Designing a Dhurrie Rug
Hello, hello, everyone! It’s so nice to blog again after a long and relaxing weekend and I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter. Our Orthodox Easter is actually coming a week later. Tomorrow I am going to dye some eggs as well as make some holiday decorations at home….
Though this post today will not be about my preparations for Easter, but exciting and very interesting project that I’ve recently taken part in. It is a competition organized by Mahout Lifestyle – a family business, born as a result of our mutual love of India. They sell a wonderful collection of fair trade traditional Indian floor coverings, also known as dhurries. These little rugs are hand-woven in Rajastan from natural materials (cotton) and to the highest quality. Due to their versatility, they can also be used as wall hangings, bedding and table covers. Their tough durability also allows them to be used outdoors as a picnic rug.
The weaving techniques and traditions have been passed from generation to generation and there are entire families involved in the art of creating dhurrie rugs. Traditional motifs are stripes, zigzags, various geometric shapes, as well as rudimentary Islamic images.
So my creative challenge for this competition was to create a brand new design for a dhurrie, which needs to be striking, innovative, and something that Mahout Lifestyle customers can imagine in their homes. It should also reflect my personal design style and current design trends. Also, I needed to use Pantone colors to create a design. So my inspiration has come from Marsala – the color of the year, declared by Pantone, as well as some traditional tribal and Mehendi ornaments, that I’ve found on the web. I totally loved the combination of dark burgundy with ochre yellow and decided to use it as the main color palette:
After making several sketches, I’ve finally came up with these two designs:
So, what do you think about them? I went to the post office today to send both sketches to London… Feeling very excited!
By the way, if you fancy buying an authentic Dhurrie rug for your home, I have this one which is available for sale in my boutique:
