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Artist Merchandise Development

Turn original artwork into luxury wearable merchandise. Bhavna Rishi London manages the full process from artwork selection and fabric choice through to sampling, colour matching, and delivery — producing scarves, accessories, and printed textile products that faithfully carry your work into a new format. Clients include Clare Cowley, Mary Kingsworth, Marc Craig, Daphne Stephenson, and Susan Gordon.

Who this is for

Artists who want to extend the reach of their work without diminishing it. The brief is always the same: produce something that is worthy of the original.

Painters and Illustrators

Originals that deserve to reach more than one buyer at a time. A scarf range converts a painting into a product that can be sold at scale, gifted, and remembered — without selling the original.

Photographers

Architectural, fine art, or documentary photography translated to fabric. Photographic work demands precision in colour management and fabric choice — the process is built for that standard.

Artists with a Following

Artists with galleries, retail shops, or a loyal collector base who want a recurring revenue stream alongside original sales. A product range that reflects the quality their audience already expects.

The challenge

A painting can only be sold once. A scarf can be worn, given, and remembered.

The challenge is not just turning the artwork into a product — it is doing so without diminishing what made it worth buying in the first place. That requires fabric knowledge, production experience, and someone who treats colour accuracy as non-negotiable rather than aspirational.

Most artists who arrive at this process have already had one conversation with a supplier who promised fidelity and delivered something that bore a vague resemblance to the original. The sampling process described below exists to prevent that outcome — not to apologise for it after the run is complete.

The process

From artwork review to delivered product — with colour approval at every stage before anything is committed to a full run.

01

Artwork review

Which pieces translate to fabric format, at what scale, and in which proportions. Not every composition works at scarf dimensions — the review stage avoids expensive discoveries later.

02

Fabric selection

Silk, modal, cashmere: each handles print differently and suits different work. Bold, high-saturation painting reads differently on modal than on silk. The fabric choice is made to serve the artwork, not the other way around.

03

Colour profiling

Artwork colours on digital files look different on fabric. The sampling process calibrates until the scarf matches the original — adjusting colour profiles, ink densities, and print settings until the reproduction is honest.

04

Sampling

Scale, colour, and drape reviewed before committing to a production run. Samples are reviewed against the original artwork or a high-quality print of it — not against a monitor.

05

Production

Full run managed to the same standard as the sample. Factory liaison throughout. Quality checked at production stage — not after it arrives.

06

Packaging (optional)

Custom silk bags or presentation packaging produced alongside the product for artists who want to sell the complete object — not just a scarf rolled in tissue.

Artist work

Four artists, four different briefs. Each one required a different answer to the same question: how do we make the product worthy of the work?

Hummingbird paintings

Clare Cowley

Silk scarves and custom silk bag packaging

Previous supplier conversations left Clare with no confidence the product would honour her work. The sampling process was used as a calibration — adjusting until the scarf matched the painting, not the other way around.

View case study

Intricate paintings

Mary Kingsworth

Modal and silk scarf ranges

Mary's work is complex — fine linework and layered colour. The dual-fabric approach gave her a modal range for wider accessibility and a silk range for collectors who want the highest-fidelity reproduction.

View case study

Street art and murals

Marc Craig

Silk scarves

Marc's instinctive linework and vivid colour palettes required detailed attention to colour reproduction, fabric weight, and print placement to capture the energy of the original work in a wearable format.

View case study

London architectural photography

Susan Gordon

Fabric products

Susan had never worked with textiles. Fabric sourcing for photographic detail, small-minimum manufacturing, and a clear pathway from portfolio to product range — built for someone entering the market for the first time.

View case study

Common questions

What artwork formats work best on fabric?

High-resolution original artwork files (300 dpi or above) or large-format scans of originals work best. The artwork review stage identifies any issues before design development begins — so nothing is committed to production until the file quality is confirmed.

What fabrics do you work with?

Primarily silk (digital print), modal (soft, accessible, suits bold colour), cashmere (premium, limited colour range), and wool (screen print, herringbone weave). The choice depends on the artwork style and the price point you want to achieve.

What is the minimum order?

For silk scarves, minimum runs are typically 50–100 pieces per design. Modal is often available at lower minimums. The first conversation establishes what is viable for your project.

How faithful will the reproduction be to my original?

The sampling process exists precisely to answer this. Samples are reviewed against the original artwork (or a high-quality print of it) and adjusted for colour and scale before the production run is committed. You approve before anything is made at volume.

Do I need to have retail distribution in place?

No. Some clients come with shops and stockists already; others are building a product range for the first time and will sell through their own website or at markets and events. Both are equally workable — the production process is the same either way.

Can you produce small quantities initially to test the market?

Yes. The whole point of securing small-minimum manufacturing partners is to allow artists to test the market without the financial exposure of a large initial run. That flexibility is built into the process, not added as an exception.

Ready to turn your artwork into a product?

The first step is a conversation about which pieces would work and what a realistic first run looks like.

Book a Strategy Call