For the last few months, new work by designer David Weeks have been on display at the Ralph Pucci showroom in New York. In addition to his latest lighting series, the new pieces include his first collection of carpets, created with renowned rug maker Christopher Farr. To conceive of…
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The peeling, brightly painted walls of an abandoned house provide a striking backdrop to this collection of over-dyed handmade rugs by American designer homeware brand ABC Carpet & Home.
San Francisco photographer Jason Madara shot the rugs for ABC Carpet & Home in a derelict house in upstate New York, where the peeling paintwork complemented the rich colours and faded patterns of the rugs.
While the original Color Reform collection took vintage rugs and over-dyed them, the Spectrum collection uses new rugs, handmade individually in Pakistan.
The over-dyeing process involves neutralising the rug’s original colours before dyeing it with one rich colour, leaving the original patterns faintly visible in the weave.
Photographs are by Jason Madara.
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Here’s more information from ABC Carpet & Home:
ABC Carpet & Home has launched its latest rug collection, Color Reform Spectrum Edition, with a dynamic advertising campaign captured by the internationally renowned interior and lifestyle photographer Jason Madara.
The campaign was envisioned and directed by Angela Gruszka, ABC Carpet & Home’s director of marketing, and shot in upstate New York in an abandoned early 20th century house with eclectic brightly painted interior. Uninhabited for over 20 years, its weathered state presented noticeable imperfections, from chipped paint to extensive surface fractures that were captured by Madara’s exquisite sense of detail to give the photographs texture and life.
The rugs were shot through a series of doors to produce mesmerising painterly-like compositions with contrasting yet harmonious continuums of rich, beautiful colour. Madera with his exceptional sense of light and shadow transformed the space into a surreal environment, achieving the perfect balance of intensity between rugs and the walls.
The collection is the latest manifestation of the iconic series of artistic over-dyed rugs from ABC. Staying true to the philosophy of utilising the power of colour to reinvent and recreate, Color Reform Spectrum continues to embrace the transformational strength of colour by applying the Color Reform concept to new rugs created with the intention of being over-dyed. Each one-of-a-kind rug was individually and intricately handmade and over-dyed by Pakistani artisans to create the remarkable chromatic compositions in a seemingly endless exotic palette.
Madara, an internationally renowned photographer based in San Francisco, captures moments as performances – alive and visceral in their stillness. Formally trained at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, he has practiced professionally across the globe. Madara’s deft balance of lightness and darkness brings beauty and tension to glimpses both ordinary and extraordinary. His depth of emotion unveils the complex sweetness, fragility, and power of the human state and natural environment.
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by ABC Carpet & Home appeared first on Dezeen.
Since it was founded in 2003 the NYC shop The Future Perfect has become known for championing emerging designers and artists with its eclectic collection of high end furniture and playful design objects. Last week, the store ushered in a new season with a wide range of new—and in…
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Spanish designer Martí Guixé squeezed bottles of paint over this white rug from Spanish brand Nanimarquina as part of an exhibition at Vienna Design Week (+ movie).
The movie shows Guixé dripping paint over the rug to create an irregular tiled pattern. The designer told Dezeen he was inspired by stories of traditional rug makers “painting by hand to create a more valuable rug” after they are woven.
Painted Rug was shown as part of the Still Life With Light exhibition at Sotheby’s in Palais Wilczek.
Earlier this year Nanimarquina celebrated its 25th anniversary by laying dozens of rugs across a square in Barcelona, and we published their movie of the event.
Other projects by Martí Guixé we’ve featured include a series of containers with message labels attached and a clock that lets you write or draw where the numbers would be.
See all our stories about Martí Guixé »
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Here’s some more information from Nanimarquina:
Drip Painting is a form of abstract art in which the paint is poured or dripped onto a canvas. For Martí Guixé, the idea of painting a rug is not new; he’s been turning it over in his head for years, because he was familiar with the tradition found in some areas of Eastern Europe of colouring tapestries after they’ve been woven.
In the Still Life With Light project at Sotheby’s Vienna, Martí Guixé and nanimarquina saw the opportunity to explore some of the possibilities of Drip Painting as graffiti and to apply it to a rug. This was how a rug was transformed into a canvas, another feature of the Canvas Furniture project.
Painted Rug is a sketch of a rug that is in itself already a rug. Once again, nanimarquina has dared to invent new ways of reinventing the rug.
The post Painted Rug by Martí Guixé
for Nanimarquina appeared first on Dezeen.
Spanish rug maker Nanimarquina celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this month by laying dozens of rugs across Plaça de la Virreina in Barcelona (+ movie).
Passers-by and children were invited to lounge on the huge patchwork, which comprised more than 60 rugs of different shapes and sizes.
Nanimarquina previously designed a rug with a tiny felt polar bear on it to highlight global warming.
See all our stories about rugs »
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by Nanimarquina appeared first on Dezeen.
This rug by Barcelona designer Martín Azúa is woven like the soles of espadrille shoes.
Called Trepitjada, the mat was woven from grass by artisans in the Spanish region of Murcia.
Azúa’s project was shortlisted for the Delta Awards for industrial design at FADfest in Barcelona – read more details and see the winning design, a bike that grows with your child, in our earlier story.
