Emma Britton is the original floral patterned glass splashback designer and founder of an award winning, independent design brand. Established in 2010 specialising in designer made, decorative glass splashbacks, customers can choose from Emma’s collections or commission a bespoke design. Emma’s signature floral and modern patterns make the functional beautiful, all designed and decorated in her Derbyshire studio and includes a growing range of popular glassware.
“As a designer I draw the best bits of nature. I am inspired by a contrasting colour palette and I take snaps of things I like ready for when I am back in the studio. Often drawing traditional English garden flowers such as foxgloves, lupins, iris, fuchsias and hydrangeas I’m lucky enough to be asked to draw a huge variety of others in my bespoke work, which now includes a growing and very popular range of glassware.
I see glass as a canvas on which to apply pattern, sometimes opaque, sometimes translucent. My design style is inspired by British suburbia and I’m fascinated by 20th Century interiors and how people decorate their homes today. Although my patterns are contemporary, they are rooted in nostalgia. Everything is designed for modern, everyday living.”
I founded my business after graduating in Printed Textiles and then going on to work in the glass industry as my interest in pattern on glass had developed. That’s when I saw the potential to create something different and previously unseen. By putting hand designed floral patterns onto glass for splashbacks, just like wallpaper or fabric, I revolutionised the decorative possibilities for interiors, especially in kitchens and bathrooms. Optimistically floral with a slightly retro aesthetic is how I describe my style.
Over the nearly fifteen years, I have honed my making skills, from experimenting with new ideas for clients, taking risks with new materials and the processes to capture them inside the glass. Matching homewares to my glass splashbacks helped me to create covetable design collections drawing on my textile design skills. In 2015 I started with some Floral Tumblers and they went stratospheric, so from then on I added more and more shapes and designs to my glass collection and it keeps growing. My core collections are Silver Birch, Meadow and Exotic Floral and my customers love them. Every glass is hand finished in my studio.
