRINTER

Molly Mahon’s Instagram feed is a riot of colour: she block-prints on to wallpaper, cushions, eiderdowns and stationery. She even wraps up soap in hand-printed wrapping paper. So, of course, she handprints her own Christmas wrapping paper. She prints using hand-carved wooden blocks, made from her own designs, on to recycled cotton paper, but says lino block, or even an potato cut in half, and a roll of recycled brown paper will work well, too.

Mahon was a crafter as a child. As an adult she ran an events company, but took crafting courses as a hobby. “I used to yearn to do something with my hands,” she says. Seven years ago, she took a course in block printing that inspired a career about-turn. “I got the block printing bug,” she says. “I just wanted to go home and carry on printing.”

She now makes all her creations from her home in Sussex, and her three children join her in the studios at weekends. “The kids have all the normal arguments about wanting to watch TV and playing games on my phone most of the time, but when we’re in the studio, where I don’t have any of that, everyone is busy choosing their colours and working. There’s such an amazing peace. There’s something really powerful about creativity.”

Along with the handmade wrapping paper, all her presents will be handmade, too. “I think it’s imperative that small children don’t see presents as just something you spend money on, so we spend time together making things for people.” This year, the children are hand-painting wooden keepsake boxes as presents. “Orlando, who is five, is the keenest, unfortunately, as his favourite colour is black,” she says. mollymahon.com