'Couverture ancienne galloise'

Just thumbing through a copy of Ideat from last year and came across our Scallop blanket in Mandarin in the beautiful house of Mark and Sally Bailey. It's a design that we stopped producing in 2010 - so I suppose that strictly speaking it is from our archive. But amusing to see it captioned as a 'couverture ancienne galloise'...

It is thrown over the bench above and on the end of the bed below.

The Farmiloe Building: details

Upon arriving at the Farmiloe Building, host to the Design Factory for Clerkenwell Design Week 2014, we were immediately greeted by a spectacular mural. A collaboration between Johnson Tiles and Ptolemy Mann, this large tiled installation was a colourful delight.

Whilst walking through the show, we were struck by the beauty of the Farmiloe Building itself.

The building interior, once the headquarters of the glass and lead merchants George Farmiloe & Sons, has a number of remaining architectural features and interesting details that give you a glimpse into the building's past and previous use. 

One of our favourite features in particular was the unexpected maze of panelled offices on the first floor. The narrow corridors and little rooms are sectioned by part glass walls. The light through the textured glass creates lovely patterning.

Hot off the Press

We have been lucky to have had a great run of press recently. Here are some of the pieces:

they are - from the top:

Elle Decoration - May 2014
French Elle Decoration - April 2014
Elle Decoration - June 2014
House and Garden - June 2014

Pelikan

Here are Amber and Willem - recent additions to the Pelikan family and beautifully restored and re-upholstered in our Aerial fabrics.

Amber is in our Rowridge Fabric used B side up. Willem comes in two versions - the chair which is in the Totley A side and the sofa which is in the Totley B side.

Pelikan specialize in " ... midcentury sofas, day beds, bed setees, two seaters, chairs and more choice pieces, hand-picked for their design, form and function, in an ever changing collection..."

In their own words "... we get to know all our Pelikan furniture family - we only buy pieces we love. In our care each midcentury piece goes through a transformation, with its original spirit and splendour always retailed...We believe people want furniture with a bit of personality, classic design and great quality, the real thing , but updated, restored. Each finished piece is unique, a midcentury original. we never do the same thing twice..."

 Photos: Pelikan

Bute Fabrics

Our Aerial upholstery range is woven for us by Bute Fabrics. Based on the Isle of Bute, off the west coast of Scotland, they are upholstery specialists, weaving high-end contract-grade wool fabrics. They produce a beautiful range of plain, tweed and textured wool upholstery fabrics as well as occasionally doing commission weaving for other companies.

When we started planning and designing the upholstery collection, Bute were our first choice for production. They have huge experience and technical expertise in this field, and is has been a pleasure working with them.

The mill is an impressive example of industrial production. The image above is the warp threads coming off the creel through a series of guides and onto the beam. Below are the pins in the temple which hold the edges of the fabric under tension as it is woven.

The machine below is tying one set of warp threads onto another - preparing for a new colourway to go into production. 

And below is the warping frame with the two layres of warp threads lined up ready to wind off the cones. This is set up for the Totley and Belmont fabrics which are orange on one face and a black & white marl on the other.

  Many thanks to Catherine Murray at Bute for the images.