Balineum, the luxurious bathroom fixtures, fittings and accessories brand, is no stranger to collaborations. Over the years, its collections have been adorned with the artwork of leading figures such as the artist Wayne Pate and contemporary design studio CommonRoom. In this most recent joining of forces, the illustrator Fee Greening has transferred twelve of her unique illustrations to a range of tiles. The motifs are inspired by nature, and include shells and seaweed, bees and butterflies.
Fee, whose designs are created by hand using a dip pen and ink, graduated with a BA in graphic design from Central St. Martin's and went on to do a Masters in visual communication at the Royal College of Art in 2014. She has since worked on an array of projects, from a jewellery collaboration with Missoma, to the concert t-shirts sold at Florence & The Machine’s Hyde Park show. Alongside these projects, Fee also sells art prints on paper, printed fabrics by the metre and decorated ceramics.
The conversation with Sarah Watson, founder of Balineum, began in 2021. 'I thought Fee’s motif would be perfect on a tile,' says Sarah, who had long admired her work. Fee had recently designed an illustrated wallpaper for CommonRoom, which was a nod to her upbringing in South Devon. After much back and forth about which of her illustrations would be best suited to tiles, Fee received a commission from a private client to put the motifs from her CommonRoom wallpaper onto tiles. 'We decided to run with it, '' explains Fee. The tiles are hand painted in Balineum’s Stoke-on-Trent factory, meaning the detail on each is impeccable.
'Representing both the sea and the coastline was important,’ Fee explains. 'I am not someone who's particularly nautical–my memories of the sea are more of grass and headlands, so I wanted to make sure this was also included'. So too are her drawings of the sun and the moon 'I’ve heard that it’s really important to ‘check in’ with the moon once a day,’ she says. 'It keeps us grounded apparently, so I always try to include it in my work'.
