Meet the Designer – Bella Handreck

Introducing Bella Handreck, the next featured designer in The Designer Project. Bella’s Meadow Collection captures the rest and magic of a safe place, and invites you to envision your own meadow full of all your favourite things. In this blog post, we’ll explore Bella’s artistic process. We’ll delve into her inspirations and the story behind each piece in the Meadow Collection. Join us as we uncover the essence of her work and the passion that drives her creativity.

Profile Photo

Hi! I’m Bella Handreck, a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Melbourne. I’m so excited to finally be able to share the Meadow Collection with the world – it’s been my first foray into pattern design, and I’m so proud of what Digital Fabrics and I have been able to make together.

Moodboard

The Meadow Collection is based on a fictional hilltop that I often think of as my ‘happy place’. It’s a place that’s become quite real to me over the years, and something I associate with true rest and peace and just that simple joy you can only really find by slowing down and appreciating what’s around you. I wanted to capture many different elements of the place in this collection, and have all the patterns tell a bit of a story.

Workspace

I created this collection in the renovated garden shed I use as my studio, and it really was the perfect space for the process. I have a large L desk – one side has my laptop and monitor and everything I need for creating digitally, and the other I can leave paint and sketchbooks and process pieces out on. It was so helpful to have different zones set up, so I could jump between tasks and pieces as I needed to.

Design WIP

It was important to me to use a variety of mediums when creating this collection, so I started out with gouache. Gouache and I are fairly new friends, but we’ve grown quite fond of each other in a short time. My “Garden Rug” piece came together almost too easily in the gouache, I love how the brushstrokes capture the whimsy and texture a field of wildflowers has. I also painted the test for what became Garden Gingham in gouache, but ended up creating it digitally in Procreate so I could ensure the lines were all perfectly even widths to make repeating the artwork seamless.

Sketchbook

Most of the other artworks were created wholly digitally – when trying to achieve more detail and balance in a design, like in Petal Postcards or Picnic Spread, I can’t get past how helpful the zoom and undo tools are. Creating digitally helps keep the pressure off too, so I’ll almost always start there and then if I’m really missing the texture you get from paint, I’ll move across to a sketchbook.

I ended up with quite a few small scale patterns in this collection, so kept the detail and texture to a minimum to really let the quality of Digital Fabrics’ stock shine through. I’m excited to get my hands on some actual prints, as I know they’ll really come to life on fabric.

As a sewist myself, I had projects in mind as I was creating these patterns. I’m dying to make a loose pinafore style dress out of Tiny Tulips, while Picnic Spread is begging to be turned into some simple shorts for spring.

I find it so grounding to surround myself with small things I really love to remind me of how bright and hopeful the world truly is when it seems otherwise; my hope is that these patterns can be that for you! I’m really excited to see what our community makes with these artworks, and feel so grateful to be apart of your lives in some small way.

The Meadow Collection is inspired by artist Bella Handreck’s happy place, a fictional meadow where the grass is vibrant and lush, there are wildflowers so thick underfoot they act as carpet, and the fresh air carries the sweetness only a mountain meadow can. This collection captures the rest and magic of a safe place, and invites you to envision your own meadow full of all your favourite things.