Souk Deluxe - Selected Carpet Design

Souk Deluxe is a juried exhibition showcasing high-quality hand-made carpets from companies presenting modern designs. Selected carpets are displayed at Domotex Germany for buyers and industry members to view so they are able to experience the latest innovative products and techniques that designers are experimenting with. This is a great way to get an overview of the carpet industry and see the latest trends. If you are heading to Domotex Germany 2012 this year, be sure to check out the Souk Deluxe show.

Creative Matters was accepted and is exhibiting Art Day Carpets Hand-Knotted #74 and Kilim #111.

Art Day VI

The year is off to a great start for the CMI team with our first Art Day of 2012! It was all about creating designs with light and shadow. With transparent found objects we experimented with lighting to cast interesting shadows onto waiting blank pages. We then traced the shadows with different mediums: thick & thin markers, acrylic paint, crayons, india ink, oil pastels, chalk...etc. The resulting patterns have already been scanned into our computers and are ready for our designers to develop them into new and original carpet designs.

(Art Day VI instructions by Tiffany)

We had our first art day in January 2011 and after this first session we set a goal for ourselves to design 500 new carpet concepts by the end of the year. We are proud to announce that on December 23, 2011 we designed "Concept 500" which means we reached our goal! We are very proud of our 500 concepts and are excited to have fresh designs to add to our archive. Some of these ideas became our new line that we will be launching in Germany at Domotex next week.

(The CMI team hard at work creating)

(Maddy creating some interesting shapes & shadows)

We have decided this year to set a goal to create another 500 new concepts by the end of the year. We did it last year and are more than confident we will make it again this year!

To view more photos please visit our Facebook Gallery for Art Day VI!
To view our "art day" line see our website www.creativemattersinc.com

Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone a happy holiday, and a prosperous and peaceful 2012. From The Creative Matters Team - Carol, Donna, Abbey, Ange, Ana, Elizabeth, Erin, Jane, Julie, Leah, Maddy, Tiffany.

(photos from the children at Hamro Ghar - Goodweave Home for rescued children, after "Art Day")

Art Day Excitement!

As the year closes we are getting ready for the holidays and preparing for the Domotex exhibition in Germany in January 2012. The new "Art Day" collection is well under way in Kathmandu.

(103 - Graffiti on the loom)

(123 - Platinum on the loom and almost completed)

(13 - Platinum on the loom)

We are excited about the new line, a preview was seen in New York in September to great enthusiasm. We look forward to seeing some of the rugs in larger format.

We wish everyone a healthy and prosperous 2012.

Cover Modern Carpets & Textiles For Interiors Winter 2011

We were delighted to be featured in COVER Magazine "Creative thinking" (Winter 2011). Katie Loux really caught the spirit of Creative Matters in the article - the excitement of our team, our passion for textiles and specifically rug design.

Donna and I have been building Creative Matters for almost 25 years now, and it's wonderful to get this recognition in one of our very favourite magazines.

Creative Matters is happy to donate a rug for a silent auction on behalf of Vitanova

The Vitanova Foundation is a Woodbridge-based, non-profit corporation chartered by the Province of Ontario and a registered Canadian charity that provides a range of addiction-related services to individuals, families, and the community at large, all at no charge---services that include education, prevention, assessment, treatment, rehabilitation, shelter and aftercare.

For the past 23 years "Friends of Vitanova" have organized a special event and silent auction to help raise money for their Foundation. The 24th Annual Event is being held on Sunday November 27, 2011 at Da Vinci Banquet Hall (5732 Hwy. #7 Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada). Reception & Antipasto Bar 4:00pm and Dinner 5:00pm (Cash Bar). This celebration requires a reservation to attend, to purchase tickets please visit the Vitanova Foundation (Tickets: Adults $100.00, Children (12 & under) $40.00).

(photo of our donated carpet)

We chose this charity as we like to support our local community as well as our international ones (as we do through our partnerships with GoodWeave and Label Step in Nepal and India). In all cases we understand the need to help families through difficult times.

The rug we have donated is 4' x 6' handknotted custom one-of-a- kind carpet. For this we specified wool and viscose, and had it made in India. The viscose pattern shimmers like silk and was inspired by curvilinear metal railings with a playful chain link border. The sheen of the viscose offers a sparkling element next to the richness of the wool.

Don't miss this opportunity to support a great cause, enjoy the "Friends of Vitanova" event on November 27th and bid on some wonderful donations.

Textile Museum of Canada Fundraising - ReDesign 2011

(The CMI team with the winning bidder of our chair)

What a great night! The Gladstone Hotel was packed with makers, designers, and supporters of the textile museum. We were delighted to be involved with our chair "From the Ground Up". When we got our chair from the textile museum, it's simplicity and unusual orange red/black combination had us start where we always do - from the ground up. We designed a custom carpet with gradation of black through to the orange/red tone and finished the rug with a single "button" a raised puff of wool. The chair has been painted so the legs blend into the carpet for one seamless entity.

(Our finished chair photo Credit: Jill Kitchener)

The silent auction had the room filled with people hovering near their favourite chairs (we were delighted that a number of people bid on ours!) and by 8:45 the bell rang and the chairs all found new homes. Here is the link to see some of the photos of other chairs that had been redesigned - from cutting up the chair into pieces and stringing it on the wall like a necklace to romantic writing embroidered on the seat ("I will always love you") and lovely crocheted fabric attached to the back of the chair.

(Abbey with the chair she won, "Sketch for Quilt Number Seven" by Grant Heaps)

(Maddy with the chair she won, "The Component Parts of a Lazy Chair" by Georgia Dickie)

It was a great triumph. We were delighted to be invited and wish the Textile Museum of Canada ongoing success.