TESCO HEAD OFFICE RECEPTION AREA WALL HANGINGS

I have just found out from Serena Wigglesworth-Littlewood that the two wall hangings that I help make and Serena designed for Tesco’s head office reception area in 2002 has been taken down. We are not sure if this is for cleaning or they have been removed completely. Either way they had a good home for 12 years. Lets hope that they find a good home somewhere else.

SHUTTLE RUG FOR CRAFT CENTRAL EXHIBITION IN MAY

Here are some great pictures taken by the super talented Andrew Stone of THE BLACK ORCHARD in the studio just recently.

 This is a second of two rugs inspired from a painted design by Andrew Whitworth.

The guy tufting the rug is Andrew Warburton.

There are a lot of Andrew’s going on there in one place.

 This will be just one of the featured rugs in an exhibition by AREA RUGS taking place at Craft Central in Clerkenwell, London from May 6^th till May 11^th. We will be exhibiting other rugs and wall hangings for this week long exhibition as a prelude to the Clerkenwell Design Week 2014.

 We will also be taking a bit of our studio down to Clerkenwell and giving a demonstration of how hand tufting is done on one of our portable sample frames.

 Please come and join us at;

Craft Central Gallery

33-35 St John’s Square

Clerkenwell

LONDON

EC1M 4DS

Open from 10am till 6pm with a late night on Thursday till 8pm. We hope to see you there.

BOEING BOEING - THEATRE PRODUCTION - STAGE RUG

A couple of years ago Area Rugs were commissioned to produce a rug for the Boeing Boeing performance that was on tour throughout the UK at that time. I have just noticed that a new production is about to start at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. I wonder if the rug will get a repeat performance or maybe a standing ovation.

JONAS BENDIKSEN - MAGNUM PHOTOS @AREARUGS.CO.UK

In August of 2013 Jonas Bendiksen from Magnum photos came to Area Rugs studio in Mirfield for a photographic shoot for the Open for Business project funded by the Arts Council of England. During Jonas’s stay I also showed him round where my yarns are dyed at Calder Dyeing in Dewsbury.

The resulting photographs were used in the exhibition at the Media Museum in Bradford and also the front cover of the publication to go with the exhibition.

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 Unfortunately the shots taken in the studio didn't make the final cut but Area Rugs and Carpets were in good company on the specially printed wall paper that was used in the exhibition

Jonas Bendiksen - Video - Magnum Photos

The exhibition runs until May 5th at the Media Museum on level 7 gallery and entry is FREE.

Open for Business is the story of contemporary British manufacturing and industry told through the lens of 9 Magnum photographers. See how nine of the world’s leading photographers captured contemporary British manufacturing in our new exhibition; Jonas Bendiksen, Stuart Franklin, Bruce Gilden, David Hurn, Peter Marlow, Martin Parr, Mark Power, Chris Steele-Perkins and Alessandra Sanguinetti visited over 100 workplaces across the UK, from one-man businesses to FTSE 100 companies.

Their photographs take us from traditional, handmade crafts to modern, intelligent automation; from foundries and assembly lines to research laboratories and high tech cleanrooms, showing an economic sector of extraordinary resilience and diversity.

British industry faces several challenges and Open for Business reveals the daily struggle as businesses attempt to cut costs, streamline processes and level up to international competition. The project captures British manufacturing's effect on culture and community life, and celebrates the work, activities and lives of its employees.

These new commissions build on a long photographic history of recording manufacturing and create a contemporary British archive, to be gifted to some of the UK's most significant collections, including our own.

For more information about the project, visit the Open for Business website. See behind the scenes images of the photographers' shoots on the Open for Business Tumblr.

Open for Business is a collaborative project funded by the Arts Council England and in partnership with Multistory, Magnum Photos, this Museum, the Museum of Science & Industry, the National Railway Museum, the Science Museum, the University of South Wales, Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery, MShed and Street Level Photoworks.

A CLOSE UP OF HAND TUFTING

A good photographer friend of mine Dean Conner visited the studio last week and as most good photographers he had his camera with him.

He took these shots in the studio which shows the tufting process and the tufting gun that is used as well as a close up on the pile of the carpet project that I was working on.

Work created with the tufting gun is done from the back of the rug so all our designs are drawn up and made in reverse.

The Hofman tufting gun that is used to create a hand tufted rug. 

You can see the close up of the back of the stitching in one of the shots.

By using three different colours as a mix, a random speckle effect is achieved. This particular carpet had a 30mm long pile with a loose construction to give it a “Shag Pile” effect.

The hollow needle punctures the grey stretched canvas and a cut length of the yarn is shot through the tube with air. This is then looped over the back of the grey canvas by withdrawing the needle and at the same time the air is blowing to keep the yarn in place. This process is repeated many times over to build up a section of rug or carpet.

Thank you to Dean for these amazing shots of the studio and the hand tufting process.

Dean Conner Photography 

Dean Conner Commercial Photography Hand Tufted Wool Rugs

IAN SIMPSON - BEATHAM TOWER APARTMENT - URBIS DESIGN RUG - ELLE DECORATION

In 2008 I did a rug project for Ian Simpson the architect for URBIS and the Beatham Tower in Manchester. 

The design was based on his original sketch for URBIS and was to be translated into an oval rug for his dining room in his apartment on the top of the Beatham Tower. 

 Ian and his partner Jo kindly allowed me to photograph the rug in the apartment and my good friend Dawn Robinson took these wonderful photos for me. 

I recently came across this Elle Decoration feature of the apartment so here are some more amazing images of this fantastic apartment.