Five Days Carpet Challenge – Stoddard
During Stockholm Design Week 2021, the carpet studio Stoddard turned to Straight Design Studio to create a collection of bespoke carpets and for the first time go from business to private customers and offer a part of their world to everyone. Instead of a traditional product launch they chose to challenge each other to create this brand-new collection, from idea to finished product, in just five days. This was achieved by taking advantage of the limitations and possibilities that surrounds an established process.
Stoddard creates and distributes carpets to the public scene – everything from runners, custom rugs in different shapes to wall-to-wall carpets, made from a wide range of both colour and qualities. All manufactured by Object Carpet, a German company with a high sustainable profile, using for example Econyl yarn which is 100% recycled and 100% recyclable. All qualities are also free from latex, PVC and bitumen.
The heart of Stoddard’s business is its own studio, located in Stockholm, where all carpets are created. The material that is left over from the production is stored and has over the years built up a large archive of bits and pieces. The brief was to use this material to create a new collection of carpets. The shapes were limited due to the simplification of the production and the colours due to the fact that it was left over pieces that were used.
For five intense days the two studios were working closely to accomplish something that they in advance didn’t know was possible. Stoddard’s understanding and respect for different materials combined with the clean creativity of Straight Design Studio resulted in four new carpets inspired by the four Swedish cardinal directions.
Nord, Syd, Öst and Väst.
During the pandemic, we have all had to re-evaluate our geographical area and also find new ways to gather inspiration. Local tourism has become increasingly common and many of us have opened our eyes to our local landscape. How the landscape differs across the country both in structure and colour is fascinating. This is also something that we often want to reflect in the elements we take into our homes. The concept of the new collection was created by having this in mind.
Matching left-over pieces with the desired colour and quality for each part of the carpets was crucial but also a creative part of the process. It resulted in some fast decisions that had to be taken while the production was already full on. With 40 years of experience over three generations, Stoddard’s work is both efficient and precise. It takes some skilled craftsmen to plan the work so that every piece was put together in the right order, connected with the right pile direction and the right colour batch.
A perfect joint where Bouclé meets Velour.
The carpets are sold exclusively through www.stoddard.se.
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Photography: Mathilda Werngren