Category archives: What’s new
Bright new Spring arrivals
Spring has sprung and bought with it some beautiful new colourful products to the Fibre Designs studio.
Ikat and Suzani hemp rugs are the perfect pick-me-ups to any space after the grey days of Winter. Coarsely woven with intricate patterning they are sure to add interest and intrigue.
Our weavers have mastered the art of using leftover or unused silk from bridal saris and spun them into glowing jewel toned flatweave kilims – a must see for any colour-lover.
If you are in the area please do pop by and see these newcomers first hand – if you can’t make it to the studio send us an email and we’ll get on to collecting some images for you.
Happy Spring all!
Posted in: What's new | Tagged: bright, colours, hand woven, ikat, Kilim, repurposed silk, sari silk, spring, suzani | No Comments
Fibre Designs at the Li Edelkoort Trend Seminar
Li Edelkoort’s seminar at this year’s Design Indaba was particularly informative and the Fibre Designs team were excited to distill the international trend guru’s ideas into what is relevant to the world of floorware.
Colours
Colours of 2011 are inspired by the earth so we’re likely to see sandy yellows alongside water derived colours like swimming pool blue and indigo. This is a great inspiration for us, as we have just conceptualised a new range dubbed “Colour Reform” – we’ll keep you posted.
Fabrics
Fabrics are silent and organic and we should see the rise of mohair, wool, cashmere and linen. Again, we are spot on trend – our collaboration with Mohair South Africa will have you crawling on your knees! Our extensive wool collection is also seeing great innovation and new structures will soon be available.
Retail and product development
Retail and product development will move towards better satisfaction for the client so we should see calmer shopping spaces, where the client leaves with exactly what they desire, and where they are involved in the customisation and design process of their purchase. Fibre Designs picked up on this trend when we opened our doors just over 5 years ago. The entire ethos of our business is to allow full customisation where client and designer can work together to achieve a truly bespoke item. Your vision, alongside our experience should ultimately translate into a reality that you would be proud to invest in.
Blurring inside and outside
The differentiation of interiors on the inside and landscaping on the outside will become more blurred, and as a result furniture and floorware will move outdoors and pebbled sculptures and landscaped carpets will come indoors. Our new outdoor range, The Verandah Collection, supports this trend and we are currently in production of our first prototypes – with client orders already streaming in.
The consumer will be invited to landscape their interior as if it were a garden or outdoor space. The grasslands will be a source of floorware inspiration so expect to see woven grasses and knotted reeds. We were delighted to hear this as our bast fibre (hemp) rugs have taking off at a rapid pace – clearly our clients are on top of the trends too!
Texture & Tactility
Finally, texture and tactility are back in our attempt to reconnect with real products and thus knitted texture in a sculptural form will be evident, particularly showing off the do-it-yourself and handmade element of product design. We simply cannot wait to show you what we have in mind for this trend prediction – we’ve been spending time abroad doing product research and development and will soon be bringing these on-trend items to the market.
Li Edelkoort’s trend forecast is an enlightening experience that creates the pulse we keep our design fingers on. In many ways it affirms the direction we at Fibre Designs follow – our products for 2011 supports global trends without losing the timeless appeal our rugs are loved for.
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Fibre Designs’ Rugs Complete the Story
House & Garden Decor Editor, Nina Phillps, illustrates how to combine our colourful wool shaggy and our African-inspired hand-knotted bast fibre rug with furniture to create that special look for your home.
On the left, our beautiful hand-knotted bast fibre rug
On the left, our colourful wool shaggy rug
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Fibre Designs – Five Years of Fabulous Floorware
Walk through the red doors of no 16 Dixon Street in De Waterkant and you’ll find a melting pot of old and new. Sophisticated cosmopolitan culture meets the age old craft of hand-woven rugs at Cape Town’s favourite rug gallery, Fibre Designs.
What used to be an old naval office, today houses a collection of contemporary hand-woven rugs designed by Pierre Antoine. Pierre’s love for textiles and rugs took flight as a young boy. He literally grew up amongst them.
Pierre’s mother, Belgian-born Yvonne Antoine, established Antoine Persian Carpets Cleaning & Restoration Studio upon settling in Cape Town in 1980. Twenty-five years later in January 2005, Pierre, who has by that time taken over the business, decided to establish Fibre Designs.
Today Fibre Designs is an oasis for homeowners, interior designers and architects needing to create that ideal setting or room.
The words by Geri Weitzman, which you will notice in the gallery, are not only true of your experience at the gallery but also of what Pierre has created for himself. “Sometimes you need to create what you want to be part of.”
Photographer Adriaan Louw visited Fibre Designs a while ago and took these beautiful pictures of the gallery.
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The Joys of Spring
Walking down Jarvis Street in De Waterkant you will notice that a lot has changed, except one thing. Our beautiful Bougainvillea tree is always there.
Back in full bloom, she exudes colour, joy and excitement and has become a landmark in this creative little part of town which is seemingly fast becoming a popular hot spot with the new Cape Quarter extension taking root.
The Bougainvillea is a rapid growing tree and a popular ornamental plant, grown for the display of its flowers. Another rapid growing plant that can also add aesthetic value to a home is the jute plant. The use of the bast fibre of the jute plant is one of the most exciting developments in the rug industry.
The application of this natural, eco-friendly fibre has seen drastic improvement over the short period that it has been introduced to the market.
Earlier this year Pierre introduced this exciting fibre to the world at the Domotex Rug Fair in Germany. The Visual Silence range has received much attention and has been ordered by reputed companies such as ABC Carpet New York, the largest retailer of rugs and carpets in the world. In synergy with Fibre Designs’ philosophy, ABC also believes in bringing the essence of nature to the foundation of a home.
A good example of bringing the outdoors indoors is that of a rug just recently woven for a client in Franschoek. This beautiful, densely hand-knotted item incorporates the flora of the surroundings into the sophisticated country style home.
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Rug Weaving in Motion
We thought you might enjoy this YouTube video clip of our jovial Tibetan rug weaver.
Isn’t it just amazing to see at what pace he works? The art and skill of rug weaving is often passed on from one family member to another. Many weavers also sing traditional tribal songs as they go through their daily activities.
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The twenty-one million knots project
Just in case you thought weaving up a bespoke rug is quick and easy, consider the following. We are busy working on an exciting project that comprises of weaving up fitted carpeting for four bedrooms, one living area, a study and a lobby/passage area for an elite residence in Cape Town.
The project requires 75 weavers who will be working for a total of 54 000 hours. Weaving is done on 6m wide looms using a total weight of 1900kg of wool. Each square meter or carpet comprises of 61 000 knots, resulting in 21 million knots being knotted for the entire project.
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