Repost • @botanicatrading TREE OF LIFE WITH COCKERELS. Designed by @debbytenquist of @botanicatrading for @chelseatextiles . Embroidered with silk thread on cotton and linen ground. Swipe through to see details. COLLABORATION. I was incredibly honoured to have been approached a few years ago by Mona Perlhagen founder and creative director of @chelseatextiles to collaborate on some designs. This collaboration represented a new direction for Chelsea Textiles in that they are a combination of printing enhanced with embroidered details, a departure from their sumptuously all over embroidered classic designs. The first design I submitted to Mona is this Tree of Life design with rather witty cockerels . It was inspired by a striking 18th Century Greek embroidered tent that hails from the North Sporades Islands, Skyros. Similar embroideries from this region feature this fanciful and colourful “Grand cockerel” that was used as a secret symbol of resistance to Ottoman rule, and it also possessed a talismanic protection from evil and the devil, beyond which lay a wish for fertility and the fighting strength to protect it. The flowering vine itself is a combination of stylised tulips and pomegranate’s underscoring the theme of fertility. This design is finally available to view on line and in @chelseatextiles showroom. #debbytenquist #collaboration #chelseatextiles #handembroidery