Get acquainated with Confetti, Kasuri, and Squeeze, some of the 12 unique rugs that are part of travelling exhibition 'Re Rag Rug'. An experimental design project that explores the social and ecological sustainability of rugs, undertaken by designers Katarina Brieditis and Katarina Evans.
Over 12 months, 12 unique rugs where developed using 12 different textile techniques, without using a loom. The material used was waste and surplus material from the textile industry and old pieces of clothing - leftovers that would otherwise have been thrown away.
The duo used different kinds of stitching, braiding, quilting, gathering, gluing, and rolling, along with ways of cutting, applying, crocheting, and knitting; embroidery techniques, three-dimensional surface effects, and relief effects; meetings between materials, colouring and dyeing effects, and scale displacements. All of this has come together to produce 12 exciting qualities and expressions of rug.
'Re Rag Rug' is an example of using design to address sustainability issues and improve the value of a seemingly worthless piece of material. Several of the rugs are made in sections, using techniques that require neither large space nor machines. They can thus be made in people's homes, rather than in industrial settings, in textile-producing countries where the surplus materials are abundant. Production is made ecologically sustainable through the use of waste material - and is simultaneously socially sustainable, as the production constitudes a platform for the development of artisanal production that creates job opportunities.
The creative process took place offline and was shared online on the blog reragrug.blogspot.se External link, opens in new window., which was an open studio for the duration of the work.
Following rugs were presented: Tailor, Kasuri, Pepita, Archipelag, Vintergatan ('the Milky Way'), Rosengång ('rosepath'; weaving with endless variations of colour and pattern), Aquarelle, Off Pist, Re Orient, Squeeze, Nomad, and Crazy Quilt - all with their own history.