Queensland-based bedding brand I Love Linen is known for its deliciously soft and sleep-inducing French flax linen bedding. Now it’s venturing into the world of pottery through a collaboration with Melbourne ceramicist Tantri Mustika that celebrates a new range of charcoal gingham textiles.
The Charcoal Gingham collection includes stonewashed French flax linen bedding ($300 for a quilt cover set), napkins ($39.95 for a set of four), tablecloths (starting at $135) and aprons ($55 each) in the label’s familiar gingham check – this time in a charcoal and white colourway.
Plus, there’s a ceramic incense burner with gold foil accents ($69.95) and a plate ($74.95) inspired by gingham checks, both handmade by Mustika in her Melbourne studio. Each piece is thoughtfully designed to represent the core of the label – slowing down and revelling in life’s little moments of pleasure. Like dressing a table for a dinner party or burning incense on a quiet afternoon.
I Love Linen founder and creative director Lauren Roe first met Mustika in 2020, after interviewing her for an artist series on the brand’s blog. “When I interviewed Tantri I instantly loved her,” Roe tells Broadsheet. “We just clicked and ended up staying in contact.”
As Roe worked on a new colourway for her best-selling gingham bedding, she recalled a grid technique Mustika sometimes uses on her ceramics, which is when the idea of collaboration first came to mind. Roe reached out to Mustika, who was quick to jump at the black-and-white opportunity.
“We instantly started workshopping ideas. I’d show her the fabric, she’d present a couple of iterations of what the clay could look like, and it just all fell into place so easily,” Roe says.
She describes the final product as “sleek, but still a little playful”, pairing more luxurious design quirks like gold trim with the cottage-style fun of gingham. Mustika’s ceramic pieces are made entirely by hand, meaning each is one-of-a-kind, with no two grid patterns the same.
Since moving the label from a warehouse in Melbourne’s Collingwood to the Gold Coast hinterland, Roe says being surrounded by nature and greenery has “influenced her design direction”. It’s also given her an opportunity to explore collaborations as the brand evolves, just like this one matching textiles with clay.
