Monday 30 April 2012

Becca's trip to India - The colour process.


Susie is fascinated by colour and one of the most important aspects of this trip was to ensure that the exact colour matches to her artwork were achieved.
Susie herself has spent hours in the colour sheds in India with the local colour masters, and Becca didn’t hesitate to follow in her footsteps. When the process begins, it’s referred to as a ‘mind’ colour, which means we have to get it into the physical form!
Nothing can happen until these colours are finalised, and they have to be produced time and time again as further printing takes place.




You can see from the images below, the bolt which secures the screens so there is no movement whilst the layering process is happening.
The straight side of the screen is the edge of the fabric. The wavy edge is where the next screen merges onto the first, with a skilful hand it is invisible to us, quite amazing!
A chemical process stops any colour appearing on the fabric where it is not required.









At last some progress being made!




Exactly the same process can happen for cushions with mini screens being made for the new designs being trialled.
When this colour and print process has been perfected, the fabric is then dried and rolled for delivery or given to Mr Ravis team to make up in to the range of textile accessories Susie has designed.
The next time you pick up one of our beautiful textile products consider the work, ingenuity and skill needed, before it makes it’s way to you!

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Our Woman In India... Contact Made!



After some modern communication issues Becca is able to tell us more about her trip to India.

We’ve all been fascinated in the office about the complicated processes which are required for screen printed fabrics, and the skill needed to produce them.

After spending some time in Mr Ravis factory Becca moved on to the screen printers. As you can see from the countryside she travelled through, she was in an agricultural area, and one of the crops being harvested was Tumeric which is piled for drying pre manufacture into a product we all recognise. It’s a valuable crop so whilst this process is going on someone sleeps in shelter made from the drying crop.






At the factory the new screens are under way...





Becca has previously taken Susie’s original designs at home and put them on to computer software. This allowed her to strip each colour from the design, layer by layer, until she had a set of drawings, which once laid back on top of each other again made the finished full colour design.

These layers of the design represent one screen print frame, so a whole series of these frames is needed to make a panel of the finished design. Becca hands over her work to the experts!


The base fabric is laid out, and it is a meticulous process of positioning each screen to ensure the pattern is perfect. If the subsequent screens are not laid on top in exactly the right position the next colour layer will not match the pattern required.







The colour application is also a tricky process – just the right amount of colour has to be applied, and with just the right amount of pressure. By the end of the week they even let Becca have a go!

The temperature during the day was about 38 degrees, with very high humidity, and added to the tough change for her in temperature, she was also fighting a bit of jet lag.


Work was interrupted by standard power cuts throughout the area twice a day which also meant that the work had to start at 6am to get some printing in before they began, and working until early evening – definitely not a glamour job!





We loved the fact that Becca travelled half way around the world, and to and from the factory, exhausted, with her Susie Watson bag!!

Well Done!


Tuesday 17 April 2012

Our Woman In India

Evening,

I just thought I would send a quick update.. Bed is calling, so I shall be brief and get more to you tomorrow.

After a very VERY long flight (made even longer by the snoring man next to me and the screaming child in front) I arrived safely... having got off the plane in a fleece hoody, I didn't feel at all prepared for the 34 degrees waiting for me (bearing in mind it was 6 degrees when I left the UK on Sunday) However, I'm yet to keel over so I would say it's been successful so far!

The drive from the airport to Karur was certainly an eye opener, I'm fairly sure you wouldn't be able to survive driving here without a fully functioning, and very loud, horn. There doesn't seem to be any rules of the road, with motorbikes, cyclists, cars, trucks and the odd cow flying in all directions.



Having arrived at our suppliers I managaed to do a little bit of work, looking at the new hellibore cushion and possibly a new version of a bird cushion (images to follow). I had a lovely tour round the factory by Sowbi, who took me up on the roof, where Susie shot the beginning of the textile film. It's really nice to be able to put it in context.

Anyway, I'm super tired so I'm heading off to bed now in preparation for a full day tomorrow.

Speak soon,
Becca

Thursday 12 April 2012

Inspirational Fabrics from Susie Watson Designs

Interview with Susie Watson.

Our little factory in Karur lies in the heart of the cotton weaving area in Southern India. It is from here that some of the finest cotton in the world is produced. It is run by Mr Ravi and his delightful family whom I have been working with for many years.




Only the best cotton will be sent for weaving and every batch of yarn will be dyed with the utmost care. The amazingly skilful team care passionately about all the beautiful products they make for us. How very lucky we are.


For the past year I have been working in Rajasthan with him to create an exciting new range of designs for hand block printing on linen. The designs we have created are totally unique and I am thrilled with the final results and really grateful to the talented people who worked so hard to perfect them.

Block printing is a remarkable way of creating pattern, and quite unique to this area of India. Each block is intricately carved by hand from wood, exactly to our original artwork, often starting as a simple sketch.

Our Rose design alone has more than 15 different blocks with each layer of colour applied separately. It is an enormous challenge to produce this on a commercial scale, but we think their efforts are worth it!





Our fabrics are made by humans not machines, small variations are part of the handmade charm and should not be considered a fault but a reflection of their uniqueness.





All of our fabrics are available at the following locations as well as online at www.susiewatsondesigns.co.uk



Susie Watson Designs Marlborough
114 High Street
Marlborough
Wiltshire
SN8 1LT
Tel. 01672 514542


Susie Watson Designs Fabric Showroom
5 High Street
Marlborough
Wiltshire
SN8 1AA
Tel. 01672 511281

Susie Watson Designs London
125 Northcote Road
London
SW11 6PS
Tel. 0207 2289955

Susie Watson Designs Alresford
16 West Street
Alresford
Hampshire
SO24 9AT
Tel. 01962 734171


NEW STORE Opening May 2012

Susie Watson Designs Tunbridge Wells
15 High Street
Tunbridge Wells