Our first big commercial order

 As James developed his printing skills he started to get small orders for bespoke silk scarves from local shops, hotels and golf clubs. His first big commercial order however came in 1978 and was to a large extent thanks to his wife’s personality and home cooking.

Mother was managing the Wheatsheaf restaurant in Tewkesbury at the time and through her hard work, excellent food and extrovert personality had built up a good regular clientele. James had by now converted the skittle alley at the rear of her restaurant into a print room and mother was in the habit of occasionally inviting some of her regulars back to see him at work. One of these honoured diners, a lady called Ruth Segar, happened to work at the local headquarters of The National Trust and having recently commissioned a scarf design for The Trust, suggested that James might print it for them.

The National Trust was at the forefront of what we now call ‘Heritage Retailing’. They, along with institutions such as The Royal Academy of Arts and The National Gallery in London, were starting to develop the whole idea of museum shops and the development of ranges of gift products inspired by their collections.

Ruth arranged for the scarf designer Pat Albeck to come down from London to discuss the project and so James and Marthe suggested that the meeting should be held over lunch in their own kitchen at home. Mother put on a wonderful spread, several glasses of wine were consumed and the meeting apparently went very well indeed!

Over the years many museum and gallery buyers, designers and artists were invited down from London to discuss business, always over a home cooked lunch around the kitchen table at Beckford. It seems that word of their hospitality spread around the museum community and invitations were always eagerly accepted!

That first ‘landscape’ scarf design was the start of a long association with both Pat Albeck and The National Trust and set us on the path of printing and later designing for many prestigious museums and institutions. It is of particular significance to us therefore that it is this design that features on page 78 of Albrechtsen & Solanke’s SCARVES (published by Thames & Hudson) and described as “the definitive work on scarves in the 20th century…”



Pat Albeck's Landscape design for The National Trust



New Digital Printer Arrives

Yesterday was quite a momentus day for us all at Beckford Silk. It saw the arrival of our new digital textile printing machine.

We have always printed silk using screens, one for each colour in the design. This new machine will enable us, when appropriate, to print directly from a computer onto specially coated silk. This print method is suited particularly to multi-coloured and photographic type designs.

This T5 textile belt machine finally arrived by ship from Hong Kong a couple of days ago and by 2pm yesterday was being unloaded at Beckford.

We start to unpack the crate and then try and work out which way round it is!

Steve our builder has already taken down a couple of internal walls, removed two double doors and had to cut into the brick work so that we can get the machine in.

The machine weighs about 900kg so it takes a few of the guys to start manoeuvring it into the building

After quite a struggle they get it into the building

And there it is! It's taken three hours to get it into place but the new technology HAS LANDED!!

Now it's down to my brother Robbie to get it to work!

Our first shop

Having set up his workshop at the bottom of the garden, James spent a lot of his spare time experimenting with silk printing. He produced some designs, hand colour separated them, made up his own wooden framed hand stretched screens and had a go.

Silk has always been a luxury fabric and doesn’t come cheap. My mother is the keeper of the privy purse in our family and she began to get concerned about the amount of money that was sitting around in the form of Dad’s ‘experiments’! She had a chest of draws in the sitting room that was getting more and more full with printed silk and she finally decided to do something about it. She got James to set her up with a trestle table where she could display her wares, he made her a hand painted sign and attached it to the gate, she opened up the French Windows and ‘hey presto’ her first shop.

This temporary arrangement was very quickly formalised as us kids were chucked out of our play room so that it could be converted and a few years later when the workshop was extended, a smart new shop space was included in the plans. To this day my mother can be found reigning supreme in her shop and there is nothing that makes her happier than the sound of a ringing till!

How Beckford Silk began

So how did it all start? …. Well back in the early 1970s my father James, a trained chef, had taken over the running of his own fathers business being a number of small restaurants and cafes in the local towns of Tewkesbury and Evesham. He and my mother ran them together and when we were old enough, my brothers and I were drafted in to help with things like washing up and laying tables.

