Glamping with Ardmore

By Louise Irvine

Nature meets luxury in glamorous camping and you can give your outdoor experiences some authentic African safari flair with Ardmore’s new collection of outdoor pillows. Whether you like to picnic by the shore, take tea in the garden, dine alfresco, or glamp in the countryside under the stars, the Sabie Solaris pillows add comfort and style to the occasion.

Fée Halsted, Ardmore’s Creative Director, was inspired to create the new Solaris collection of outdoor fabrics after camping by the crystal clear Sabie River in the Kruger National Park. In this lush region of dense vegetation, she watched many different varieties of game and birds come to the water to drink, bathe, and fish. She described the scene as a “never-ending tapestry of camouflaged beasts, where light, sound, movement and color shift and change”.

Cheetahs and giraffes abound in the dense trees and bushes of the Sabie Forest pattern. The Camp Critters design includes genets, which are long, lean carnivores with a striped tail longer than their spotted body. They are catlike with retractable claws for climbing trees and catching prey. They sleep during the day and start to hunt at dusk, stalking rodents, and birds.

Bush Babies are also nocturnal animals that spend most of their lives in trees. They have large saucer-eyes which help them see in low light as they jump through the forest canopy snatching insects and reptiles. In Afrikaans, they are called nagapies, which means “night monkeys”.

On return to the Ardmore Studio, Fée worked with her design team which includes her daughter, Catherine, along with Sidney Nyabeze and Abel Mohloakoana, to create the artwork for the new fabric collection. They captured the mood of this exotic region with sensual, aromatic moonlit flowers as the sun sets and the heat abates. Owls, hornbills, and hoopoes flit through this birder’s paradise and into the new Sabie designs.

The Solaris pillows are now available for sale at the WMODA shop. They measure 20 by 20 inches and are made of 100% polyester fabrics and inserts suitable for outdoor use. They are printed double-sided from the fabric run and no two pillows are exactly alike. As well as pillows, the WMODA shop sells melamine coasters, placemats and tea towels which are perfect for casual alfresco parties.