Artek 402

This is the iconic Artek 402 chair designed by Alvar Aalto in 1933 and upholstered in our Totley fabric (A side). It is amazing how clean and contemporary the design still looks.

Niels Moller at Two Columbia Road

I love the elegance and poise of these Niels Moller dining chairs which are upholstered here with the B side of our Totley fabric.

They are from Two Columbia Road - a beautiful mid century furniture showroom with a very well curated selection.

I love the deep glossy wood and the sinuous curves.

Emmanuelle Hegaret

One of the things I find most exciting about our upholstery fabric is seeing how it ends up being used.

The beautiful chair here was upholstered in our Wrekin fabric by Emmanuelle Hegaret at her atelier in Brittany.

I love the way that the Wrekin pattern wraps around the curved back - and using the reverse face on the back of the chair is a really nice touch.

I also really like the way that Emmanuelle has styled this shoot - you can see more of her work here.

Finishing school

Finishing is anything that is done to the fabric once it is woven. When the fabric comes off the loom it is called 'loomstate' or sometimes 'grey cloth' and it is usually quite stiff and taught. As soon as it is washed or steamed the fibres start to relax and it starts to feel like proper cloth.

A few weeks ago we went up to visit one of the Finishers that we use. They do anything and everything from washing and scouring to pressing and steaming, coating and cropping to milling and dying. 

I loved the 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' feel of all the machines, with all their buttons and levers. Lots of fantastic sounds and smells as well as the bolts of fabric run through all the processes. 

And I also loved the gigantic scale of everything - this is a huge vat of liquid soap which is kept warm at all times to keep the soap from solidifying. A really fascinating day out!

'An Ascetic Aesthetic'

We were very pleased to have our 2/8ths Storm Blue blanket included in the April issue of Wallpaper. The feature is called 'The Lovely Bones' with this wonderful line of text...

'Under strict orders to create an ascetic aesthetic we've reduced our furnishings to the bare necessities'

Styling by Amy Heffernan

Photography by Steve Harries