Sisters-in-law Aura Parker and Marena Von Behr teamed up to create Studio Bonnie. Passionate about colour, design and beautiful fabrics, they create whimsical textile designs of intricate detail with a sense of storytelling.
While Marena studied interior design and Aura studied multimedia and web design, textiles is Studio Bonnie’s forte. For Marena, “going from selecting fabrics, to designing fabrics seemed a logical progression” and their shared love of drawing is where they really come together.
It was a love of “all things creative” that initially made the two click as well. Soon after meeting through Marena’s brother, Aura and Marena exhibited together, took a liking to each other’s work and pretty quickly decided to band together.
Most recently, they’ve been making a range inspired by “the natural beauty of Australian birds” – the stars being a Lorikeet and a Lyrebird – which comes in the form of small prints that are framed in embroidery hoops or made into cushions.
Studio Bonnie’s designs hold little narrative twists that make them especially playful. “We’ll experiment with patterns and plant little surprise details and things to find,” says Aura. The Lorikeet’s body, for example, is made up of bush flowers and gumnuts – and is a good example of their dedication to making fresh and unique designs.
Time in the studio sounds similarly magical. The process of hand drawing each design, watching it develop, and finally printing, where they get to the exciting stage of lifting the screen to see the first print on fabric.
Whether they’re designing, printing, or getting digital, Aura and Marena’s different strengths and ability to bounce ideas off each other, make for a happy collaboration. Buy Studio Bonnie online at Hard to Find and Down That Little Lane.
Prices range from $20 for a small screen print framed in an embroidery hoop, to $95 for a cushion.
