Moon and Sons Mill Placement.

Moon and Sons mill, is a vertical mill, one of only two in the United Kingdom. They produce various woven products from scarfs and throws to furniture. I was fortunate to have a tour of the mill looking at all the aspects of production, from the initial stages of the raw wool from the sheep through to the designing and the weaving of the products.

Firstly, I was taken around the dyeing lab where they bulk dye the loose wool and dye imported yarns on cones. This was done on a large scale to meet the markets demands. After initial dyeing the fibres are taken to the spinning room to be flattened, stretched and spun to be made into yarns, this process is lengthy taking 2 to 3 weeks.

Once the yarn was spun, it has to be re-spun onto cones, which are suitable to be used to create the warp for the weaving machines. Some of the cones are then sold, however most of the yarns are used within the factory to be made into products.

The weaving process was the longest process as it took 1 to 2 weeks to create the warps to go on to the looms checking the colour and lengths were correct. Then the wraps have to be set up on the loom and then wove. This entire process takes 4 weeks sometimes longer if all the looms are in production.

 After the weaving process the fabric has to be washed and treated, there are many different treatment processes for the different wools used or for the different products that it will become. The finishing process takes 2 to 4 weeks. This process is very lengthy however as the mill carries out every process it is much quicker as travelling and shipping times are decreased.

I found the design studio highly interesting. The design process for large scale production differs from the design process I have  used producing small scale samples. This placement showed me how different the designing and planning of yarns and products is in a large scale business and gave me an insight into how companies like Moon runs.