Our Eastnor design studio and workroom in Herefordshire is a constant hive of activity. It is where the initial spark and development for every new design begins, and where each woven roll is finished by hand. Amongst the grounds is our Loom Room, a compact and light-filled stone and glass structure that is home to our Swedish hand loom, on which every flatweave design has come to life over the last 35 years, surrounded by kaleidoscope walls of coloured yarn waiting to find its way into our collections.

Read on to take a step inside the walls of this quiet, unassuming room, and discover the birthplace of every Roger Oates design; from initial colour choices to finished woven samples, and the skilled hands guiding them through every stage.

Behind the scenes

It’s our people who bring every design to life. At the heart of our business is a small but highly skilled team, whose craftsmanship and creativity underpin everything we do. To begin understanding the work of the loom room, meet the weavers responsible for creating our hand trials and bespoke samples. Meet Evie and Brydie, two members of our design team, as they work in the loom room developing new designs and refining ideas for future Roger Oates collections.

Our yarn is unique to us, spun and dyed in Yorkshire, before travelling down to take their place amongst the walls of our Loom Room. Each of the coloured cones are organised and stored by tone, enveloping the space in waves of colour. When translating our designs from the drawing board into a physical woven design, one of the easiest ways for our designers to narrow down colour selections is to create what we refer to as ‘yarn wraps’. This simple yet effective tool displays how different colours lay together, and how the striped pattern settles amongst those shifting tones. We will create multiple yarn wraps for each design, only moving to the next stage when we have selected combinations and colours we are completely happy with. 

Once the colour combinations and arrangement of a design have been decided, the next stage in the process is to wind the warp onto the warping mill. An essential, preparatory step in the weaving process, winding the warp requires concentration and skill from our weavers. During this process, parallel yarns are measured, counted, and wound to a precise length and tension around the warping mill. Ensuring each individual thread lies in the correct colour order is a crucial factor in achieving the final design.

The Loom

It is now time to transfer the warp over to the loom and carefully start the process of threading up each individual thread. At this stage, we will wind the warp on to the back beam of the loom, spreading the yarn out evenly before threading it through the heddles. It then passes through the reed, before being tied onto the front beam. A tactile process throughout, the weavers will constantly be combing through the yarn with their fingers to ensure the threads are running smooth, and checking for an even tension across every strand. 

The process of winding the warp and setting up the loom will often take an entire day – and that is before any weaving can even take place.

The Weaving Process

The basic principle of the loom on which we weave our hand trials lies in pushing pedals in the correct order to open what is called the ‘shed’. Each pedal connects to a section of threads and by lifting these in a certain order, we can begin to create our pattern. A wooden shuttle will then pass back and forth through the ‘shed’, carrying our weft colour and binding the design together. This process is continued until a section of flatweave has been produced.

So why do we do all this?

Each piece that is woven on the hand loom is crucial to the design, development and sampling of our products. From these small samples, we can see how flatweave behaves, how colours are layered and work together, and how a single stripe can change the overall look and feel of a design.

One element that is subtle, yet can change have a huge impact on the finished design, is the weft. Running along the width of the flatweave and woven over and under the warp, the weft is the backbone of every design, building the base for each roll of flatweave we create. 

Changing the colour of the weft can have a huge impact on the overall look and feel of a piece, from making a quiet statement with neutrals to lifting the design and elevating each stripe with bold colour. This is why every sample from our loom room is an important piece in the journey of our flatweave. Drawing on years of expertise, our designers understand how colour interacts within a design and use this knowledge to guide clients towards the most successful outcome for bespoke projects.

Developing Designs

For new collections, creating trials of each design allows us to see how they sit alongside each other, often revealing that the change of one single tone could be the difference in making a good design even better and more carefully considered. More often than not, new collections introduce new colours to the Roger Oates palette, which adds both time and complexity to the development process. With each new hue, a wealth of creative possibilities is opened up to every design in the collection, which is where the knowledge and experience of our designers plays a crucial role balancing, refining and blending multiple tones that result in harmonious and timeless designs.

Bespoke Commissions

For those looking for bespoke flatweave tailored to match a specific scheme, we are able to create a hand loomed trial piece in the exact colours and design selected. Adding in a few alternations of our own, we can offer variables for comparison, such as a slight variation in weft colour, ensuring there are multiple options available for our clients to choose from. Occasionally we are also able to dye a completely bespoke colour for a project, which leads to experimentation and finding the right design and coordinating tones that work best with the space and the newly created hue.

Through Evie and Brydie in our Loom Room creating trials and bespoke samples, as well as the skilled production team  weaving the full width flatweave, we pride ourselves on championing and nurturing these age old skills, without which we lose a valuable asset of our nation’s history and culture.

In a time where so much of what we surround ourselves with is made by machines, the true value and skill of human craft has never been more important. Every stage of our flatweave process relies on knowledge and experience built over years, and imparted through generations. From the instinctive eye of our designers to the careful hands that prepare and weave each sample, it is this combination of skill, patience and insight that allow us to create considered design, made to last.