Meet our St. Richard's Hospice

Charity Scarf Design

winner

St Richard's Hospice Charity Scarf

Our competition winner

Congratualtions to Amy Gazeley for winning our charity scarf design competition. The collective judging panel from St. Richard’s Hospice and The Silk Bureau were impressed by the detail in her design. 

Amy explained the concept of ‘hope and peace’ she intended the imagery to convey.

The snowdrop was of course key to the design. It was inspired by the poem by The Snowdrop – Consolation by Bishop Keble 1792-1886 and now appears in St. Richard’s Hospice logo.

“I am come to calm your fears: I am come to console you in the absence of bright days, and to reassure you of their return.” 

The strong values within the image depict:

Sun – for light and hope.

Stars – for a journey and guidance.

Doves – for peace and hope.

Hearts – for love and care. 

St. Richard’s felt that the symbols and colourways were a wonderful tribute to the ethos of their charity without being too obvious. We hope that you agree!

AMY GAZELEY

DESIGNER

Amy has worked as a designer for some presitigous design houses including Marks and Spencer and Monsoon, as well as completing custom designs for clients. As a busy working Mum with a young family we were very impressed that she was able to design this charity scarf while caring for her children. She is currently developing her own brand of artwork for children. Little Prints Charming! And, of course they are charming. See them for yourself by visiting www.littleprintscharming.co.uk

We can’t wait to see what Amy chooses to print with her £500 worth of free digital fabric printing. But, we already sure it’s going to be special!

Pink charity scarf
Amy Grazeley
st richards logo
st richards hospice grounds image

St Richard's Hospice

St Richard’s Hospice is a wonderful charity local to The Silk Bureau in Worcestershire. We have been thrilled to be able to support such a worthwhile cause through the creation of a bespoke design and silk scarves that can be used to raise funds.

Kelly Johns, Community and Event Fundraising Manager, for St Richard’s Hospice, said:

“We’re so grateful to Amy for creating this stunning design for our care and to The Silk Bureau for so kindly donating the scarves to help raise funds for patients and families. “Watching each intricately designed and beautifully finished scarf travel through the production process at The Silk Bureau was a real treat for our team here. Our supporters will not only love to wear the scarves but to know that 100% of all funds raised will be supporting a cause close to their hearts.”

FACTORY TOUR

AMY MEETS ST. RICHARD'S

It was great to introduce St. Richard’s Hospice representatives, Kelly Johns and Claire Loveday to their winning scarf designer. They were delighted to have the opportunity to meet and personally thank Amy for her design entry to our competition. 

Our guests were taken on a planned tour of the factory to witness every step of the printing process. 

print ico

FABRIC PRINTING

See the image emerge on silk.

charity scarves in print
steamer

STEAMER

Setting the inks

farbic printing
wash dry icon

WASHER DRYER

Removes excess inks and softens

charity scarves in wash
print ico

FABRIC PRINTING

See the image emerge on silk.

Amy was able to see her charity scarves being created in every department. We take great pleasure in showing the printing of our luxurious silks.

It’s mesmerising to watch the inks being laid down and the full image slowly emerging from each pass of the printer head. The designer doesn’t often get the chance to witness this step. And so, it’s quite a revelation to see the digital file become a full-scale print.

farbic printing
printing charity scarf
steamer

STEAMER

Setting the inks

From the printer to the steamer.

Here the charity scarves are fed into our vast steamer to set the inks. It takes about 45 minutes for the fabric to pass through. When it does, there’s a clear pop in the colour and the true vibrancy of the image can be appreciated.

farbic printing
wash dry icon

WASHER DRYER

Removes excess inks and softens

To remove any excess coating and ink, the silk needs to go through a washing process. A conditioner and the drying process both help to give the silk that luxurious soft feel.

Then it’s off to the finishing department.

charity scarves in wash

Finishing Department

After seeing every step of the printing process it was time to visit the Finishing Department. Finally Amy, Kelly and Claire  had the oppotunity to see the printed silk turned into a stunning scarf.

hot cutter

The 1mm cut line between each scarf is perfect for our hotwire cutter. Quickly and efficiently it melts through the silk to leave a sharp edge. Without fraying, the silk is more manageable for our seamstresses to sew. 

hemming

Each of these beautiful silk scarves will be finished with a Pin Hem.

charity labels

St. Richard’s supplied a number of bespoke care labels to be sewn into the finished edge. Finally, a special swing tag was designed to finish the charity scarves ready for sale.

Amy recieves the first scarf
Amy recieves the first scarf. Presented by Hannah Kilgour our Head of CAD

Both the pink and blue version of the scarves are available in a variety of sizes.

98x98cm
128x128cm
43x132cm

FIRST BATCH OF CHARITY SCARVES

It was a fabulous opportunity for us to hand over the first consignment of scarves to St. Richard’s Hospice.

Now that these stunning scarves have joined our print runs, we’ll be handing over a steady stream of them.

Look out for them on sale through the St. Richard’s website on-line sales. We truly hope that they are very successful in raising funds for this amazing charity in Worcestershire.

Square and long options are also available in various sizes, in each of the 2 colour ways. As we are using our end of rolls to print these scarves the silk base will also vary. All the scarves will be finished with a neat Pin Hem and the bespoke St. Richard’s care label will be sewn in by hand. 

"It was wonderful to be able to come and visit the silk bureau. I have not had the opportunity to see digital fabric printing on this scale before and it was so interesting to learn about all the processes behind the finished printed fabric. There is certainly a lot of love and care that goes on behind the scenes. Everyone was so welcoming and it was great to meet everyone who works at the Silk Bureau."

See more about Amy by visiting www.littleprintscharming.co.uk
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Navy charity scarf
Pink Long Scarf

NOW AVAILABLE

DESIGNER CHARITY SCARVES

IN AID OF ST. RICHARD'S HOSPICE

Printing Scarves

Shrinkage

The processes involved in digital textile printing causes the original fabric to shrink. If you are printing scarves, the size of the finished product will be important to you. For example, if you have square artwork, you will be expecting your finished scarf to be square!

To get the printed fabric closer to the size you need, all fabric intended for scarves must go through an extra step to reshape it. Please allow extra time on your deadlines to allow for this process. 

Let us introduce you to the …

Stenter

The stenter is an enormous piece of machinery that has many uses, including coating our fabrics and reshaping scarf orders.

After travelling through a solution to soften the fabric, it then passes over a flat bed, gripped on the selvedge edges to pull it back into shape. 

It’s a long and precise process that needs to be carefully monitored.

Shrinkage Disclaimer

If you have selected to use our hemming service, we will check the stentered fabric for you before we begin to finish your scarves. If you are not using our service, it’s up to you to check the size BEFORE you cut out the individual scarves from the fabric length. We cannot re-size after your scarves have been cut out.