Bethan Grey featuring new designs during Milan Fashion Week 2022

There's no stopping British interior, furniture and product designer Bethan Gray who is going from strength to strength.  

From June 7 - 12 2022 at Salone del Mobile 2022 during Milan Design Week, Bethan invites visitors to immerse themselves into an enveloping "Inky Dhow" universe, where an installation of furniture, textiles, rugs, hand blown glass and ceramics, will be on show at Rosanna Orlandi’s eponymous gallery in Milan’s Magenta district.  It is deemed to excite and entice all the senses while demonstrating the exquisite craftsmanship and innovative techniques imbued into every piece Bethan designs. 

"Inky Dhow" is an evolution of the original ‘Dhow’ drawing Bethan first made while on a trip to Oman, which was then expertly translated into an intricate marquetry pattern by Muscat-based master craftsman Mohammad Reza Shamsian and his team of highly skilled artisans, using 16th century marquetry techniques combined with cutting-edge technology, for application across a range of cabinetry. 

The pattern – inspired by the billowing movement of the striped sails on the dhow boats sailing in the Gulf of Oman out to the Arabian Sea – took another turn when Bethan projected it across a staircase for a project with Christie's in London. 

Enamored with the way the lines appeared thicker, reverberating up and down the stairs, Bethan decided to explore the Dhow pattern on a larger scale. 

“Using different craft techniques has allowed ‘Inky Dhow’ to grow into many things, but the most exciting thing is that while they all work as stand-alone pieces, they also harmonise beautifully together,” Bethan enthuses. 

According to the designer, last year’s lockdown gave her the time to reconnect with the physical, meditative art of making, experimenting with calligraphy brushes, pens, pencils and cobalt-hued ink from which ‘Inky Dhow’ was born. 

These pieces celebrate intricate, time-honoured techniques injected with a fresh, modern edge as executed through Bethan’s unique lens. 

In the collection are rugs produced in partnership with Milan based CC-Tapis. Made from Himalayan wool and pure silk.  The Inky Dhow pattern has been transformed into a hand-knotted rug by Tibetan Artisans who translated the delicate and organic brushstrokes of Bethan knot by knot.

There is a range of vases: Seven Sisters, each of which have been hand thrown by one very talented potter and then each individual vase was hand painted by Bethan herself with an adaptation of her Dhow pattern.  The sizes range from 10cm to 50cm.

Bethan has also collaborated with London-based leather expert Bill Amberg who embraces Bethan's original artworks for his third collection of digitally printed leather hides, for which he is also working with other creatives Kesewa Aboah, Yinka Ilori, Amber Khokhar and Jonathan Saunders.  Excited by its potential for upholstery use, Bethan approached UK's Norfolk-based upholstery manufacturer Coakley & Cox to develop a modular sofa and armchair collection, driven by a need within her own home.

London-based Bethan Gray is one of the UK’s most celebrated furniture and homeware designers, having been awarded three Elle Decoration British Design Awards, including the coveted Best British Designer and The Best British Tableware Designer. In partnership with local artisans, GGray’s luxury handcrafted collections of furniture and home accessories are sold through global retailers such as Harrods, Liberty and Lane Crawford, and also available directly.

All images courtesy Bethan Grey.