Francine Billsartist starts fabric work at washing line

Press, 20 October 1987, Page 13

Francine Bills—artist starts fabric work at washing line

By

MAVIS AIREY

Francine Bills believes she may be the only hand painter of ‘ furnishing fabrics in New Zealand.

' First, she painted her dining , room curtains as they hung from the washing line in her garden. ' Armed with a brush and , household acrylic paints, she ■ transformed a plain length of j black fabric, with swirls and ; blobs and spatters, into a glowing ; Guy Fawkes Night sky. ; She was so pleased with the i result, she made a bedspread ; with matching curtains and ' lampshades in a similar design . for the master bedroom. . The idea came to her after the Bills has embarked on ambitious extensions and renovations to their St Albans house. Francine enjoyed planning the interior decorations, but could not find what she wanted. “I was J looking for furnishing fabric with a black background that was fairly modern, but I found the choice restricted. Also, designer fabrics are very expensive. i “This way, it turned out to cost ' next to nothing.” . Visitors were so enthusiastic < about her hand-painted curtains that she decided to see if there , was enough demand for her to - do it professionally. Although she has had no fownnl training, she comes from an artistic family and painting always been She

experimented with various types of paint and fabric, rejecting oil paints — which left a halo of oil around each painted area — and finding she could vary her effects according to the amount of paint and type of fabric she used. Dark backgrounds, she thinks, bring out the' colours best

She washed and ironed the painted fabric to ensure it would keep looking good while standing up to the rigours of family living. Then she experimented with fabrics: cotton chintz and slub weave, glazed cotton, sateen, and heavier weave in light and bright as well as dark colours.

She worked with stencils on the kitchen table to get the regular shapes she wanted to offset freehand brush strokes and made up a sample book of her favourite effects.

She has given them names. Neapolitan is a pastel wash on a cream weave. Festival is spatters and brush strokes on a red slub weave. Solar system is spheres and stars on a mid-blue slubweave. Mandarin is oriental curves and brushstrokes on glazed red cotton. Her latest project moves away

from abstract to representational designs, with a set of curtains for the spare bedroom which feature a single vase of flowers on each curtain.

Francine Bills sees the advantage of tailor-made fabrics in being able to suit design to function — the bedspread was painted in a single design after being made up, so there was no need to match patters, as you would with a commercial fabric. She also likes the freedom of being able to pick out colours in wallpapers and existing furnishings. “It’s difficult to get patterned fabric to match patterned paper," she says. She is now ready to launch her business, planning to visit clients* houses to discuss fabric colours and work out designs.

“If they’ve got "strong ideas, that’s fine. If they have their own fabric, that’s fine, too, or I can get samples and order it for them.”

Being able to produce original designs for less than the cost of mass-produced furnishing fabrics will be very satisfcing for both client and artist s» thinks.