Check out our top ten stories about rugs and blankets here and see our Pinterest board here.
Here’s some more information from the Delta Award organisers:
A carpet made of alpha or needle grass that reproduces footprints. The grass is a traditional material which is commonly used to manufacture the soles of espadrilles. The carpet is made by women artisans from the region of Murcia. Claiming this craft for a contemporary product offers a chance for survival of a traditional craft, highlighting local know-how.
The post Trepitjada by
Martín Azúa appeared first on Dezeen.
Milan 2011: London designer Philippe Malouin will present a rug made of chain mail in Milan next week.
Called The Yachiyo metal rug, the piece is handmade from galvanised steel wire rings in a Japanese chain mail design with twelve loops attached to every two central rings.
The piece took 3000 hours to make and is named after one of the makers.
Photographs below are by Ivan Jones
Dezeen’s top ten: rugs and blankets »
The rug will be on show at via Gaetano Sbodio 30, Milan from 12-17 April. See all our stories about Milan »
The information below is from the designer:
The Yachiyo metal rug
This year I have been doing quite a lot of research on, and work using, metal – the Yachiyo metal rug is a result of this research. It is a piece designed to last many lifetimes, it is virtually indestructible and it involves thousands of hand-manufacturing hours, since it is impossible to make by machine.
The Yachiyo metal rug is made using a very intricate form of chain mail. Having investigated various types of chain mail, ranging from traditional/medieval manufacturing techniques to more contemporary, machine-made chain mail patterns, we chose to draw from the Japanese ’12-in-2′ chain mail method. Not only did we find this type of chain mail to be virtually indestructible, but it also created a very stable membrane – structural yet flexible – not dissimilar to a tight hand tufted rug.
Having explored ideas for a range of furniture made using this technique, we chose to create a rug because the attention is focussed solely on the 2D object itself, the craftsmanship can be better admired this way.
The metal rug is completely handmade from galvanised steel wire, the same type of wire that is used to make animal pen fencing in farms. The looped wire is taken and, using a metal rod connected to a power drill in a timber frame jig, wound into a tight coil. This coil is then removed from the metal rod and hand cut into small rings. These are riveted together one-by-one in the Japanese ’12-in-2′ pattern, which consists of 2 central rings with 12 perpendicular rings connected around. This process is painstakingly repeated to create the rug.
The final piece presents an isometric rectangular prism which we created, through playing with ideas of perspective, so that a two dimensional object like a rug could visually spring into the 3D realm. Each of the three colours within the rug is a metallic coating, which is industrially electroplated onto the three distinct parts before they are assembled together by connecting rings one-by-one.
One of my amazing interns Yachiyo Kawana has worked on this project from the beginning, which is why the piece is named after her. It is also very fitting as, like the chain mail method, Yachiyo is Japanese.
The entire rug was handmade in London by Yachiyo Kawana, Greg Austin, Carlo Cialli, Anna Perugini, Vic Margevich, Maria Kuzmenko, Midea Diomideia Kolani, Xue Dong, Khadija Durbar, Jade Blair, Zahra Rajaei, and it required more than 3000 hours to make it.
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| Wooden Carpet by Elisa Stroyzk | Dark Side of the Moon by Martin Mostböck | Losanges by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec |
As evident at the latest Salone del Mobile, Spanish design is becoming increasingly known for turning simple objects into playfully clean shapes suitable for any environment. Below, check out our favorites from the show.
With nearly 50 years of design under their belt, Expormim continues to explore multipurpose furniture with two new inspiring collections. Nieves Contreras‘ Out_line Collection and Javier Pastor’s black and white Nido line work beautifully both indoors and out with their metal framework and airy compositions.
Celebrating its 10th year on the market, Andreu World revisited the classics with the new padded Nanda Comfort Chair by Lievore Altherr Molina Studio, debuting in both leather and fabric versions in Milan.
Lievore, Altherr and Molina also designed the beautiful Woody chair, where new proportions come alive in oak wood.
Once again, the Spanish carpet industry is rich with beautiful surprises. Patricia Urquiola‘s all natural rugs for Gan by Gandia Blasco recently received the Red Dot Design Award for their outstanding quality and innovative design.
Nanimarquina confirmed its aptitude for innovation with the pixilated Digit rug by Cristian Zuzunaga. The vibrant designs add texture and color with their optical patterns, which change in appearance depending on the lighting or time of day.
At Sellex, Mario RuÍz designed the sleek Bildu, a seating system made of a steel structure with inserts of wood and padded fabric.
Jesús Gasca’s Laclásica prototype is remarkable since the concept of the stacking chair is rarely applied to a wooden piece. It’s slated to go into production this September at Stua.
Madrid’s DesigM presented young and experimental designs, like Embalando Lujo’s furniture for Dapefe. The concept takes different styles of old-fashioned furniture, transforming it into a game where the pieces interact with the user for virtually unlimited possiblities.
Love Story by Colectivo Empanadilla makes light of romance with its clever heart-shaped base that turns a candle into a table piece.
More from French designer Mathieu Lehanneur: this time a series of rugs depicting squashed vital organs. (more…)
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