Hello, I’m Anne Hickley and Marbled Beauty is my brand for beautiful, unique, one-of-a-kind wearable art, including silk scarves and leather jewellery, as well as other small leather accessories, and digially collaged designs incorporating my hand-marbled paper. The marbling process is a monoprinting technique which means that from each application of paints onto the surface of the marbling bath you can only take a single print. That means that every item is unique – really and truly one of a kind.

I use both inks and acrylic paints and I’m working on using natural earth pigments to move away from plastic content, but this may only be viable on paper. In the video below you can see some snippets of creating one of my scarves, available in my shop. Scroll down for more info about Marbled Beauty. You can find full details of the marbling process here.

I also marble using the ancient Japanese art of suminagashi, which is another form of marbling. You can find more information about this and a video on the suminagashi page.

What’s in a name

Marbled Beauty is, I hope you’ll agree, what I create, but it’s also the name of a rather attractive little British and European moth. As I also have an interest in insects, and nature in general, it seemed a good name for my business.

About Me

I’ve always had the urge to create. I think it’s in the blood as my mum used to do a lot of dressmaking and some embroidery, and we both paint; one of my great aunts also embroidered and painted. I remember learning basic sewing at around five with some off-cuts of a green trouser suit mum had made me and some red thread. I can still picture the results and I’ve been fascinated with textile colours and textures ever since. I’ve also always had an interest in crafting, the history of crafts and how things are made. While my brother was fascinated by modern technology, I was harking back to ‘the olden days’. I’ve tried all sorts of arts and crafts over the years, including crochet, various types of embroidery, felting and botanical painting. I have a City and Guilds Level 3 in Design and Craft with a specialisation in embroidery.

While I still love to paint I don’t do so much crochet, felting or embroidery now because at the age of 39 I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis – an autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks your joints– and although I don’t have it badly, those crafts were putting a lot of strain on my hands.

Although I’d done some marbling as a kid, it was actually during an arthritis flare, when I wasn’t able to do much of anything and was surfing the net, that I stumbled across a video on marbling … and that was that, I was hooked. I had to try it – and I’ve been experimenting with it ever since.

I love the fact that every piece, whether or a cushion cover, a card or a long silk scarf, is unique – it’s actually impossible to do the same thing twice, although if you’re super-organised it’s possible to come close. (I’m not super organised!) I also find the process very therapeutic. I’m a big fan of the ‘slow fashion movement’ – it can mean several things but fundamentally it’s anti-fast-fashion and throw-away fashion, and pro carefully created pieces that you can treasure and wear again and again.

I love to play with colour and natural fibres and create something beautiful; Marbled Beauty gives me a chance to share that beauty with the world.