James however was also a keen and accomplished artist with a passion for colour and in his spare time he would often take a walk up Bredon Hill with his oil paints and easel and paint the Cotswold landscape around him.

He had an idea that he wanted to start up a business from home that used colour in some way but at first wasn’t sure what he could do. An original idea was to do hand painted ceramics but he wasn’t convinced that he would be able to compete in the market place with so many others in the area doing a similar thing.

James was in Evesham one day, dashing from one restaurant to another, when he spotted a gentleman walking towards him sporting a very colourful silk tie. It grabbed his attention and it got him thinking!

James started to make some enquiries. He read up about printing silk, got in touch with dye manufacturers and talked to printers in the north of England who were prepared to offer him some consultancy.

He started off experimenting on the kitchen table with hand made screens and his first steamer was a stock pot on the kitchen stove.

Mother however was not impressed with this arrangement and so my father soon set about converting an old building at the bottom of the garden into a workshop. My parents still live at the Old Vicarage in Beckford and this out-building had, in a previous incarnation, housed the vicar’s pony and trap. When they moved in however it was very run down and full of junk. One of their discoveries on clearing it out was a long horse drawn carriage base, which they later learnt had been used to transport coffins! Dad used it as the base of a miniature gypsy caravan that he designed, built and decorated for us to play in.

At this point James was still working full time in the restaurants but devoting as much of his spare time as possible to experimenting with silk printing.

Next time I’ll tell you more about those early years and how he got his business off the ground.

Dear Reader

Well this is our first foray into the world of blogging and hopefully the first of many conversations with your good self.

I thought I would start by giving you a brief outline of who we are and what we do.

Beckford Silk is a family run business that was started in 1975 by my father James Gardner. There are 11 of us currently working here, designers, printers, makers and colourists, and together we produce silk and velvet scarves, silk ties, silk and velvet clothing as well as printed and dyed fabrics that we sell from the roll.

We work from our own premises here on the outskirts of the village of Beckford (a building that my father designed and had built in late 1989/1990) and we are open to the public 5 days a week throughout the year (we close for just one week between Christmas and New Year).

Our core business is the designing, printing and making of silk scarves and ties for the UK Heritage Market (Museum and Gallery shops) but we also produce our own designs that we sell direct to the public from our shops here at Beckford and online.

Over the next few weeks I will introduce members of the team in more detail but for now in brief, our motley crew consists of the following:

• James Gardner (my father). The driving force behind Beckford Silk, James runs the company as well as being a full time dyer of silk and velvet.

• Marthe Gardner (my mother). Mum works full time in our main shop and also does the wages and pays the bills.

• Anne Hopkins (me). I help Mum and Dad run the company and my main job is looking after customers. I originally trained and worked as a graphic designer in London and I’ve been here at Beckford now for 20 years.

• Bill Cook. Printer and Dye maker, Bill has been with us for about 30 years.

• Sue Olsson. Sue started about the same time as me. Originally one of our sewers and hand rollers, she oversees the finishing and making up.

• Victoria Sargent, designer and internet sales. Victoria studied textiles at Falmouth College of Art and joined us in 2008.

• Beth Leibbrandt, colourist and velvet sales. Beth studied art and design at the University of Gloucestershire and joined us in 2010. She works along side James as our colourist and technician.

• Rob Flory, printer. Rob also joined us in 2010 and works primarily as a hand screen printer.

• Suzanne Marler works part time in finishing, packing and sewing.

• Anne Clark helps Mum in the shop for one day a week.

• Robbie Gardner (my brother and a professional actor) has recently joined us part time to set up and run a new digital printing machine that is arriving at the end of this month. Further down the line he will also hopefully be helping me with sales and marketing although this will depend on what acting jobs come along!

That’s it for the moment. Next time I’ll tell you a bit about how the business started.