Feb 20 2012
Blasting through the dreary months of winter with a celebration of colour and pattern, Harrods has uneveiled its alphabet themed windows for Spring / Summer 2012.
Discerning shoppers passing by the Knightsbridge store will spot a few favourites by The Rug Company within the displays.
The mannequin models the Love needlepoint wallhanging by Paul Smith.
Key Shadow rug by Suzanne Sharp.
Climbing Leopard rug by Diane Von Furstenberg and Mouth cushion by Vivienne Westwood.
Zap rug by Fiona Curran.
Flytip rug by Committee.
Feb 14 2012
Beautiful Turkish Ikat cushions have just arrived exclusively at our London shops.
The Ikat technique for making patterned cloth is one of the earliest known. As textiles rarely survive for more than a few hundred years it is difficult to be precise, but examples are known from pre-Columbian Latin America, and famous centres of Ikat production stretch from the Ottoman Empire through Central Asia to Indonesia.
Using a tie-dye method the threads are hand-dyed in stripes of colour. When these threads are woven into a fabric the stripes of colour form patterns with the distinctive blurred geometry that is synonymous with Ikat cloth.
Our Ikat cushions are made of silk that is produced in the traditional way, by hand-winding the cocoons of the silk moth and spinning the fibres into yarn. Each piece is individual and subtly different from the next, and we have a wide range of patterns and colours.
The cloth is sewn and finished by hand into cushions with a linen backing, and filled with the softest goose down.
Feb 8 2012
Six years in the making, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened in November in last year. Founded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton, the museum houses her impressive collection of American art, amongst which hangs a hand-woven tapestry designed by artist Kara Walker, which was commissioned by The Rug Company for the special Banners of Persuasion project.
A Warm Summer Evening in 1863 by Kara Walker
African-American born Kara Walker is best known for her confrontational, room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. Through these life-size cut-outs Walker explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity with the Antebellum South, slavery and more recently the devastation of Hurricane Katrina as her subject matter.
Innocently titled ‘A Warm Summer Evening in 1863′, Walker’s tapestry is based on an engraving first published in a newspaper, showing rioters burning and looting an orphanage in New York, partly hidden by the hand-cut felt silhouette of a hanged woman.
Every flicker of fire and puff of smoke is translated in perfect detail into fine wool tapestry, along with the crude marks made by the engraving tool.
The tapestry hanging in the contemporary collection at the Crystal Bridges Museum.
The museum’s glass-and-wood design by architect Moshe Safdie features a series of pavilions nestled around two creek-fed ponds.
Feb 3 2012
For our Maltese showroom, we have created a bespoke hand-knotted rug using the eight-pointed cross of the Knights of St John. It was in the mid 16th century, when the Knights were based in Malta, that the familiar design now known as the “Maltese Cross” became associated with the island.
The eight points are said to symbolize the eight lands of origin of the Knights: Provence, Auvergne, France, Aragon, Castile, Italy, England and Germany.
The pleasing symmetry of the cross makes it a striking decorative motif.
The geometric pattern can be transformed by interesting colour palettes; here are some favourites which are available to order.
Jan 30 2012
This winter season, consider a dark and rich colour palette to bring warmth and cosiness, enhanced with luxurious textures and contrasting details. Drawing inspiration from old Hollywood glamour to quintessentially English grandeur, these deep and opulent palettes are timeless.
Intense wintry hues are versatile and comforting, and can be easily combined with other tones, neutral or bright, to contrast a cold and grey day outside.
Read More…
Jan 24 2012
As the world salutes the auspicious Chinese Year of The Dragon, Vogue.com selects dragon inspired gifts to celebrate, including the Military Brocade rug designed by Alexander McQueen.
Symbolising power, strength and good luck, the dragon was in ancient times a symbol reserved for the Chinese emperor, and today is believed to be supremely auspicious.
Military Brocade by Alexander McQueen, hand-knotted and hand-carved wool and silk.
Click here to read the full article.
Jan 18 2012
At the heart of this Victorian villa belonging to lighting artist Adam Barker-Mill lies a vast atrium that soars from the basement to the top of the house, capped by a glass roof with shards of colour that change at the touch of a button.
We crafted a one-off hand-knotted carpet to run the length of the dramatic central stairs, which was designed by Barber Osgerby with shards of colour splicing the rugs to reflect the unique function of the changing roof.
Read More…
Jan 13 2012
Jaime’s Hayon’s ‘Capitone’ has been pronounced Best Rug by Wallpaper* Magazine at this year’s Design Awards.
‘Capitone’ is a sumptuous, textural rug, whose diamond design is achieved by the topography of the wool pile. Using highly skilled weaving techniques, the pattern is carved by hand onto a plain hand-knotted rug, giving a plush 3-dimensional effect.
Hayon says of the design, “‘Capitone’ is an attempt to use a technique I love in furniture upholstery translated into a rug. It’s an unusual yet simple concept that brings to the eye feelings of warmth and comfort”.
Wallpaper* has published the winners in its February issue, which is dedicated to celebrating the best designs of the year.
Jan 6 2012
The ceramicist, industrial designer and Rug Company collaborator Eva Zeisel died last Friday, aged 105. Describing herself as a ‘maker of useful things’, Eva’s work spanned nine decades, several continents and comprises everything from furniture and ceramics to rugs and dinnerware. Her style could be described as an organic approach to modernism – functional but softer than the rigid Bauhaus aesthetics that were popular in her early career. Famously unconstrained by convention or trend, her innate strength and playful spirit brought a warmth and humanity to early twentieth-century minimalist design, which according to James Klein of Brooklyn-based ceramicists KleinReid, ‘is still totally in tune with the current mood.’
Eva’s life was as extraordinary as her work. Hungarian by birth, she trained as a painter but when pressured by her mother (a historian and staunch feminist) to learn a trade, quickly apprenticed herself to a local potter. Her fist major stylistic influence was modernist architecture and the villas of Le Corbusier and she recalls her ceramic inkwells ‘began to look like tiny modern villas’. She went on to work in ceramic factories in Germany and Russia, where she enjoyed the ornate designs of Russian imperial porcelain, later claiming that the ‘clean lines of modern design could be combined with classic shapes’. (More colourfully, she was also falsely accused and imprisoned for plotting against Stalin).
Eva Zeisel with her Dimpled Spindle rug. Portrait by Talisman Brolin.
In 1939, she moved to New York where she was invited to develop a course at The Pratt Institute to teach ceramics as industrial design, not as a handicraft as it was traditionally taught. She was the first designer in America to produce an all-white Modernist dinner service – an event celebrated by a solo exhibition at MOMA in 1946. This began the introduction of curvaceous forms into Eva’s work: inspired by the human body, Eva used abstractions of natural forms such as birds, breasts, baby’s bottoms and belly buttons to encapsulate her belief that ‘designs should communicate with one another and engage us through their friendly zoomorphic shapes’.
Read More…
Dec 23 2011
