About

Hello, my name is Emma Dryburgh, and I make hand-made, potato printed greetings cards.

What started out as a school art project for my daughter, Izzy, has grown and developed into an exciting business for me. After having great fun helping Izzy, I continued to develop my skills in this old arts and craft technique. I spent time experimenting with different varieties of potatoes and types of paint; creating shapes and patterns until I perfected the look I wanted to achieve for my greetings cards.

Tatty Co came alive in 2005 and working from my kitchen table, I started to make cards and sell them in my sister-in-law’s shop. After receiving positive feedback from customers, I started working on creating more designs and there is now a collection of over 100 designs to suit all occasions.

I love working with natural products, and growing up on a farm in Shropshire, surrounded by potatoes in the fields and in our garden, it seems only fitting to be working with this versatile product to create something I’m incredibly passionate about.

A quick word on potato printing…

To achieve the best results for my cards I use large potatoes that are not too old and not too new. They're not yet soft and have not started to sprout!

I draw an outline on the potato of what I want to create and very carefully carve it out. If the design is something complex like a fairy, I take each component like the head, arms, legs and the dress and carve them separately. The colours are painted onto the carved potato shapes and the design is built up slowly until I have achieved the desired effect. Finally, I use a very fine pen to outline my shapes.
I love the intricacy that is involved in creating my designs; from the very first print to the last!
Take a look at my shop to see all my designs.