Hotties
available in fabrics as shown (hot water bottle included)
madison denim/ madison spice/ madison red
carew aqua/ carew cassis/ carew ember
mondo redberry/ mondo natural/ mondo aubergine
price: £42
We’re also on the inside back cover with more images of summer.
Adain Avion
Adain Avion is a mobile art space created from the fuselage of a DC-9 airplane. This year the Welsh artist Marc Rees has captained the art space through a series of events in venues across Wales as part of the Cultural Olympiad
We are delighted to have created a one off Madison design for Adain Avion to celebrate 100 years of our family company.
This year Melin Tregwynt are celebrating 100 years of weaving, Our family business was founded in May 1912 when Henry Griffiths, my grandfather bought Tregwynt Mill for £760.
Earlier this year we were privileged to be invited to meet Prince Charles at his Highgrove home in March and since then we’ve had a number of events planned to celebrate this milestone year.
Rowan Tweed: earlier this year Rowan Yarns used the mill as a backdrop for one of their knitwear style books “Rowan Tweed”.
Contact: Marie Wallin, Head Designer, ROWAN YARNS: email: marie.wallin@coats.com
Melin Tregwynt 100th Birthday party: this took place at the Mill in Pembrokeshire on Saturday 16th, June 2012. We had a traditional ‘Twmpath’ dance with a hog roast & barbeque (invitation only) for staff (past & present) friends & supporters… Around 200 people attended and a great time was had by all
Special commissions: we have created exclusive ranges for Highgrove Enterprises, available in store now; and also for Heals and John Lewis to launch in September. All of these collections draw on our huge resource of design ideas developed over the last century.
More to follow on our busiest summer ever…
Next week were off to New York, not for a holiday unfortunately but to work. We’re showing our prodcuts in the US for the first time in a number of years. We’re at the ICFF show at the Jacob Javits Centre New York, Stand No 2308, Hall 1A, from 19th – 22nd May 2012.
If you’re in town please come and see us.
Last September at London Fashion Week our fabrics appeared on the catwalk in the work of Jayne Pierson. This her sixth collection, entitled Modrun A/W 2012 shows Jayne Pierson present her first ON Schedule collection with the British Fashion Council at Somerset House WC2.
Jayne Pierson graduated from the University of Glamorgan with a First Class BA Honours degree in Fashion Design, combining additional units of study from Central St. Martins, London. Jayne went on to win the London Graduate Fashion Week Ecological Design Award amongst many other national competitions. Jayne Pierson also gained a wealth of luxury brand experience interning and working for couture designers Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood.
She used our Knot Garden design, specially woven for her in an exclusive colour, in a number of outfits shown below:
You can find out more about her here.
In this centenary year, we’re started doing a lot of restoration work at the mill. This will take some time but we also decided to completely re-vamp our mill leaflet. This was a group effort using a mixture of “talents” from Steve Lovett, Helene Dolley and I.
Those of you who have rung the mill will have spoken to Steve and/or Helene. Steve is our mail order guru (and secretly a very good artist) and Helene is also very talented and French, so she adds some much needed Gallic charm and sophistication to our office.
Steve did the beautiful hand drawn illustrations and type and Helene and I played around with various bits of Adobe software to get the layout, add photographs and the final printing. I hope you like what you see.
In 1912 Melin Tregwynt woollen mill was purchased by my grandfather Henry Griffiths for £760, and has been in our family for the last one hundred years.
Celebrations: As the date for our centenary grows closer (it’s May, June or August depending on whether we take the date of the first payment of 10% deposit in May, or the final payment in August) we have various events planned to celebrate. We’ll be telling you more about these events as they occur but here are a few highlights.
Water Wheel: We’re restoring the old water wheel here at the mill and planning improvements to the visitor experience: more information, old pictures, more explanation about the weaving process and some video footage for weekends when the mill isn’t working.
100th Birthday Party: Our local centenary event will be a pig roast and twmpath (it’s a welsh dance/party) in a marquee here at the mill, on Saturday June 16th. More details will appear on our website and facebook pages soon.
Blanket Coverage: Welsh tapestry and Tupperware Tea Party: On July 1st the people of Swansea and beyond will be invited to bring their own retro Welsh tapestry blankets and packed Tupperware for a communal picnic. This picnic will take place around an aeroplane whose fuselage will be completely covered in a specially created blanket based on our signature Madison design. This retro-inspired geometric pattern was influenced by a lime-green maxi skirt owned by my mum in the 70s.
The event is part of Adain Avion a project being organised by Marc Rees for the Cultural Olympiad in Wales. Blanket Coverage is Adain Avion’s unique take on the iconic artwork by Christo who famously covered the Reichstag in Berlin with silver fabric, transforming it into a social sculpture and immensely popular gathering point. Click here for more information about Adain Avion.
EISTEDDFOD: We’ll be participating in the Adain Avion event at the Welsh Eisteddfod 2012 in the Vale of Glamorgan, 4th - 11th August.
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL: From 15th - 22nd September we’re the featured company in Heals for the London Design Festival. We’re producing a range of special colours and designs for the store and they will have Melin Tregwynt pop-up shop for this period and a special design talk/drinks event on 18th September.
LATER THIS YEAR: We’re also doing special designs for John Lewis and participating in the Prince of Wales’ Campaign for Wool. We’ll be also exhibiting in the U.S. and Japan later this year. More details about all these events will appear soon. We also hope to publish a book on the history of our family’s involvement with the mill from 1912 to the present day.
Country Homes & Interiors magazine asked Alun Callender to shoot portraits of British Wool Heroes for their 2012 calendar.
He travelled the country from the Scottish borders to West Sussex via Cumbria, Yorkshire, Pembrokeshire, Worcestershire, Somerset & Buckinghamshire and met some very interesting people on the way, and took a lovely set of pictures.
Amanda Griffiths, my wife and partner in Melin Tregwynt is on the left and Marie Wallin, Head designer at Rowan is on the right. I thought they might have followed the example of the WI and gone topless but apparently not.
Here are more heroes
Victoria Stapleton, Founder & Creative Director of Brora – Liz Cann, Design Director of Zoffany.
Kelly Butler, Creative Design Director at Brintons carpets & Georgina Cardew Co-founder of Fleetwood Fox
Fashion Designer Eloise Grey & Jane Exley of The Wooly Rug Company
Jessica Cross, Co-founder of Southdown Duvets & Christine Armstrong, Founder & director of Second Nature.
You can see more of Alun Callender’s work at http://www.aluncallenderblog.com
