ABOUT THE ARTIST
A blockprinter and self-schooled artist, Maria Yiannikkou designs objects of beauty in all sorts of forms from cushions and cards to, surprise surprise, tiles. Once inspiration editor for World of Interiors magazine, she spent over a decade gathering the most desirable items from all over the world to share with its masses of magpie-eyed readers before deciding it was time to unearth her very own creative identity and then unleash it into the wild. And into the wild it certainly took her with flora and fauna being one of her greatest muses.
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
A charming assortment of nine decorative ceramic tiles, Yiannikkou’s Forest Findings collection is a pick-and-mix of coloured and patterned tiles with a complementary simple white field tile thrown in (should you want to break things up.) Ranging from a leaping vixen in an orange tone as fiery as her fur to a mid-blue bloom, her block-printed patterns translate perfectly onto these sweet square tiles for those who want their walls to tell a story.
A Q&A WITH MARIA
Speaking of stories, with all of our Artist in Residence collections, there’s a tale to tell behind every tile. One Wednesday lunchtime in February, we caught up with Maria to hear hers as she told us about how each creature came into being and even the one she identifies most with…
Q: Tell us first, what’s your story? Where did art first find you?
A: “Art and I sort of found each other. It’s not my background at all, in fact, I didn’t do well in it at all at school but I’ve always loved it. And yet, I didn’t touch art for years. I was surrounded by artistry in my time at World of Interiors of course. I used to love producing our Italian furniture shoots and found those immensely inspiring, and I’d always say to my colleague, I need to do something, I need to find out what I can create. It was an itch I wanted to scratch for so long.”
Q: What was it that gave you that push into exploring your art?
A: “I had my first child and it was then that I really felt this urge to be creative and to express something. I started by getting fabric and dyeing it with things in my kitchen from walnut shells to turmeric, squatting at the garden tap to rinse things and then boiling all sorts at my cooker. It was around about this time that I did a story for the magazine [WOI] on the Folly Cove – a group of self-taught designers, mostly women, who would sketch and carve into linoleum blocks to print their designs. It was this entire creative movement where these women would teach, create and support one another, drawing inspiration from their landscape, and I just found it so captivating. So I started drawing, learning as I went. And I started carving blocks and printing too. This was the start of it all for me really.”
Q: Is that the process you largely work to – drawing and carving?
A: “I try my hand at all sorts but yes, on the whole I find the whole process of drawing, cutting the lino, painting and pressing all very magical and pretty. It just flows, and that really works for me. I’m 50 in April and I’d never dreamed I’d be spending my days doing this. WOI was such a great education and I knew there was something in me that needed to come out and it’s really wonderful to watch ideas coming to the surface. I’m obsessed with peonies at this very moment and am looking forward to seeing where that takes me.”
Q: Where did the idea for your Ca’ Pietra capsule come from?
A: “Honestly, I’m not sure. As I say, my process is so natural and gentle that ideas just come to me and I go from there. I know I came up with the bird and the hare first. I’d done a block printing course and they came to me there and the lady running it suggested I try a larger collection of animals and so along came the fox, and then the stag. I’ve even written a few stories based on the characters that I might do something with – a block printed book for adults full of rhyming couplets as a lovely coffee table book. Because I do really wonder where’s the deer going or where’s the fox running off to?”
Q: Do you have a favourite out of them all?
A: “That’s like picking a favourite child – I can’t do it! Each one means something different to me but the one that makes me happiest is the partridge. It’s the one I relate to most. I think it’s that there’s something motherly about it, maybe the way she’s sitting. She seems stable to me. I aspire to be the deer though – she’s so elegant!”
Q: What made you decide to try your art on tiles?
A: “Like the Folly Cove, I really like applying art to things in my home and I’d tried making my own tiles with my own clay, painting and glazing them, a few years back. Tiles make sense to me. They carry my art so naturally I think. The collaboration with Ca’ Pietra came about so naturally, and I remember excitingly returning to my shed after the meeting to gather some of the characters in a palette that I thought worked so nicely together and sending them off to you. I’m honestly so grateful for the partnership; it feels like a bit of a dream.”
Q: If you were to use the Forest Findings collection in your home, how would you use them?
A: “I do love the layout Ca’ Pietra has done with the white tile and the characters all in a circuit. I’d have never thought to do that and I find it so calming. I think I’d pop them above my cooker all together, using every character side by side, but I’m not minimalist!"
Q: And finally, if you had to summarise the capsule in a sentence, how would you describe it?
A: “I’d say it’s an innocent, pretty, uplifting collection that appeals to the child in everyone.”