Our first time at the New York International Carpet Show!

This september we participated at the New York International Carpet Show for the first time and it was a great success. Our new "Art Day" line was received very enthusiastically from our established retailers as well as new retailers. Our customers loved the description of the design process we took with the art day line and the carpets that have been produced are exceptional (Every 6 weeks at CMI we close the office for a few hours and we all create art, the design team, the book keeper and the receptionist too! The art day line is a culmination of all the efforts, reinterpreted by the design team into our newest collection).

We have exhibited two types of carpet - the hand knotted cut pile wool and silk, and the flat woven kilim's in wool and metallic yarn.

Art Day with the Kids in Kathmandu, Nepal!

Every year Creative Matters hosts an art day with the children at Hamro Ghar in Nepal. These children have been rescued from the weaving looms in Nepal, a part of GoodWeave's initiative to end child labour and offer education. CMI has supported GoodWeave for a number of years but we also like to give directly to those children who have been taken advantage of. We do what we know well, support through creativity.

Once again, as every year, the children are enthusiastic hard workers who show tremendous creativity and artistry.

We began with life drawing, children painting each other in active poses including Krishna!

Then we moved on to a lesson on colour mixing as many had never used paint before. Then they painted large paintings of their favourite animals and their favourite holiday.

An obvious favoured holiday is the upcoming one "Dashain", where huge bamboo swings are built for the children to play on... the paintings caught the excitement of that holiday. As for animals...giraffes, tigers, elephants, peacocks, cats and birds.

We love to support GoodWeave, they are doing good work in Nepal by saving children from labour, giving them an education and generally improving the lives of the weavers. Donna and I were delighted to have the opportunity once again to spend time with these wonderful children. We thank the staff at Hamro Ghar who were so supportive.

- Carol Sebert

Hot and beautiful India!!!

Donna and I have enjoyed our time in India, as always. The colours, the people, the food, the hustle and bustle... all wonderful. To see our carpets in production we drive about an hour from Varanasi, one of the holiest cities in India where the Ganges flows and many take their morning prayers. We drive past rice paddies where women are tending the fields - such a beautiful image - their colourful sarees in a field of lush green, to a small village who's name translates to "where important people live".

Our rugs all look amazing, the custom hand tufted pieces and the brand new kilims which we will be unveiling in New York in a few weeks, as a portion of our "art day" line.

Next stop Kathmandu!

- Carol Sebert

A New Year, A New Collection!

It seems like it was just last week that the CMI team stepped off the plane from Hannover where they presented our newest collection Terra, and we’re already immersed in developing another new line of hand-knotted carpets for a new collection. Our team is ever expanding and this year we decided to take a fresh approach to creating a collection by creating 2 series’ of hand-painted and hand-drawn markings as inspiration for our new pieces.



In a field where we can easily utilize the computer and Wacom tablet as our tool of choice, we made the decision to “return to our roots” so to speak, and pick up a paintbrush. We chose to flex our artistic muscles with a series of “art days” where the entire team (office managers and accountant included) participated in intensive 3-hour sessions of painting, drawing and general mark making. And the results were fabulous!



We worked with different grounds like mulberry paper (wet and dry), watercolour paper and news print and covered them in India ink, charcoal,wax and paint. It was messy and brilliant and resulted in over 230 paintings and drawings. From there we collectively created 168 working concepts and were able to whittle these down to a collection of 7.



Now we’re on to the sampling process and with eager anticipation await their arrival! Creative Matters hopes to launch our still unnamed collection at the New York International Carpet Show and then at Domotex 2012. Times are changing and interesting things are happening at our little studio on Annette Street. Stay tuned!

We're Back!!

Carol, Donna, Ange and Abbey are back in the office and thrilled to have completed a 5th successful year at Domotex in Hannover, Germany. We launched our new Terra Collection at the show, which ran from January 15 – 18, to much enthusiasm from new and returning customers. The Terra Collection, with designs originating from the heirlooms of the Earth, speaks of inspirations from ice flows to mountain peaks, aspirations and nomadic encounters. The mood of each new rug engages in the vestiges that surround us, in their pure, simplistic forms.



Wish speaks to celestial motifs, along with microscope elements with the lightest colour of silk sparkling on the wool background. Bang is a delicate burst of fine silk rays that create a mesmerizing asymmetrical pattern. Offering a combination of high and low, silk and wool piles, Nomadic Glam is a dramatic glamorous take on a tribal-style design.



Filament shows a delicate interweave that will suit contemporary and more traditional spaces and Reflection is a contemplative variation on a stripe motif. Damask offers a non-traditional take on the ever classic design style.



As always, our Aerial Collection was also well received by all with faithful favourites still catching the eyes of passers-by. The sophisticated combination of lush Chinese silk and intricate design of such classics as Scratch, French Wire, Nova and Rory continue to attract our customer both local and abroad.

Germany is always such an inspiring show for the Creative Matters team and seems to renew us with new energy to create. As we work our way through the sometimes-dreary month of February, we find ourselves churning with new ideas for Domotex 2012. Over the next few months the team will be working through a series of creative workshops to cultivate new ideas and artworks to translate into our beautiful hand-knotted rugs.

Talk soon!

Warm Holiday Wishes from Creative Matters

Creative and Cooperative

Another trip to India and Nepal, and another wonderful workshop at "Hamro Ghar" in Kathmandu. This is the home where children live and go to school, children who have been rescued from forced labour in carpet mills.



Knowing how tricky it was to get supplies in Kathmandu, from my experience with last year's workshop, we brought chicken wire, glue and paint from Canada. We showed the kids how the chicken wire could be shaped in to any three dimensional shape that they could imagine. This would serve as the armature of the their sculpture before being covered by newspaper dipped in glue. With little prompting the children were shaping fish, peacocks, soccer balls, bowls, one boy saw the twist in the chicken wire with the cut ends of the metal and made a snake with a forked tongue....a brilliant creative visual leap. Once the paper strips were applied the sculptures were left to dry. Over the weekend we left glue and some wire for the children to work on their own. They moved on to making more personal items...hats and purses!



We returned a few days later for the painting portion of the workshop. With a quick lesson on colour theory (blue + yellow = green) the kids threw themselves into painting the sculptures. Without a lot of guidance or influence they were painting black and white soccer balls, fish with colourful scales, purses and hats with patterns, and one boy did an incredible self-portrait.



The children also had a cooperative nature. They would help each other mix colours. One child began the ambitious project of a peacock and a number of friends joined in to help. Once finished they were happy to share their sculptures, the soccer balls were kicked around, hats were shared, and generally there was delight in each others' work.



Creative and cooperative, what a combination!

We hope that within GoodWeave's future initiatives, this talent and generous spirit can be tapped and encouraged. We would like to see the artistry and craftsmanship that is required in rug making be taught to the children so this craft will become a respected field in which to work.

Namaste,
Carol