Made in Britain: Rapture & Wright

Set deep in Heythrop country. down a single-track lane in the Cotswold village of Evenlode, is the base of the husband-and-wife team behind Rapture and Wright. ‘Before you get ideas about a bucolic stone-built barn,’ says Peter Thwaites, ‘it’s a 1960s structure that had a corrugated-iron, leaking roof when we first got here. Slowly, we’ve converted it into a usable workshop.’ Sourcing raw material from producers in Scotland, Manchester and elsewhere in the British Isles, the team of ‘four and a half’ screen-prints artisanal designs to order. ‘When we started in 2004, everyone thought we were mad to make things here, which made us all the more determined.

‘About 15 years ago,’ continues Peter, ‘I shared a studio in Glasgow with Timorous Beasties. I’d screen-printed at art college, but that’s where I really got interested in production methods,’ he explains. Peter later went on to work for an interior designer, creating hand-painted wallpapers. ‘That’s when Rebecca [Aird] and I started working together. We were travelling all over the world, but it became obvious after we married that it wasn’t sustainable, so we decided to go back to the beginning of the chain.’

Inspirations for the designs were originally drawn from the couple’s passion for surf culture and natural forms that they came across travelling the length of the Atlantic coast, from Scotland down to Africa. ‘that’s developed now to be more Arts-and-Crafts-meets-Japan-meets-tribal—it’s not as bonkers as it sounds.’ Today’s collection includes Cloud Garden (pictured), inspired by the architect-designer ernest Gimson, and Maroc, a simplified pattern from a tiled courtyard in Fez, with more to come when they exhibit at Decorex (see Country Life, September 14).

For more information telephone 01608 652442 or visit raptureandwright.co.uk