Narina takes its name from a bird of the KwaZulu-Natal forests, though what reaches the wall is not the bird but its plumage, abstracted. The Cole & Son studio drew it from the patterning that covers Ardmore's bowls and vases, where feathers are set down as small repeated marks rather than as feathers, and the translation from a curved glazed surface to a flat one has left the motif looking painted rather than printed.
The result behaves as a semi-plain. There is a clear geometry underneath, a stacked and scalloped rhythm on a 52 cm straight repeat, but the watercolour handling softens every edge, so from across a room it reads as texture and resolves into pattern only when you stand close. The design is symmetrical enough to be hung inverted, which gives a paperhanger a second reading of the same wall and is worth settling before the first drop goes up.
Because it holds its ground rather than competing, it works as the connective tissue in a scheme: a hall or landing between rooms carrying stronger Ardmore designs, a bedroom, the inside of a cupboard. Rolls are 0.52 m wide by 10.05 m, and the straight match keeps waste modest.
