Katja Huhmarkangas

WOVEN CARPET PROTOTYPE

SINCE 1999, I’VE BEEN WEAVING VARIOUS PROJECTS FOR OTHER ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS. THIS SUMMER (2016), I HAD A CHANCE TO WEAVE SOME RUGPROTOTYPES FOR THE ARCHITECT MR MARTTI KALLIALA. WORDS AND PICTURES - KATJA HUHMARKANGAS

KATJA SHARES HER EXPERIENCES WHILE WORKING ON THIS PROJECT...

As a part of this interesting project, I was challenged with design ideas and also brought in my own experiences working with different and maybe not-so-common materials. The process of going from an idea to a woven carpet prototype was quick and the time-limits were tight; the actual weaving and getting the piece ready was squeezed into two weeks.

The brief that I was given was to use recycled and traditional rag rug materials.

FINE VS THICKER HOW IT ALL MATERIALS CAME TOGETHER More often that not, jacquard Loading the heavy weaving is about finding shuttles with rags very elegant solutions, with and multiplied linen the finest and thinnest of was time consuming. yarns. The more picks and The total weight for ends-per-centimeter, the the final prototypes more details emerge. When was approximately I started off with the idea for 2.2 kg / square meter the carpets, the sketches were and the size 1.5 x 1.5 quite simplified, but then, I meters. had to simplify them further, ending up with a design with As my own loom is not 6 pixels per centimeter (and wide enough, the carpets even this was too much). were put together from 2 panels.

KATJA’S OLD TC-1 FARED WELL For those of you in an When the actual weaving around Norway, do drop started, my old TC-1 showed by and catch a glimpse that she is still running just of Katja’s works on great. All the traditional display in Oslo! weaving shuttles came to use and some new arm muscles were practiced. The big WHO: surprise was that even when Katja Huhmarkangas (kh-design) - www.khdesign.fi weaving “only” 6 threads per WHEN: cm, the actual weaving time These carpets will be shown at the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016 in for each of the 150-cm long September. piece was not necessarily WHERE: Doga – Stiftelsen Norsk Design og Arkitektursenter, short.

Hausmannsgate 16, 0182 Oslo Norway