About

ABOUT US:

New South Pattern House is a Hillsborough, NC based studio, specializing in place-based design, and led by printmaker and designer, Katie Hayes.  We make hand-pressed block prints, and small batch goods such as stationery and gift wrap.  All of the artwork you see is created by Katie in her signature style, and is then either hand carved, inked, and pressed by her (in the case of her limited edition, signed block prints,) or then sent to a manufacturing partner (in the case of wallpaper, or gift wrap.) All manufacturing partners are located in the US, and carefully vetted for high ethical standards. 

Katie created New South Pattern House to highlight the vibrant cities and amazing ecosystems of the Southeastern US. When she was a little girl, she wanted to be a naturalist, and spent every minute she could outside learning about the plants and animals of Western NC where she grew up.

ABOUT BLOCK PRINTS:

A "Block Print" is an imprint made from a carving. You carve away the negative space of your design, and then apply ink to the remaining surfaces. Once the carving is inked up, you press a paper on top and rub the back of the paper to transfer the image.  We always sell fewer than 100 imprints for our limited edition prints, and we only use inks made here in North Carolina. You can carve into a variety of different surfaces to make a block print.  Printmakers can use wood, foam, or even a carve into a potato! But, the two types of substrates Katie carves in most frequently are linoleum (the hard grey stuff you may have carved on in school) and synthetic linoleum (her favorite,) which is softer and more suited to the puzzle-piece printmaking techniques she uses so frequently in her work. If you want to know more about the specific substrates Katie carves in, you can see our FAQ page. 

PATTERNS THAT MATTER:

In addition to carving block prints, Katie really loves creating repeating patterns.  This led her to create a line of North Carolina themed gift-wrap, and design hundreds of patterns for wallpaper and fabric, which are sold through the Durham, NC based company, Spoonflower.  Spoonflower products work differently from our other products because you don't order them directly from this website. Instead you can shop Katie's designs from Spoonflower, which then pays us royalties based on the artwork they've sold. Many of the motifs Katie uses in her printmaking get new life as patterns, and  we love bringing placed based themes to life as functional artwork.