The studio
Our story
A designer in Buckingham, and an artisan team in Rajasthan — making personalised textiles meant to be used and kept.
Lumen Atelier is a small British design house for personalised heirloom textiles — hand-embroidered and hand block-printed in Rajasthan, and designed in Buckingham.
The studio was founded by Akshay Patil, who is the owner and designer. He works from Buckingham, in the United Kingdom, and with an artisan team in Rajasthan, India. The pieces are made to order: a shawl, a throw, a Christmas stocking, a tablecloth or a small quilted gift, finished with a monogram, a name or a date.
A designer in Buckingham, a workshop tradition in Rajasthan
The design language is quiet and Western — cream, sage, navy, gold and burgundy, with space around a name or a monogram — but the making is traditional. Our partners work in hand embroidery and in hand block printing, in the wider craft traditions of Jaipur, Sanganer and Bagru. We do not tie every piece to a single named workshop or a single historic technique; we ask for hand work, careful finishing, and stitch or print that will last.
You can read more about that making in the journal:
A wider view of the collection is also on Behance.
How a piece is made
Once an order arrives, the personalisation is checked, the cloth is prepared, and the embroidery or the block-printed pattern is worked by hand. The piece is finished, inspected and packed in our cream gift box, with tissue and a care card, then sent by express courier.
Because every item is made to order, colours, embroidery and print placement will vary slightly from the photographs. The images on this site are design previews of the finished piece, and will be replaced with photographs of real, completed work as soon as those exist.
Why “heirloom”
We use the word carefully. It does not mean a museum object, and it does not mean a piece that cannot be used. It means a textile made slowly enough to keep: a family name on a throw, a monogram on a shawl, a first Christmas stocking, a tablecloth for many dinners. The hope is that the piece is used, looked after, and still feels like itself years from now.
If you would like to talk about a commission, a trade order or a collaboration, please get in touch.