News
The Wool Woman
12/07/2011
Think of the wool industry, and carpet manufacturing, and you certainly don’t think of 25-year-old glamorous design graduate, Michelle Clitherow.
Michelle, a first-class honours fashion and interiors graduate, is one of the new faces of the wool manufacturing business, an industry which has shaken off its old fashioned image of the past, and now combines creativity and cutting edge design with traditional manufacturing methods.
Wool manufacturing has had a makeover in recent years; it is now commonplace on international catwalks and its reputation as a natural, locally-sourced product has made it a real hit with the environmentally conscious fashion pack. Even Prince Charles has been heading up a recent campaign to keep wool at the forefront of modern manufacturing.
Richmond-born Michelle has made her name in the industry in a short space of time with her bright ideas and creative thinking. She currently manages the London sales and design function of Calderdale Carpets, and is helping bring the wool and manufacturing industry into the 21 century. Michelle said:
“When I first got the job I was slightly nervous about working with a natural, raw material that was completely new to me. I quickly realised that I could apply my creativity and knowledge to carpet manufacturing and be part of a fast growing industry where design and vision were becoming equally as important as quality and traditional manufacturing. Working with a natural eco-friendly material in a highly established and esteemed industry that had strong roots within Yorkshire really appealed to me”.
In early 2009 Michelle began working in the design studio at Calderdale Carpets. “I had to learn the whole manufacturing process from start to finish - from processing the raw wool to fitting the final product. I’d never worked with a material such as wool, which dictates and restricts the design process due to the processes and complexity of production. It was an exciting new challenge for me”.
Two years on and Michelle now manages Calderdale Carpets clients in London, “Our focus is on cutting edge design and quality so we’ve expanded nationally and taken on the London market. Our clients, who are predominantly in the hotel and leisure industry as well as interior designers and architects, love the fact that we are unique in providing bespoke innovative design and production of quality carpets here in the UK, but we never forget the importance of using traditional methods and locally sourced materials.
Greg Bedford is the managing director of Calderdale Carpets. He is thrilled with the experience Michelle has brought to the company, complementing the excellent in house creative design team:
“Michelle and the team produce top-quality, fantastically creative designs, quickly and consistently. All of them are big on ideas, which they express so well and are great at translating clients’ visions easily into paper, on screen and into wool and yarn. Michelle added,
“I am constantly researching my next design, whether at work, on the train or out and about. I never stop, inspiration is all around me. “I take influence from a wide range of sources including films, news, weather and museums. I translate trends into moods and colour boards which I then apply to carpet design. “I am as passionate now, if not more so, as when I first graduated about surface pattern deign and what better way to fulfil this passion by visualising ideas and translating them for clients using such a fabulous natural fabric to produce quality products in such a well-established industry.”
