Cutting Class

Everyone has cut class once or twice.  Jina's and my version of cutting class is the fun things we get to see and do outside the office. We work hard at our jobs, but we also get to have a lot of fun with fabric. My Name is Cindy and my husband and I own Riley Blake Designs. Jina is our resident expert quilter and she and I work together. Partnering with our artists, we bring their artwork to fabric.

Trip to Korea

  Jina and I took a trip to Korea to visit our Factory.  We wanted to see how our product was made first hand.  It was a fascinating trip and we wanted to share a few photos.

Two blonds in Korea.... there has to be a joke there right?  We did initially feel like fish out of water, but our hosts made us feel so welcome.   We were treated to a traditional Korean Dinner.

Lets just say that Jina and I were little nervous about eating out, we packed a suitcase full of granola bars. We realized our worries were unwarrented because the food was delicious.

I even enjoyed the Kimchi. 

However, we did not go to Korea for the food....so let me share a brief tutorial of the art of manufacturing fabric. It begins on the computer.  We send them art files.  They take these files and make screens for each color.

This photo is of a computer screen that shows art work for one color. Thus one screen will eventually be made for this image.

Below is an actual printing screen.  And if you look closely you can see it is a screen of Colorful Christmas.

The picture below is of factory workers preparing dyes that will be used for printing. They line up the buckets for each fabric line. Fabrics can use up to 16 colors. I think we counted 15 for this group.

Here is a screen in use.  The dye is on top and the fabric moves underneath.  While the  fabric moves below, the screen and stops every 24 " and drops and the dye is applied to the fabric. This was fascinating!  Visit our Riley Blake Designs facebook page to view video of the printing process.

After the dye is applied it goes through a special washing process that seals the dye to the fabric.

After the fabric is finished.  It is then ready to be placed on tubes. Below is a picture of fabric being rolled on a tube for easy shipping.

Here you can see rolls of tubes on wood pallets, waiting to be shipped.  If you look closely you can see that the rolls are of Nantucket Summer.