A former Rickmansworth School pupil is making her mark in the art world – or on T-shirts, scarves and bag hangers.

Naomi Tuffery, 22, is a textile designer who specialises in print design and this weekend she launches her first ever collection of garments, Deciduous, through her own company that she has set up, Tuff Love.

“The designs all have branches and trees as the main focus,“ explains Naomi, who now lives in Gerrards Cross. “It started from me taking pictures in the park – I just liked the look of the trees and particularly how a lot of them didn’t look like what they actually were.

“There’s one which some people have said looks like veins. Whether anyone will go for that one or not, we’ll have to see!“

Naomi studied textiles at Buckinghamshire New University, and it was there that she discovered print design.

“It was completely new to me, but when I started to do print I just fell in love with it and knew that’s what I wanted to take as my specialist subject.“

Naomi left university and began freelancing as a textile designer and then decided to set up Tuff Love after being approached by a company who’d seen her designs during her university’s end-of-year fashion and design show.

“I had all my designs ready, I just hadn’t got them made, so when I heard from these people I had a collection of scarves printed,“ remembers Naomi, “and it started from there.“

Where does she get her inspiration from?

“It normally just comes from seeing something that I like. With my scarves, I went out to my car one morning and it was completely covered in these ice formations. I thought they were really beautiful so I took some photos and I had the ‘winter’ scarf for a seasons collection.“

  • Naomi’s collection Deciduous is launched on Saturday, June 14. Details: tuff-love.co.uk