It is always hard to unpick the development process of our designs, because they are born out of a melting pot of ideas that can have been cooking for months or years! So Geode was the result of a few strands of thought that were twisted together. We had been interested by the natural world’s tendency to make straight lines when you magnified it enough, and I wanted to create a landscape using nothing but straight lines. I also had some dotted drawing paper that I had been enjoying doodling hexagons on.

I liked the creative challenge posed by keeping within the limitations of those regular structures, so the whole design was drawn on a background of hexagons. The crystalline nature of it all made me think of cross sections of hillside and geode pockets hidden within rocks. I have to admit that my teenage years playing sonic the hedgehog on the sega master system were also a huge influence- the cross section of the landscape, the geometric patterns and chaos emeralds (curse you Dr Robotnik!!!). Thinking about it now, the weft colours of Geode Diurnal were probably a direct influence of the first “green hill zone” levels…

As always, the early drafts were drawn in pencil until I got a feel for where I wanted to go with it. I then transferred to the graphics tablet and drew digitally, playing with possibilities until I reached a ‘click’ point. I used mine and Tamsin’s star signs as inspiration for the constellations in the sky.

As with all the synergy weave wraps, the hidden warp inside the cloth really affects the weft colours, so the warm green tones are pulled out more strongly and give a grey tint to the blue weft. Diurnal and Nocturnal were woven across a split warp, meaning that the weft colour had to work with both purples and mustards. That limited our colour choices to an extent, but this first synergy release was a bit of a step into the dark, so we just chose some fresh bright shades that we both liked and crossed our fingers!

8-Bit Geode’s name directly references those early computer games consoles, and the colours feel reminiscent of the luminous turquoise graphics moving across the black screen of the even earlier games that we used to play on our little ZX Spectrum, or the school’s Acorn computer. This wrap is woven on an Obsidian warp with a 2 tone graduated combed cotton weft that gently shifts between turquoise and royal blue.