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MOTIVO is excited to introduce Botanica Trading to our MOTIVO stable.
Botanica Trading was launched in 2015. Offering a stunning range of textiles, Debby Tenquist has designed fabrics that are inspired by her love of the natural world, botanical art and of all things from the near, middle and Far East.
Debby studied in London at the Victoria & Albert and the British Museum covered garden design, architecture & decorative arts from the 15th Century to the modern day in Europe, the Middle East and America.
Latterly she studied the history of Japanese and Korean design. She worked for Sotheby’s auctioneers in South Africa and Australia for 12 years, specialising in Oriental and European decorative arts which has resulted in her great interest in all things botanical and textile design.
Sneak Peak of the New VOC Collection VOC Stands for Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (United East India Company) or the Dutch East India Company.
An immensely powerful pioneering sea faring company in the 17th Century, it gained it’s wealth via the spice trade with the near and Far East. Cape Town was a critically important port for their ships to restock supplies and get fresh water to and from the East.
The Dutch East India Company was exclusively allowed to trade with Japan during the Edo period. The beautiful monogramed blue and white plates in these images are scarce and much sort after by collectors world wide. Japanese Arita plates of the Edo period are of exceptional quality and reveal confident brush strokes that are revealed in the designs of the flora and fauna on the plates.
The principles of good design, proportion, the language of colour and a variety of styles have informed her aesthetic vocabulary. Her love of research and exotic destinations continually informs her creative design process.
