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Collecting textiles and reseaching textile designers such as Lucienne Day has always sent us on adventures through the country. Our latest train journey was to the delightful city of Chichester and to the excellent gallery at Pallant House. The exhibition of the work of the married design team of Lucienne and Robin Day displays their innovation and inventfulness. It was good to see the playful designs for tea towels that Lucienne Day produced. The one I especially liked was called 'Too Many Cooks' as we used to have it in our collection before selling it on. A framed example of this design was displayed in Chicester  from the collection of Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown 111. Many of the other lengths of fabric on display also feature in our own collection but as we rarely have the space to exhibit them it was good to see their visual impact in full force.

'Petal' Lucienne Day. This textile is for sale at Retropattern

No visit to Chichester should miss out the opportunity to see the stunning John Piper altar tapestry at the catherdral. This work together with a beautiful Sutherland painting and a Chagall stained glass window provide creative contemplation. Piper is another designer of textiles whose work we collect and researching these designers sends us to parts of the country and world where we see wonderful people and places.

Throughout May the National Theatre displayed an excellent exhibition of original drawings and paintings for the textile designs of Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell. The colourful paintings that I especially liked were unfortunately out of my price range but it was great to see such brilliant designs. The exhibition also included several 'mood boards' that showed the textile designs used in a variety of settings. It was great to see examples of textiles that we have in our collection used to illustrate the work of these prolific designers

Alun and I had an enjoyable visit to London to research several exhibitions including the Fifties room at the Festival of Britain Anniversary exhibtion. The room displayed the innovation in design and included many examples of textiles by Marion Mahler, Jacqueline Groag and Lucienne Day. These were exciting to see in this setting as they are designs we have in our collection at Retropattern.  I noted the comments from visitors that the contents of the room were very 'contemporary' despite being sixty years old. This shows the enduring power of good design that can transcend the passing of half a century and remain excellent quality. 

We recently took a trip up to the Design Archive in Cummersdale, Carlisle in the North of England. This is an astonishing printed textile design archive with original artwork and printed fents (sample swatches) thousands of which were printed on the site.  The Cummersdale Design Collection is named after the village in which Thomas McAlpin and his step-son John Stead set up their fabric printing factory in 1835. The works are now in different hands.

The curator of the collection is Alan Cook who originally worked as an artist for Stead McAlpin in the on site studio. We were welcomed in the car park by Alan and had to walk through the works with the rotary printers and automated screen tables laying colourways onto cloth for many retail companies including John Lewis, Romo, Nina Campbell and Liberty.

On the first floor at the back end of the works is the recently refurbished archive of painted designs on paper. These cover the whole of the 20^th century and go back way beyond the Victorian era.

 It is rich in mid-twentieth century designs by prominent designers such as Mary White, Tibor Reich and Lucienne Day and earlier turn of the century artwork originating in the Silver Studio.  These painted sheets are held in vertical flip files and skillfully archived by Alan Cook. In fact there are 2 Alans at work in the archive, the other is the now retired Alan James who, in his working life, was the print manager of the works.

   As one of the highlights we were shown the Lucienne Day artwork which had recently been loaned to a Glasgow School of Art Exhibition. The framed designs are, from left to right, Flower Show, Rock Rose and Spectators, all originally printed on site.

Another terrific feature of the archive is the collection of printing blocks, tools and objects some of which are shown here in the hands of the engaging and informative Alan James.

The archive welcomes researchers, designers and producers wishing to develop their ideas through the inspiring collection. Many of the patterns are also available under licence and can be adapted for current design needs and printed on site.

Details can be found at www.cummersdaledesign.co.uk       

Retro Pattern took a double stand at the Textile Society March fair in Manchester.

This was the first time that we have exhibited and the response was excellent. We have booked the same pitch for next year and will present a wider range of collectable mid-20th century fabric in a space appealingly laid out. Thanks also to Didsbury W.I. in South Manchester who, through this web site, have booked us up to talk about our collection in April 2012. 

We were all set up by 9am and ready to serve. Mari, pictured above, faced the customers. A big change from her normal role of researching, photographing and up-loading to the website.