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The Carding Mill Collection

Inspired by the craft of weaving, Carding Mill is a collection of subtle, textural patterns in timeless colours drawn from nature.

CARDING MILL VALLEY

The starting point for our eighth wallpaper and fabric collection is Carding Mill Valley, a small picturesque spot in the Shropshire Hills near the Welsh border in the UK. Carding Mill was named after an 18th century textile mill situated in the valley but now demolished.

Growing up only a few miles away, Quercus & Co. designer Adam Jones would regularly visit the valley and the surrounding Long Mynd for picnics, and walks to the top of the hills to see the breathtaking views. This wild, dramatic and magical place had a lasting impression on Adam and lead to this, his most personal collection, thus far.

INSPIRED BY THE CRAFT OF WEAVING

Carding Mill comprises five designs, in fabric and wallpaper. The small-scale textural repeats and refined palette derive from the natural environment - rocky outcrops, tumbling streams, mires and flushes, heathland, ferns and grassland. The woven-like patterns are also a nod to the carding, spinning and weaving Adam was taught at high school. Learning to take raw fleece and transform it into woven cloth lead him to study Textile Art at Goldsmiths College, London, which in turn lead to the wallpaper and fabric designs he continues to create for Quercus & Co.

TIMELESS COLOURS DRAWN FROM NATURE

The muted natural colours of the collection provide unlimited opportunities to create refined, considered contemporary interiors. The twenty-five tonal hues in pinks, ochres, soft blues, khakis and terracottas offer a calm and soothing palette that work together effortlessly with hand-crafted furnishings, raw materials and contrasting textures.

FLECK

Fleck is inspired by a lock of wool, or a streak or speckle. This textural, handsome design has a tweed like quality and is elevated by the repetitive placement of speckled light.

RILL

This playful pattern is a distillation of a rill or stream. It evokes rivulets of fast flowing water running down a horizontal rib, echoing the rise and fall in the process of weaving.

SCREE

The Scree pattern is inspired by the repetitive action of traditional basket weaving. The satisfying dynamisim of the design gives it a lively, tactile quality.

TUFT

Inspired by small clumps of grass, or threads, the Tuft pattern has a soft brush stroke as the warp and a small dash as the weft. The overall effect resembles grasses buffeted in the wind.

DOBBY

This design is loosely based on woven fabric, known as dobby, characterised by small geometric patterns and extra texture in the cloth. A timeless pattern, it is sophisticated and refined with the distinctive 'dash' adding subtle character.

'... an ancestral longing, like a bird that knows the way, an internal map
...calling and calling me always to return to Wales.'

translation of Hiraeth, a traditional Welsh word