COVER 66

COVER 66, Spring 2022, is packed full of new rugs, new collections and new ideas to guide us through the year ahead. Here are some of the highlights

COVER 66, Spring 2022, is packed full of new rugs, new collections and new ideas to guide us through the year ahead. Here are some of the highlights:

Uplifting colour abounds throughout the issue. We look at the rugs of art therapist and painter Dena Lawrence’s spectacular 100% silk carpets come in the brightest of shades. ‘I practice what I teach in the art-therapy process,’ she says. ‘I don’t start with any plan, other than a certain energy and a few colours. The image starts to tell me where to go.’

More colour comes from Liz Collins’ rugs for Emma Gardner that explode with vibrancy and Margrethe Odgaard’s Rothko-esque wall tapestries for Ca’lyah. Rachel Meek speaks to Ca’lyah’s founder Nigel Majakari about the work that is made in Nepal. Majakari  comments: ‘Weaving, woodworking and stonemasonry are some of the oldest crafts and they have enormous cultural value to humanity across the planet. In regions that have become technologically advanced, they have been all but wiped out. Paying craftspeople the going rate for their work is one of the most dignified ways we can do business, and it keeps skills alive for future generations.’

We report on ‘Sustainable Colour’ exhibition at the Design Museum in Helsinki about textile dyeing past, present and future. Denna Jones writes: ‘The future-forward aspect of the exhibition examines how bio-dyes grown with microbial synthetic biology may evolve to be suitable for industrial-scale production.  In some cases, bio-dyes work as both colourant and carbon (CO2) capture.’

Also with an environmental focus, Dutch design studio Raw Color’s Temperature Textiles tell the story of climate change. Raw Color explain the project thus: ‘The aim of the project is to bring climate-related data to its essence and manifest it into a series of textile objects. These textiles strive to raise awareness and provide additional warmth. The technique of knitting reduces waste during production due to its made-to-measure ability. It creates heavier fabric due to its construction principle.’

We talk to Ishkar about producing rugs in Afghanistan and their new Courts and Fields collection with artist Christopher Le Brun, which got stuck in Kabul. Edmund Le Brun comments:  ‘These rugs should tell a nuanced story about Afghanistan,’ he commented. ‘On the one hand, they speak about the tragedy but they also demonstrate that despite the misery of the situation Afghanistan is still producing really beautiful things.’ Read about the story of these rugs in COVER 66.

LA-based interior designer Claudia Afshar discusses her new rug series with heritage rug company Mehraban, an experience she has really enjoyed. ‘Because the designs are so simple, if they had not been executed perfectly, they would not have come across as luxurious,’ she says.

Another of the issue’s highlights is Christopher Farr’s new rug collection with Californian design studio Commune. Rachel Meek talks to co-principal Steven Johanknecht who introduces the new rug collection. ‘It’s inspired by California, like a lot of what we do, and is based in nature. We wanted to do something a little romantic, something that we couldn’t find in the marketplace,’ he explains.

The pandemic had a definite effect on the world of tufting, with an astounding surge in new adopters of the craft. In COVER 66 Lucy Upward talks to a number of tufters—artist and founder of Design Milk Jaime Derringer, artist and ‘King of Tuft’ Tim Eads, New York artist Caroline Kaufman and Parisian textile designer Clotilde Puy—to find out more about what is driving this textile movement. Owner of Tuft the World online community and tufting shop, Tim Eads comments ‘I’ve always been interested in sharing techniques and teaching others, so Tuft the World started as a way to teach others what I had learned. In 2019 I travelled all over North America and taught well over 500 people how to tuft, which gave me so much pleasure.’

Find all these articles and much more in COVER 66. To buy a copy click here.