Iconic Paddington artwork items rolling off the presses at local firm

Presiman Designs says permission to use the famous watercolour picture of the Queen and Paddington holding hands and walking away follows an 18-month working relationship with its creator, Eleanor Tomlinson.

Angela Williams, who runs Presiman with husband Simon, said that Eleanor was one of several “incredible artists” they had met since they began designing and printing fabrics.

"We were introduced by one of our joint customers who wanted to have some of Eleanor’s artwork printed onto velvet so that I could upholster some chairs for her,” says Angela.

“I really fell in love with her style so after some discussions, Eleanor agreed that we could use any of her pieces to start creating fabrics. It has been a wonderful journey for both of us.”

Angela says: “I saw her post of the Jubilee Ma’amalade Tea within moments of her posting it.

“I messaged her straight away to ask her if she wanted us to create designs and products with it.”

Angela says: “She nonchalantly told me to go for it.

“Neither one of us knew what we were letting ourselves in for in that moment. She gave me the go ahead to let everyone know and within seconds the orders started flooding in.

“Before long, the orders were coming in from all over the world. We have had such an amazing and exciting week.”

Angela says: “We have started with tea towels and cushion covers using the much-loved image.

“But we have been busy behind the scenes using all of her gorgeous Jubilee images to create a repeat pattern design.

“We have just finalised the design for tote bags, the first template is being printed as we speak and will be made up and released tomorrow.”

She says customers are waiting for the bags to be released.

“They love the idea of being able to carry the image around with them and the bag is the perfect way to do that,” she says

“We cannot wait to show everyone.

“We love working with artists and love surprising them with the endless possibilities of what is possible in the world of fabric designs.

“If any other artists would like to enter the soft furnishings market with their artwork, they should definitely get in touch with us.”

Angela says: “Eleanor’s story should inspire everyone. Who knows where their journey will take them?”

Eleanor Tomlinson, from East Yorkshire, says she was inspired was inspired to create her sketch after watching the recent Jubilee celebrations featuring Paddington having tea with the Queen.

Once she’s posted it on social media the image went viral.

"It was just meant to be a social media post and it just went a bit crazy from there," says Eleanor.

For Guyhirn based Presiman the interest in their tea towels is helping what Angela says is their mission to create a new way of buying fabric.

“A way that means that people can have whatever design style they want, in their choice of colour palette and then printed onto the fabric that is right for the project,” says Angela

“A way that means we can print fabric to the exact size that people want to reduce waste, to be as cost effective as possible.

“To make this mission happen, we have built some amazing relationships with some very talented artists that are willing to trust us to take their art and turn it into the most amazing designs and products.

“We make their pieces work hard for them by using single images in many different ways, transforming simple images into dramatic and colourful designs, changing layouts and colours so that anyone and everyone can have the perfect look in their homes.”

She adds: “This mission was born from my desire to create new and wonderful pieces of furniture that would surprise and delight people.

“I didn’t want to use what was freely available in the shops and I kept having visions in my head of things I wanted to create but I could never find what I was looking for.

“So, I decided to create them myself, with the help of artists.”

See the range of Presima’s work on their website here

https://presimandesigns.com/