Crafts in the Cotswolds: In the studio with Rapture & Wright

In the final installment in our Crafts in the Cotswolds series we visit the printing room of Rapture & Wright and delve into the artisan techniques behind its hand-printed designs. 

A midweek morning in the small Gloucestershire village of Evenlode and in their light and airy printing workshop, textile and wallpaper designers Rebecca Aird and Peter Thwaites are overseeing production of an order of their best-selling geometric Moorish Maze fabric. Working beside their long-term team of six from what is one of the UK’s very last commercial handprint studios, the couple, life and business partners for over 20 years, run Rapture & Wright, producing exquisite designs destined for exclusive hotels and private homes worldwide.

“Small-scale production is time-consuming and you could say that we make it hard for ourselves, printing by hand rather than using digital printing, but the benefits are important to us,” explains Rebecca, 54. “Handprinting is more flexible and adaptable. It allows you to build up the design colour by colour and to change patterns easily and is so quick to set up every day. We’re not interested in mass production but instead want to be known for our great designs and wonderful colours. This way of working is far more sustainable and keeps waste to an absolute minimum and that is crucially important to us. We only print to order and so unlike most larger fabric producers, have no wasted or discontinued stock.”

Sustainability has always been at the heart of Rapture & Wright and is considered in every business decision, big and small, from employing environmentally sustainable production methods to ensuring all packaging is recyclable. Solar panels line the roof of their printing workshop, providing all their electrical requirements as well as returning significant amounts to the grid and their long-established on-site water management system involves a system of “living ponds”. The wastewater printing produces is cleaned by plants while also providing a natural habitat in one of the most scenic parts of England.

“Within the artisan world, the more mechanised production becomes, the more remote it can feel and today, people long for the personal connection, to know the provenance and feel the hand of the maker in what they own,” says Peter. “We happily welcome people to come and visit us here and see how we work. Once visitors come through the door, they are instantly sold. They can’t believe the simplicity of the process and how it translates into what we create and what they can have in their own homes.”

Working from a 14 metre printing table, the team produce 30 to 50 metres of fabric or wallpaper every day, with orders shipped to Australia, New York, Europe and throughout the UK. They work with leading interior designers, selling mainly but not solely to trade, and regularly exhibit at Design Fairs including Chelsea Harbour and Decorex. In 2018 they were commissioned by the National Trust to design at Standen House, an Arts & Crafts property in Sussex, and they also supply fabrics to Firmdale Hotels with Kit Kemp, Firmdale’s co-owner, outlining her admiration for Rapture & Wright for their “clever design” as well as their “big focus on sustainability, something much needed in the textile industry”. 

As Rapture & Wright’s Creative Director, Peter adds two or three new designs to their collection every year, bringing the total now to 25. While some ideas develop quickly, others have a slower burn: Moorish Maze took seven years to perfect. And while their fabrics are ablaze with colour, they never use more than three in any one design.

“I see my role as an editor,” Peter says. “Inspiration comes from so many sources and a knowledge of art history is key. The same design themes are used again and again over the centuries, and it is how you renew, redraw and recreate them that is crucial. Our Iznik design for example has its origins in Muslim art, inspired by glazed pottery from 14th Century Syria, yet with a contemporary stamp. Taken together, my ideas form what I call a creative compost heap, but that breadth of inspiration is necessary to reach the right end point.”

Cotswolds life

The couple met in London when both were pursuing successful creative careers, Rebecca as a graphic designer and Peter as an illustrator. They founded Rapture & Wright in 2004, initially renting a printing table at Camberwell Arts College before the need for more space led them to relocate to the Cotswolds in 2007.

“I grew up in Evenlode on my parent’s 180-acre farm, riding ponies, occasionally traveling the two miles to school in Broadwell by horse and trap and playing with local friends in the green fields,” says Rebecca. “When my father offered us a redundant barn on his farm, we knew it would make a good print room and so with our two young daughters, Amity and Elsa, we came back, converted the barn and in 2017, built our home beside it.”

Today the family home is a wood clad Dutch barn conversion, filled with colour straight from the Rapture & Wright catalogue. It adheres to the couple’s desire for sustainability with solar panels and a sleek ground-source heat pump. Outside, wide views take in open fields and the Evenlode Valley while close to the house, two newly installed handsome curving fencing windbreaks from Wonderwood Willow draw the eye.

“Producing things is very satisfying and we relish the artisan work we do,” says Peter. “We’ve worked together for so long that we intuitively know how each other thinks.” Rebecca agrees, adding that they enjoy working together as much today as when they first started collaborating together over two decades ago.

They both take obvious pride in the team they have built and the Rapture & Wright workforce represents a true Cotswolds community.

“In the days before mechanisation on this Cotswolds farm, there would have been at least eight people working the land here but over the years, that number declined sharply,” Rebecca says. “Today we are back up to eight of us working here. Rapture & Wright is a creative story yes, but it’s also a regeneration one too.”

Fabrics sell for £120 to £170 per metre; raptureandwright.co.uk

Evenlode Area Guide:

“The most beautiful part of the Cotswolds is to the north and west of Stow-on-the-Wold, with unspoilt villages in rugged countryside yet with plenty of great pubs and members clubs easy within reach,” says Harry Gladwin, Partner and Head of Cotswolds Region at The Buying Solution, Knight Frank’s fully independent search consultancy. “It’s easy to find locations that are tucked away yet well-connected to London by trains from stations at Moreton-in-Marsh and Kingham into Paddington. Parts of the North Cotswolds that run into Gloucestershire sit on the Cotswolds escarpment giving magnificent views north to Bourton and east to Evenlode Vale. Property throughout the North Cotswolds is generally expensive but there are some premier league homes with premier league prices. In a typical village you can find small three-bedroom cottages from £450,000 and larger properties with land from £2.5 million. Best-in-class opportunities rarely come to market though, normally changing hands quickly and privately.”

The pretty honey-stone village of Evenlode, population 147, is in east Gloucestershire in the north Cotswolds, 8 minutes from Chipping Norton and ten minutes from the market town of Stow-on-the-Wold. Moreton-in-the-Marsh, the closest train station connecting to London Paddington, is just three miles away. Trains from Kingham take approximately 30 minutes to Oxford and 90 minutes to Paddington, and those from Banbury take under one hour to London. School options include Kitebrook House, Tudor Hall and Bloxham School.

Nearby villages in or overlooking the beautiful Evenlode Valley include Longborough, home to the annual summer Longborough Opera Festival – Adlestrop and Oddington, with The Fox at Oddington and The Wild Rabbit at Kingham, both now under the Daylesford umbrella of businesses, among favourite local pubs. The main Daylesford Organic Farm Shop at Kingham, is a seven minute drive from Evenlode. Sporting options range from racing at Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon, golf at Broadway, Naunton and Chipping Norton, and Polo at Kirtlington Park and Cirencester Park.