WODONGA design teacher Katharine Rattray has come full circle as she prepares to launch a range of children’s bed linen and her first book.
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An avid drawer and painter as a child growing up in England, Katharine rediscovered drawing less than a decade ago when she was keeping her father company in his final stages of cancer.
At his insistence she put pencils to paper once again.
“I just started drawing kites and balloons and lots of different images,” Katharine said.
“I was painting and rediscovering watercolours.
“I just kept going throughout my grief after I lost my dad.”
The Wodonga TAFE teacher leased an art studio in late 2015 to work on illustrations for a children’s book – Albury teacher Lynda Joyce has subsequently written the words – before the idea for an accompanying range of children’s bed linen and decor materialised.
Branding the business, Kat & Fox, pays homage to Katharine’s father, George Patrick Fox.
“I knew the business had to be in honour of Dad so I called it Kat & Fox,” Katharine said.
“It’s gone from an idea to really starting to be a reality.”
Together with husband Matt, Katharine has three children, Will, 15, Joe, 11, and Emily, 4, who have each inspired their mum’s creative journey in their own way.
“When my son Joe was seven, he used to do these funny, little impressions of birds,” she said.
“The character in the book is based on Joe.
“The idea for the bedding came when I walked into Emi’s room and she was on her bed nestled among the cushions and soft bed covers, lost in the pages of her favourite picture book.
“It was as if the illustrations were spilling out onto the bed linen, creating a safe place for play and magic.”
Inspired by English writer and illustrator Lauren Child and Australian illustrator and artist Kate Knapp, Katharine wanted to translate pattern repeats from her soon-to-be self-published book into a range of bed linen, wallpaper and lamp shades.
Katharine will exhibit her wares – including the bedding and book packaged in a book bag – at the exclusive trade show for wholesalers, Life In Style, in Melbourne during August.
She plans to launch the brand on the Border in September and the online shop in October with two collections a year.
“The whole project has been self-driven but I’ve got a very good team around me,” she said.
Kat & Fox also offers The Art Lab for children aged 8 to 13 at her new studio at Possum Works in Albury.
It seems only fitting she is nurturing young people’s creative endeavours.
