Introducing our Karin Miller cushions

I remember walking into manZArt, an art gallery in Franschhoek, many many years ago, and being utterly captivated by the artworks of Karin Miller. Fast forward a few years later, I discovered her coffee table book, which I ordered and then carefully stored away with most of my other belongings. A couple more years went by, and my things finally came out of storage. By now, I was living in Stellenbosch, in a lovely old house with thick walls, a stone's throw from campus.

As I identified each perfect spot in my new home, I slowly started cutting up my Karin Miller book. Each detached page was framed in white, using Mr Price Home's white frames, with mount board cut specially to fit by Nesa Framers, a lovely framing shop in the centre of town that I still use to this day.

My home started filling up with Karin Miller prints - a pentaptych in the lounge, two prints in the kitchen, one next to my bed, another two above the dressing table, one in the bathroom, and then four arranged variously in my study ... each delightfully eccentric, evocative and provocative.

When I discovered Karin's artwork for fabric, those early memories of captivation were revisited as I joyfully pored over each design in my web browser, examining the minutia detail. I was certain the designs would be perfect for cushion covers, and so I had some small quantities printed -- my first printing for My Karoo Home -- and I could not be more thrilled with the results.

To showcase each artwork to maximum effect, the cushion cover fits a standard South African pillow snugly. A three-sided oxford edge finishes off the edging, allowing for the design to spill over into the seams, and at the bottom of the cushion, there's a lovely strip of olive-green shweshwe print. This serves to raise the artwork a little so that the design detail at the bottom is not hidden when positioned upright, and as an iconic and much-loved South African fabric, the shweshwe print complements Karin's artworks beautifully.

The cushion covers were meticulously sewn by Colours of a Kind, a lovely non-profit company (NPC) here in Cape Town, dedicated to improving the lives of women by teaching them to become seamstresses and entrepreneurs. For every Karin Miller cushion cover sold, R50 will be donated back to Colours of a Kind, for the purpose of financing training programmes for women.