Lewis & Wood invests in MTex Blue

Print Solutions

Founded in 1993, Lewis & Wood was formed by textile printer, Stephen Lewis and interior designer, Joanna Wood. Since then, Lewis & Wood has created a substantial collection of textiles and wallpaper, largely manufactured in Britain. The success of the company lies in its determination to be different.

Lewis & Wood is a pioneer in its field and is the first UK company to take delivery of the MTex Blue with pigments.

The company invested in its first digital printer for printing wallpapers in 2014 and in February 2016, it invested in an MTex Blue printer with pigment inks for printing digitally onto fabrics. Stephen Lewis explained the reasoning behind the new investment, ‘We now digitally print our wallpapers and so printing onto fabrics was a natural extension of this business. We have spent two and a half years building our knowledge of wallpaper printing and now we’re ready to start experimenting with fabrics.’

The company will use the printer to create samples and experimental fabrics in-house, instead of waiting several weeks for strike offs to arrive, by which time the design project may have moved on. By bringing this process in-house, the design department can complete the sampling process faster.

‘In order to compete with the big boys, we have to be unique. We need to be unusual and different, which is why we use a wide range of techniques and finishes to create our fabric ranges,’ Stephen said. ‘We have only had the printer a few weeks and we are still learning. There is a considerable learning curve when it comes to printing digitally onto fabrics compared to wallpapers but we feel that in MTex we have partner manufacturer that is willing to help us with this learning curve and equally through our own experimentation, we can feed back to help develop the project. We are very confident that in MTex we have a supportive supplier that will partner and support us along this exciting journey.’