From Intimate Craft to Infinite Landscape: The Rug Collections Shaping Our Upcoming Issue

As to be featured in our approaching COVER 82 issue, here are some rug collections that bring the infinite into the interior through craft and design

Across interiors, deserts, skies and symbolic constellations, a quiet dialogue is taking shape — one between intimate craft and infinite landscape.

Today’s most compelling textile collaborations are no longer confined to the floor; instead, they distil something vast into woven form, where the grounded meets the expansive.
 

Garden becomes motif

In the collaboration between Leanne Ford and Loloi, shadowed interiors brush up against the vitality of nature inspired by the famous novel The Secret Garden. Grounded tones and tactile finishes evoke enclosed calm, while organic motifs gesture towards gardens just beyond the walls with a subtle tension between hush and growth.

Desert becomes rug

That same dialogue expands outwards in the desert.

At the Tanweer Festival, Her Highness Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi’s collection for Jaipur Rugs traces the timeless landscapes of Mleiha and the ancient terrain of Jebel Faya. In these designs, vast geological histories are distilled into pattern and pile, translating desert terrain into handwoven form.

Also presented at Tanweer, Milla Novo’s large-scale installation placed fibre in direct dialogue with wind, light and open horizon. Suspended panels responded to the shifting elements, allowing handcrafted surfaces to inhabit the immensity of the desert landscape.

Sky becomes floor

In separate collaboration with Pierre Gonalons, Art de Vivre look to painted Parisian ceilings, reimagining architectural ornament underfoot. Handwoven in Nepal from wool, silk and cashmere, the collection brings historic grandeur into the contemporary interior.

Cosmos becomes pattern

Meanwhile, ISHKAR’s collaboration with London-based Uzbek artist Aziza Kadyri turns to celestial palak motifs and Uzbek cosmology. Hand-knotted in Afghanistan, the rugs translate orbit, distance and sisterhood into tactile compositions — grounding the cosmic within the home whilst it’s sentiment lingers far beyond the carpet.

To read more about these expansive rug designs, our Spring print issue COVER 82 will be live digitally from the 6th of March on Exact Editions, with physical copies available slightly later on in the month.

Words by Libbi Kettle