Unbridled Enthusiasm

Greetings from Creative Matters!

Carol and Ana returned this past weekend from their trip to Nepal. Carol managed to steal a few hours from her busy trip, to visit the Goodweave site where children are taken after being rescued from forced labour in carpet mills. While she was there, she taught an art class for the 33 students who are living there at the moment. After she left, Carol sent the most uplifting email from Nepal - very inspiring! I had to share:

I had such a fun day I felt I had to report right away.

I went to the home where the kids live at Rugmark/Goodweave today with paper, paints (house paint tinted yellow pink and blue) black ink and paintbrushes. The kids were really excited that we were going to have an afternoon of art. I began with them all up on the roof of their home, as it was a gloriously sunny day. We sat in a big circle and started with the ink and did life drawing, which of course, was absolutely hilarious. I got one of them to model and at first they were shy and their poses a bit dull, but one by one (I guess I had about 15 models by the end) the poses became more elaborate. There were lots of judo-like poses by the boys and tiger-like poses from the girls. They all just leapt into painting with marvelous abandon!

I then had them take the black and white paintings and add colour. By this time, the paint was starting to get all over the place, including in my hair as it was quite a flurry - paint pots were spilling, what with 33 kids exuberantly painting... but they were so into it, and so incredibly focused. I've done workshops like this before and there are generally a few goofballs that really can be disruptive, but not these kids - they worked really hard.

After about an hour I wanted to do one larger piece. I wanted them to try working larger so the full sheet that was 24”x36”. I instructed them to paint themselves in a setting that they liked and WOW, the results were amazing. Many of them did houses with the Himalayas in the background with clouds in the sky and big suns. One boy painted the RugMark house that they all currently live in with him on the roof flying a kite; another boy drew himself as almost a cartoon superman type figure in a charming landscape. Gorgeous work. And they were so proud of themselves - I couldn't take enough pictures of them holding their artworks, it was absolutely lovely.

A touching moment was when one girl, who had just arrived the day before, who was too shy to do anything but watch finally picked up a paintbrush (well I may have put it in her hand). She did a lovely figure painting all pinks and blues. You could just sense her feeling more settled and part of the group. The warden and I were both really pleased to see that.

Namaste,

Carol

Good-bye summer...

Dear Friends,

It’s been a busy Spring/Summer season at Creative Matters. The month of April saw our fearless leaders trek back to Nepal for almost 2 weeks to visit our mills, weavers, spinners and washers. Quality control is of the utmost importance to CMI and this is how we ensure beautiful carpets and samples. This brief chance to speak with the mill owners and weavers is best opportunity to mesh our visions and instructions, maintaining this strong partnership and that produces our custom carpets and our Aerial Collection.

After all of the work is done, on those long Nepalese days, Carol and Donna manage to find some spare moments to decompress. This comes back to us in the form of their beautiful photography that tells us at the studio in Toronto, a million stories.

May, June and July have provided busy days filled with artworks and colour-matching, samples and carpet installations. One of the most exciting events was the installation of the beautiful lobby carpet at the Soho Grand Hotel in New York.

The sleek new design lends itself beautifully to the chic, luxurious vibe that the Soho seems to float on. And working with Studio Sofield is always a pleasure (especially when the results are this beautiful!)

Now our water-logged summer seems to be in her home stretch as we look forward with anticipation and excitement to our next steps for 2009. Samples of the new additions to the Aerial Collection are trickling in and the buzz is starting to build as we look forward to Domotex 2010. Granted, the big day for Germany is in January, but we at Creative Matters know how fast time flies. This year the team will truly be taking pieces of Canada with them overseas – but that’s all that I’m going to give away.

If you want to see what I’m talking about, you’ll have to meet Creative Matters in Hanover for the launch...

