Our Story

Inkbeck began with a question: what would British wildlife look like in the tradition of Chinese brush painting?

The name holds both halves. Ink, for the fine brush line of Chinese painting. Beck, the old northern English word for a stream. Our designs sit where the two meet.

Chinese bird-and-flower painting has a language of its own. A magpie on a plum branch brings good news. The hare in the moon stands for long life. A pair of mandarin ducks on a lotus pond means lasting love. We keep those old compositions and give them to the animals of British gardens, fields and rivers.

So a robin sits where the magpie would, on a branch of winter plum. A hare watches the full moon. Two swans take the place of the mandarin ducks, with a nod to the Willow pattern, the story Britain once told itself about China, drawn back the other way. A hedgehog wanders past a moon gate, the round doorway of a Chinese garden.

Each design is printed on a 90 × 90 cm square of mulberry silk twill with hand-rolled edges, and arrives gift-boxed with a card that tells its story. Wear it at the neck, in your hair or on a bag, or frame it.

We're starting small: a first edition of four designs, one small run of each. Join the waitlist and we'll send you £10 off when it launches.