From croft to drawing rooms
In the beginning it was a solution to cold floors and lack of money. At a time when textiles were expensive and carpets were for the privileged few. In order to adorn the floors of homes, worn-out scraps of fabric were reused and combined with handicraft skills to produce the first rag rugs.
At Kasthall in Kinna, the idea of re-use and avoiding wasting resources lives on, although it must be acknowledged that Harvest, Kasthall’s take on the rag rug and its latest sustainability initiative, is slightly more exclusive in nature than the first rag rugs to take shape in the late 19th century.
“In order to avoid stock-keeping, our rugs are always made to order. With each rug produced there are one to three spools of yarn of a certain colour left over. This is due to the fact that we always produce a few extra spools in case a section of the rug has to be redone. Our quality requirements mean that we cannot reuse the leftover spools for new rugs owing to the need to avoid small colour differences in the yarn. The variation in colours of the leftover spools challenged and inspired us and got us thinking about how we could make use of them in an interesting way. That gave rise to the idea for Harvest,” explains the rug’s designer Ellinor Eliasson.
Changes in colors and patterns
The leftover spools of yarn are sorted into six different colour groups: green, grey, red/yellow, pink/purple, blue and brown/beige. The yarn is then woven into a three-shuttle rug. Once the spool in the shuttle runs out, it is replaced with a new colour, creating an exciting colour variation and surface. In order to give the Harvest rugs a distinct identity, a unique edge is created with a border where the hues of the rug recur and mingle.
“Sustainability is a key aspect of both the creative design process and production. With this conscious and modern concept, we can demonstrate how we are implementing sustainable design and production. Our vision is to be 100 % sustainable and Harvest is an important step in getting there,” says Lena Jiseborn, Design Director at Kasthall’s design studio.
