Work Experience

I have had such an amazing time on work placement. Claudia has opened my eyes to the world of work within a small textiles business. Claudia’s business ‘The Textillery’ is based at the birthplace of Thomas Bewick. Cherryburn is a National Trust sight based in Mickely in Northumberland; it’s a very small sight but with beautiful surroundings. Thomas Bewick was a print designer who created etched prints of farm animals, birds, new and exciting animals that people hadn’t seen or heard of at the time. He had his own studio within his birthplace which is still there today in pristine condition with a beautiful hint of authenticity. Claudia works at Cherryburn, surrounded by beautiful landscapes, animals and little dainty houses. She has the print room to herself so she can produce her own work and also work for the National Trust. Her and the National Trust have a deal; if Claudia can design and produce work for the National Trust, as well as other things, she can have full access to Cherryburn and Bewick’s print room. ‘The Textillery’ is an innovative and creative Textile Design Studio, she is able to identify, create and deliver exciting, new and commercial work with a British Heritage signature in mind. Her work focuses on designs that evoke the English countryside and heritage in a contemporary way. 


The first week working with Claudia was amazing! It was a case of sink or swim! I had known about the first brief before meeting Claudia, so I had collected some research; mood boards, colour trends for spring/summer 2014 and also price ranges. The brief was to create contemporary and traditional print designs using a selection of Thomas Bewick’s prints that could then be transferred onto silk scarves and sold within the National Trust shops. So obviously, I was excited! I met Claudia outside of Cherryburn and she greeted me with a smile and a soft hand shake; instantly I knew we were going to have a good working relationship. I had brought my research and a selection of work from my last project so she could see how I worked in depth. She was really happy and also grateful for the research I had collected as it meant we could get going straight away. Additionally she loved my style of work. To have someone who works within the textiles industry compliment my work the way she did was incredible. After deciding which colour palette and images we thought would be best for the scarf collection, I went away and produced around 20 designs. The day after Claudia and I were able to sit down and decide which designs were working best and could be developed further. The feeling meeting Claudia that afternoon was incredible; she was really impressed with the work I had produced and said that in the future she would love to work with me as she connects with my style. This was such a boost! The process of being given a brief, and images to work with was something I have never done before as I usually work with my own images or drawings, however it was quite exciting as I could interpret the images in a more contemporary way. For Claudia to appreciate the way I used the tools given and see potential in the designs as The National Trust would take to them, was unbelievable.  The first week was a bit of a blur; I had produced designs for silk scarves, presented these to others, designed the packaging for the scarfs and also created a worksheet.  I didn’t think I’d be doing so much in the three-week experience let alone the first week. 

Made by 'The Textillery', Cherryburn, National Trust

Made by 'The Textillery', Cherryburn, National Trust

The second week was a children’s wear brief; something I had never looked at before.  The National Trust had again, given us images of Thomas Bewicks work they wanted us to use. Initially they said it would be a t-shirt range with a simple animal placement design, nevertheless this developed into a baby range also. They told Claudia they wanted the texture around and in the animal to be removed, so the outline just remained. Underneath the outline of the animal, would be the name of the animal in blocked capitals. So with this brief in mind, I set to and started designing. The only problem was that the idea sounded fine, however when producing the design, it looked awful. Thomas Bewicks prints are so detailed, therefore to take all of this away from the design took everything away from it. That night, I was so worried, I didn’t know what to do because what The National Trust had asked for us to do, just wasn’t working; but how could I do something different when this was the brief they had given? Therefore I did exactly what they asked, but also produced one design that was slightly different, and what I thought looked slightly better! At least I could show Claudia something that didn’t look horrendous. So, the next day, I was really worried as to what Claudia might think; I didn’t want her faith in me to fade. Nevertheless I felt a lot better after she agreed with everything I said and actually liked the design I had created instead. I found this brief a little difficult as I hadn’t experienced designing for children, however it gave me the experience of having to produce work that someone had set me, that I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with. Nevertheless as the week went on, I got more into it as I started to design repeat prints with cute animal motifs and put the designs into context, so I could imagine them being quite successful on children’s garments. 

Made by 'The Textillery', Cherryburn, National Trust

The final week was quite experimental. Claudia had a member of the National Trust get in touch with her about a range of accessories. After having a think about items such as phone covers, laptop cases etc, I had an idea about kindle covers. I put this idea forward to Claudia and she really liked it; we discussed themes and stores that inspired us and came to the conclusion of producing a couple of designs based on ‘Wuthering Heights’. This is my favourite book so when it came to sourcing images from Claudia’s collection and experimenting with layout, I was in my element. In a meeting with Claudia, she realised that the theme Wuthering Heights may make the production more difficult as we would have to get copyright approved. Therefore we took inspiration from local stories and places, for example, there is a castle within a National Trust spot called ‘The Strawberry Castle’ and also a garden named ‘The Ice Garden’. Straight away when faced with these names, images come to mind; therefore producing kindle covers based on a series of stories like these, was quite enjoyable. What topped the whole experience off, was the final Friday, when Claudia and I were having a coffee just before a meeting and suddenly Claudia had the idea of using a couple of kindle designs as girls dresses! Just like that, and within half an hour we had produced four dress flats each with a different design! This is what makes me love Photoshop and the skill of design; Photoshop makes it easier for you to produce simple designs within minutes, nevertheless you have to have the idea first! To be able to sit with Claudia and have the control over the designing, but for both of us to decide what works best, made us realise, we both have a very similar eye for design.

Made by ' The Textillery', Cherryburn, The National Trust

Made by 'The Textillery', Cherryburn, The National Trust

Working to produce designs for the National Trust has definitely pushed me. I’ve always been a hard working person and never left work to the last minute, however experiencing this side of work has pushed me even further. We were given a brief and designs would have to be produced within two working days; this sounds terrifying at first but it can be done. It’s helped me to be more decisive within my work and think more about how the design could work professionally. Working with Claudia has opened my eyes to the world of work, and I’m so excited to get out there.