July 22nd: Magic carpet ride...

Good morning…or not so much. We had to get up at 4:45 am today to be at the train station by 5:45. It was miserable. Trains should not run that early. Between the metro, train, bus and waiting time, it took us 3 hours to get to our destination: Brinton’s Carpet in Kidderminster. At least we had a little extra time to sleep on the train and bus though . . . and after getting up that early, we all took full advantage of that time. When we arrived, they took us into a room with chairs set up and design boards all over. They also had coffee, tea, water and cookies set out which made us all a little cheerier. I had a cup of tea (English breakfast tea in England? I think it’s pretty necessary), and some ginger cookies, which were incredible! The staff did an introduction presentation about Brinton’s Carpet, and then split us into groups. My group went to the archivist first. It was absolutely incredible how large of a design library and archive the company has. There were shelves and shelves full of binders from the floor to the ceiling with different collections from the past 200 years. There were tons of cabinets filled with books from different time periods, movements, regions, and designers that the company uses for inspiration. The archivist showed us some of the original patterns, and one was even signed by King Albert. It was really amazing. We got to look through the old Japanese stencils that have been kept for centuries, and original sketches and hand paintings from the company’s designers over the years. She explained to us that the archive in this building was the main archive for all of Brinton’s worldwide. Some of it is uploaded into an electronic database, but not all, and the manufacturers in different cities in the world all call there to get records and inspiration. Brinton’s still uses many of their traditional patterns, either as they are or with a modern twist. It really is incredible that a carpet company retained that much stuff over 200 years, because usually stuff like that gets thrown away because the designers and or company don’t think that the trends will come back. Styles come and go, and once they’re not popular anymore, what’s the point in keeping them? It’s a good thing they did though. After the archivist, we went to our session with the designers. One designer in particular, a residential carpet designer, is the one that talked to us about everything. He talked about the staff, and the differences between the company’s commercial and residential designers. Considering there are only a couple of designers on staff, they really do put out a ton of work. He explained the programs that they use, and the process from getting a pattern from a sketch to an actual carpet. He showed us some of their newer stuff that’s just starting to come out. They’re trying to do bolder, more modern patterns. I liked them a lot. Rather than a full pattern across, they’re doing patterns that fade to plain, either from the side out or the center out. He showed us some of the design boards that they’ve had to do from conventions and stuff. Their goal was to make the board itself a piece of art, rather than just pictures stuck on, so all of the pictures we’re in collages and cut out in patterns. They were really cool. And I definitely do not envy the person that had to cut them all out. These couple of sessions had filled our morning: 9 to 12, so after the designer chat it was time for lunch. Brinton’s was providing lunch for us, which was really great. It was a little weird, because they had some pretty classic British food, which includes sausages and other meats wrapped in breads and pastries. I tried one that wasn’t bad, but the others were a little strange. They also served normal sub style sandwiches, chips, and juice. I had a tuna sandwich…I think. It was definitely fish, and probably tuna, but with different stuff mixed in than I’m used to. It was still really good though, and free food is always a bonus! We ate pretty quickly and still had an hour left for our lunch break, so most of us curled up on the carpet strips on the ground to lie down and chat. Some people fell asleep for a while. Surprisingly, I did not. Whoot, go me! After lunch, our group went to tour the factory. We had to wear bright yellow vests for safety, and weird headphones so that we could hear our guide over the weaving machines. They made great accessories to our dress outfits…not. The factory was really interesting. We started in the area where they dye the yarn. The yarn comes in on pallets every day, and they have a machine that picks up a stack of like 4 pallets, sets them in a pot to be dyed, and then pulls them back out. It’s amazing that they can dye that much at once and still have all the yarn be a consistent color. After being dyed, the different colored yarns are stored on shelves that go from the floor to the ceiling until they need to be used. From there, we went to the part of the factory where they prepare the colors of yarn that they will need for a particular carpet. This is done by dropping a specific amount of yarn into one section of a big box. The sections are completely separated, so the different colors of yarn are placed in the different sections, corresponding to where they need to be in the weave. It really is an innovative process. And all of the machines used by Brinton’s were designed and built by the company, which is more impressive. From there we went to the looms, where the carpet is actually weaved. We got to watch them work for a while, which was really cool. It’s amazing to see what looks like a mess of yarn go into a machine and come out a large piece of patterned carpet. Unfortunately, we were moving too quickly to take in pictures of the archives and the designer works, and they don't allow pictures in the factory. So no pictures for today. But regardless, Brinton’s was a fabulous place to tour, and I think it would be a great place to work. They have a factory in Las Vegas, and the main USA headquarters is in Georgia…internship, maybe??