Lichen Design Process

I have been working on this brand new wallpaper since since 2017 and it has been in my head for even longer with the design taking shape and coming to life to take the form of the design it is today!

So, I thought I would share a little of the thought and creation process behind it.

After various sightings of beautifully pink crusty lichen on rocks in Swedish and Finish forests initially caught my eye, I began to notice the more wrinkled and feathery lichen structures on gnarly trees and fallen branches in the woods closer to home.

Working drawings of the various stages of Lichen wallpaper

An idea for a pattern can start with anything, a shape, a colour, a twig, or a scene in a film, but this fragment of a thought may not hit me as the beginnings of a design for months or years.

As soon as it does, I do multiple drawings in my tiny sketchbooks that no one ever really sees until the sketches seem significant enough to warrant going into slightly larger sketch books and then on to larger paper. And that is when the pattern begins to take shape.

I then hand draw many versions over and over again, changing the scale and forms and lines. After going through this process 'Lichen' ended up as a gouache painting and I then worked into the colours with pen.

Once I was happy with it, I sent my design off to be laser cut on to rollers before these were sent on to the printers to be traditionally printed and turned into actual wallpaper. (Sadly because of Covid, I didn’t get to witness this part of the process this year, which for me, is one of the most exciting parts as this when it becomes real.)

Lichen wallpaper in Seaweed and in Dust

For now, I am so excited to introduce you to 'Lichen' and I can't wait to see the gorgeous ways you use this design in your homes and projects!