Meet the Maker

London-based Romor Designs was formed in 2016 by Rob Jones, a passionate Japanese textiles artist and tutor.

Having discovered Shibori, the ancient Japanese art of resist dyeing, at West Dean college, I went on to study in Japan under indigo master, Bryan Whitehead.

I travel to Japan every year to visit my sensei in Japan to expand my Japanese textiles knowledge and immerse myself in Japanese textiles. Past visits have included trips to Ise in the South West, home of Katagami stencilling, Hirosaki City in the North West of Japan, home to Kogin counted thread sashiko embroidery and to meet masters of the arts of Katagami and indigo dyeing in Fujino.

I exhibit my work at MADE London, Handmade in Highgate and other UK shows and I am a Short course tutor at West Dean College in Sussex and London where I love to share my passion for Japanese textiles.

I work with a broad range of Shibori resist dyeing techniques and Katazome stencilling paste resist, both using indigo dye; Sashiko embroidery, Boro inspired mending and Kogin counted thread Sashiko.

I love to share my knowledge of Japanese textiles and tales of his trips to Japan and to show off the beautiful vintage kimono and other textiles I collect on my travels to Japan. I give online and in person lectures about the textiles and my trips to groups online and in person. To find out more click on the button below.

Origin story

I’ve always been creative… Even as a little boy I preferred making things to playing with cars or kicking a ball around. At school I loved all the textiles crafts and was lucky enough to enjoy Binca embroidery, Raffia lampshade making and sewing stuffed toy animals. And, of course, my Mum taught me to knit…

At university I knitted my own jumpers, so much more satisfying than getting them from the local charity shops. Wish I still had the ones I made!

There was then a long hiatus until my mid thirties when I woke up one morning with a burning desire to make things. A friend’s mother had shown us some lovely pieces of silver jewellery she’d made and, for some reason, that got me interested in jewellery making. I reasoned I could make stuff for presents for people and learn some design skills along the way. And I made jewellery for over 17 years as a hobby so there you go.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though…

A couple of years in the Government of the day decided to increase the cost of all adult evening classes and, as most people went back to the same class year on year (including me), these classes got cancelled as people could no longer afford to go. Cut to… No jewellery making for 2 years…

Then I was gifted a course at West Dean College near Chichester as a 40th birthday present. I loved the place! It’s a beautiful old flint Manor House in rolling grounds with wonderful planting and a quirky backstory. Edward James, the owner, was a surrealist and friend of Salvador Dali and loved the Arts and Crafts movement. He died without an heir and gifted the grounds and estate to be run as an educational site for workshops.

As I had a very busy Head of eCommerce job for a high street retailer I would happily escape for creative weekends at West Dean 2-3 times a year.

In 2011, at a particularly busy time at work I’d booked the time off for a 5 day jewellery course at West Dean but messed up. I booked the time off but didn’t actually book the course and only found out a couple of weeks before I was due to go, missing out on the jewellery course I’d wanted. Duh!

In desperation, I trawled through what was on for the dates I’d booked my holiday and the only thing I could find was a Shibori resist workshop with indigo dyeing. Having always been interested in Japan, I decided to give it a go.

Light bulb moment! I loved everything about it and quickly became obsessed, buying books, dyeing stuff with Dylon dyes at home and booking onto another couple of courses at West Dean in 2012.

I was using Pinterest a lot at the time as it was the topic of my dissertation for my Masters in Internet Retailing and Shibori searches were often my go to…

On one of these I found a picture of an amazing Mokume scarf (here’s mine!)

The Pinterest picture had been posted from a Japanese textiles blog and I immediately clicked onto it and got lost… It was Bryan Whitehead’s blog and it spoke to me!! It wasn’t long before I realised that the Mokume scarf I’d seen was part of the homework for students travelling to Japan and staying at and studying in Bryan’s beautiful old wooden silk farmhouse. I knew straight away that I had to go as Japan had long been top of my bucket list…

I contacted Bryan but the news was frustrating… Yes, I could come but he didn’t have a free place for me until October 2014, over two years later. Swallowing my initial disappointment I realised this was a good thing as it gave me time to save up, to plan my trip and, most importantly, it was so far ahead that my boss couldn’t refuse to let me have three weeks off!!

Eventually the day arrived and I was off. I’d been lucky to be told of an excellent tour company specialising in trips to the East called Inside Japan tours. They booked everything for me, made really great recommendations for places to see and things to do and also set up special visits to Japanese textiles craftspeople including an expert indigo dyer in Kyoto and a Yuzen silk painter in Nagoya. I even got taken out for a drink and traditional Japanese meal on my arrival in Tokyo. I can highly recommend them.

