Design Project with Richmond Park Primary School

As part of their St David's Day celebrations, and to improve the children's understanding of Welsh culture and language, Richmond Park Primary School in Carmarthen decided to explore the work of Melin Tregwynt and to create their own doublecloth design.

We are always keen to encourage interest in weave and traditional craft skills and so we agreed to help. We provided the children with samples and they drew their own designs based on research into our products. They also used building blocks to help explore the sample designs

The children then used ICT to create symmetrical repeating patterns, some examples of which are shown here.

The children all created their own designs and we offered to create a CAD design simulation for the winning pupil. Here are some of the children with their designs.

They were then encouraged to work out their designs on graph paper (as many weave designers do). They asked if they could have a winning design made into a pattern plan and we offered to create a CAD design simulation for the winning design.

The winning designs were then made into a CAD simulation of a Melin Tregwynt woven fabric. We think they look really great!

We really enjoyed this project. The children did really well and thanks go to the Head, Helen Wyn-Davies, and the staff of Richmond Park Primary who came up with the idea; and Sophia from the mill who provided samples and helped with the CAD design simulation.

Eifion Griffiths - Melin Tregwynt