Creative Matters Immersed in “Contemporary Culture”

Last night the Creative Matters team was delighted attend the celebration of the newly renovated 3rd location of Weavers Art in Toronto. Michael Pourvakil and his team launched Weavers Art – Contemporary Culture last night at 162 Bedford Rd., in Designers Walk Building 3.

Contemporary Culture is showcasing hand-knotted, silk and wool luxury carpets by a handful of international designers such as Emma Gardner, Lapchi and New Moon, and perhaps, most excitingly, yours truly - Creative Matters. Pause for applause. – Thank-you.

The beautiful open-concept showroom exudes luxury with it’s high ceiling, cream wall colour and seductive lighting. I must say, we felt right at home...and so do our rugs!

If you get the chance, go and have a look - you'll be floored. ;)

Cheers,
Erin

There's something in the air...

Spring has sprung in the Creative Matters studio, the sun is shining and thankfully, there is no more snow on the ground in Toronto (knock on wood). We’ve all been super-busy with various new projects and we can hardly believe that it’s almost the end of March! It seems that we have a million things on the go - ok, maybe just a hundred - but the there’s a buzz in the air and we like it.

The design team has been working hard on new additions to the Aerial Collection (some are in the sampling stages) and we’ve been toying with the idea of adding a second collection to our Creative Matters line of carpets, with a completely different look and feel. That’s under lock and key at the moment so, stay tuned to see what we come up with! Trust me, it’s going to be great.

We’re also excited to be in the throws of planning an event in April with the lovely people at Modern Weave to celebrate our successful collaboration and creative merging of the minds, if you will. Modern Weave, along with their sister store Weavers Art, carry our entire Aerial Collection of wool and silk carpets in various sizes and colourways. They are continually supportive of what we do and they have a breath-taking showroom so if you haven’t seen our carpets in the flesh (or fibre) head to King Street East for a peek. For those of you in the trade, visit one of 3 Weavers Art locations in Designers Walk or on Davenport Road or Bedford Road all in Toronto (see the website for details).

I know it’s short but hopefully this post piques your interest. Before you know it, the season of bare feet will be upon us – what better time for a wool and silk carpet, hmmm? The carpet above has some nice Spring appeal - nothing like a bright, cheerful botanical to freshen things up. (You can check out this one in the December 2008 The World of Interiors, December 2008 article "Made for Manhattan" with Studio Sofield)

Talk soon,
Erin.

...and the winner is!

Well, the votes are in and the people have spoken! Creative Matters is tops in design according to the Domotex visitors who voted at floorforum this year. As I mentioned before, floorforum is an area in Hall 3 (where our stand lived) "devoted to trends in the modern carpets and textile floor coverings industry." This year the area was divided into 3 categories - design, structure and colour - and Creative Matters displayed 3 of our best, Rory-Platinum, Polarize-Ice and Pepe-Gold, in the category of design. Pretty great, right? This is a photo of the floorforum area- it was quite impressive. You'll notice Ana in the bottom right, striking a pose.


So now for the best part - we won! That's right - Best Liked by Visitors in the Category of Design! We're thrilled and totally flattered to have been chosen, on an international stage, as best design, by the people in the trade who buy our rugs. Just as a refresher, I give you Rory Platinum, our winning rug:



Additionally, Creative Matters was honoured to have, once again, been short-listed for a Carpet Design Award for Best Modern Design. The judges included some of the most recognizable names in the industry, including Matthew Bourne of Christopher Farr Contemporary Rugs and internationally exhibited textile designer Kate Blee. These awards are organized by the great people at Modern Carpet and Textiles/Hali Magazines whose magazine we love! Check it out.

Needless to say, the Creative Matters team left Germany on quite a high. We did a little survey find out just which carpets received the most attention. And the survey says! - Scratch Ice. For your viewing enjoyment-



Now it's back to the drawing board for us - the wheels are turning and I think you should be very excited (and intrigued) as to what we come up with next. I'll keep you posted.

Stay warm - spring's just around the corner, I promise.
Erin