Now it is April, it feels like winter is on its last legs and we are looking forward to a Spring, Summer and Autumn full of design events and new collections to admire. Here I have chosen 11 new rugs or collections that I feel deserve particular attention.
In her Shine collection, Angela Adams uses cheerful colours and simple shapes reminiscent of holidays and sunny days out in nature to create a tufted series of rugs to bring some optimism and happiness into our interior spaces.
In terms of brighting up a room, Christiane Millinger’s new collection with architect Michael Howells, can certainly do just that. Made in Nepal, these 7 wool and silk hand-knotted pieces combine antique and contemporary outlooks. The inspiration is a set of 5 antique Turkmen Tekke, Beshir, Luri, Yastik, and Qashqaii rugs from the 19th century, collected by Millinger but their dynamic compositions in saturated colours are more akin to contemporary artworks.
Tones is a new collection of tufted and kilim rugs by Claudia Valsells for nanimarquina. The 100% Indian wool rugs focus on chromatic harmony. Valsells combines her work as an artist with that of colourist in the fields of architecture and interior design.
Sophisticated colour is also an important component of the new Trails collection by Sebastian Herkner for rug brand M2R. Inspired by our environment, the different designs reflect elements from different locations: sky, city, mountain, forest and desert.
‘Playing with colour in space plays an important role in my designs,’ comments Rebekka Stange about her latest rugs. ‘I try to open spaces of memory through colours that we encounter in the nature and in life and yet cannot be clearly assigned.’
Architectural Interior Designer Erica Islas’s 8 new rug designs for Mehraban are a homage to her Mexican heritage and reference the work of legendary Mexican architects Ricardo Legoretta and Luis Barragán.
With an altogether different aesthetic, the new Storytelling collection rug by Creative Matters is taken from a painting by Inuit artist Ooloosie Saila. This stunning interpretation of the Canadian northern landscape is hand-tufted in New Zealand wool and mohair to give it some textural variation.
During Milan Design Week in June, Jaipur Rugs will be showing the new collection of Brahmaandrugs by designer Ashiesh Shah at Salone del Mobile. In beautiful shades of indigo and blue the collection depicts imagery linked to the cosmos.
Carpets CC by Cecilia Setterdahl recently released the striking Wings collection, two designs inspired by butterfly wings. ‘It all started with planting a “Buddleja” or “Butterfly Bush” in my garden back in Sweden. A favourite flower for butterflies and pollinators,’ Cecilia Setterdahl explains. ‘Suddenly lots of them arrived. I was sitting, mesmerised by their wings (the vibrant colours, shapes and motions). In that moment, The Wings Collection idea was born.’
Comprising 4 designs, Tufenkian’s new Hearthstone collection is rich with fascinating textures and tones created by the wool. The Petroglyph design is hand-knotted in 100% wool.
Italian brand cc-tapis have come up with a new hand-tufted wool and silk modular rug system with New York’s Apparatus Studio. The simple shapes in muted greys, browns and pinks fit together with brass hardware to form new shapes that celebrate not only the larger forms but also the spaces between the modules.