After my travels to Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya, Hakone and Kawaguchiko it was time to go to the farmhouse. This was literally life changing!

The place is overwhelmingly lovely and welcoming and we did so much. if you’d like to hear about my adventures, check out my Journal on one of my recent trips or join me at one of my Japanese textiles lectures…

And Bryan was great! So knowledgable, so generous, kind, warm, funny. He’s a great guy and we immediately hit it off and formed a strong friendship. I think he saw something in me and wanted to help me out. He told me I should pack in my rat race job and be a Japanese textiles artist. Whilst charmed and flattered I clearly didn’t believe that would ever happen at the time, but, a year after my trip, the universe intervened and I got made redundant and the money from that allowed me to change my career. It has had its ups and downs, eg COVID!, but I’ve managed to keep going (full time from 2016) and I love it.

Bryan has been a great friend and support. In 2017 he was asked to come and teach at West Dean and I joined him for a wonderful week there. One night in the bar over a beer, he congratulated me on following his advice but then asked the killer question… “How can you call yourself a Japanese textiles artist if you never come to Japan?”

He then promptly invited me to go visit him the following February to meet some people, visit relevant museums and buy tools and fabrics for my business. He took me everywhere, introduced me to the best indigo dyer in the country and his Hanten jacket sewing teacher and I had an amazing side trip to Ise/Shiroko, the home of the Katagami stencilling traditions in Japan.

Then things got really interesting! After dinner one evening he announced that, whilst he was more than happy to help me out, he had an ulterior motive for inviting me over and being so nice… I couldn’t imagine what I could do for someone as connected and skilled as him but it soon made sense.

He loves what he does, loves the buzz of people from all around the world being creative in his house and sharing his skills and knowledge with others. What he doesn’t love is being stuck on a computer, looking for students, handling tons of email enquiries and collecting people’s money for trips…

He’d also decided to expand the number of workshops he was running and couldn’t face the mountain of admin required to make it happen.

He asked me if I’d bring a group each year to do the workshops, meaning I could go for free to Japan every year, stay in the farmhouse and work with him and, of course, I bit his hand off!! I took my first group in 2019 and realised I’d have to add on some guiding days so I could charge students money to fund the time off work for my trip and so it has been ever since (well, except the COVID years!)

So, if you’ve ever dreamed of going to stay in a beautiful old wooden silk farmhouse in the mountains of Japan, creating beautiful Japanese Shibori and Katazome textiles and dyeing with indigo, check out my future trips!

An eye for detail

My passion is in finding the new in the old, building on the tradition and centuries of skill that shibori has behind it. I believe in taking work in new directions by combining techniques and inventing my own forms.

A core component of my work is my love of colour and pattern, which I brings to light in colour saturated and complex embroidery work. Traditional patterns are reworked to produce new and original forms.

I have a keen eye for detail and only select the best material from which to make finished pieces. Every piece is assembled with care to ensure a beautiful and unique item that will last.

To this end my work focusses on providing the structure to contain the organic nature of the dyes and processes I use and in carefully selecting those which will form the most compelling pieces.

I starts each day with a meditation to clear my mind and help me to focus on the tasks ahead. Every day is different and unique, much like the work I create.

Watch Rob Jones of Romor Designs stitch and then dye a Shibori cushion using Japanese indigo. Video courtesy of Amanda Stockley.

Combining the ancient with the modern

In my work I can see the potential in reworking traditional forms into new designs. This is one of the most exciting things about working with Japanese textiles crafts, there are so many variations. This allows me to create beautiful and unique pieces that will stand the test of time.

I combine different learned disciplines together to construct new textiles and play with pattern. Traditional Japanese techniques are reinterpreted and abstracted, transforming ancient designs into new forms.

I love to invent my own patterns, whether with resist and indigo dye or as surface designs using Japanese embroidery techniques and coloured threads.

Part of my process (both in my own work and with my teaching practice) is to painstakingly research and practice classic patterns until I am confident I can use the techniques well. I then bend and reshape the technique into new forms, inventing fresh patterns and creating interesting and complicated textiles.

With my Kogin embroidery, I love to invent new motifs and repeating patterns with a key feature being no repeats in colour in any row, column or diagonal. This means I get to use the maximum number of thread colours!

I am passionate about sharing my skills and knowledge and inspiring others to take up and find their own love of the Japanese textiles techniques I practice. I find sharing my love of Shibori resist, indigo dyeing, Katagami stencilling, Sashiko and Kogin embroidery and Boro inspired mending is incredibly rewarding and life affirming.

CV