We are pleased to announce the arrival of our new ‘Pipit and Sanderling’ design fabric samples. Designed and cut out of lino in our Sussex studio this simple print onto linen and cotton will be available by the meter and made into our first ‘Designed and Made in England’ cushions. This is a very exciting development for us and our first step towards celebrating the ‘Best of British’.

With all things British in the air and the Olympic and Jubilee celebrations just around the corner there is only one thing for it, to design and print a fresh new pattern here in the UK. Lizzie has been working on a simple one colour lino cut to fit in with the new 2012 collection. The design will be launched at Pulse in June and follows the strong trend of birds.  It has a really playful quality and will look great in both traditional and contemporary living spaces.

Below is a sneak preview of what’s to come.

We have been beavering away in our studio this week photographing all our new designs ready for spring. With the help of some dramatic Farrow and Ball Hague Blue paint and an assortment of goodies from Lewes antique shops it’s been great styling our new collection. It’s also been an excellent excuse to go down to Furniture Now, a brilliant initiative for reusing and recycling unwanted furniture check them out at www.furniturenow.org.uk.  Keep an eye on the Woven Oak website as we will be updating it soon but to give you a flavour of what’s to come we have posted a few pics of the shoot.

Lizzie gets busy with the brush

A glimpse of our new Folk design

Up-cycling an old chair from Furniture Now

We thought these 45’s looked great with the bold Anglo Hira Stripe

On Friday 13th January we packed up our little red van and headed for Earls Court, London for the Home Trade Show. Given the date we only had a minor bit of bad luck when our porter, trolley laden with all we could handle, wove us into the heart of Top Drawer, down the chocked aisles to stand T45. We finally made it to our stand D45 in Home and by Saturday evening we were ready to go. Being in the Homegrown section, which hosts up and coming British companies, was great and we are already looking forward to returning to Earls Court for Pulse in June.

Surrounded by beautiful palaces and the sun bleached white walls of Indian towns we embarked on shooting our block printed products. Some kind Indian waiters lent a hand with some nifty napkin work. Here’s a preview.

Pilgrim Booti Cushion

Tamil Oak Jaal Napkin kindly folded by our Indian hosts

Fabric and cushion in a white washed stairwell

 Pilgrim Booti Wash Bag

It’s been an action packed December and full of exciting developments for Woven Oak. We have been working with our printers in Jaipur to put our spring/summer 2012 collection together. To see each design processed from the initial colour swatches to the final fabric prints and tailoring has reminded us of the hard work that goes into each finished product. There is no quick fix with this age old process. Its slow unfolding nature is to be marvelled at in an age where instant results are the norm. Each block is rhythmically stamped by hand. The fabric is then hung to react and dry in the hot Indian sun before it is washed and stitched.

The 2012 Folk design being block printed

The 2012 Tuscan Rose design being block printed

Accurate lining up of the blocks by hand

The printing inks being fixed before washing

Tailoring by hand

The colour master

Chai Time!

A well earned chai break with the printing team

There’s nothing better on a Sunday afternoon than rolling up your sleeves and getting covered in paint. After all our inspiring trips I have decided to print some of my own lampshades using two of our woodblocks, one of which was carved by Leo. I used speedball inks, but any matt paint would do. Printing onto fine Japanese paper gave a clear finish and meant the light shone through, highlighting the design. I was also inspired by a Design Sponge blog post, which shows how to brighten up an old lampshade.

Printing a lampshade using wood blocks