Turning forgotten materials into beautiful and dynamic creations is a common theme in African art. Many of the artists and designers upcycled old objects and transformed everyday items into new formats. For many South Africans, crafting and upcycling is more than just a hobby. It’s a deep part of their culture. Ashanti Design in Cape Town is the perfect example of such craft, and its work inspired our edgy linear carpet design. The design studio uses leftover materials from the fast fashion industry. Local artisan people then take these offcuts and use traditional African looms to weave the fabric into bold, colorful pieces.
Although most famous for their beanbags, their ceiling panel in the Cape Town studio is what inspires us. Bold striped squares with a colorful patchwork effect transform the room. Combined with the circular handwoven light fittings, the view from below was an abstract medley of circles and stripes. We love the juxtaposition of the angular and curved shapes together. As well as the quintessentially South African boldness and vibrancy of the room.
As inspiration for our edgy linear carpet, we took this perspective and spun it on its head, mirroring the ceiling we stood below. The circles in print reflect the light fixings. At the same time, the horizontal and vertical lines echo the strips of woven material. We did dial down the color palette and stuck with shades of yellow, pink, and red. More gray and beige tones are also in the design into the circular aspects. They add definition from the background, giving the illusion they’re jumping out of the frame. We also offset the stripes slightly to give the design more fluidity.
Just as this ceiling panel and most of Ashanti’s work come from upcycled fast fashion materials, we are on a mission to be sustainable. Our carpets are from recycled ECONYL yarn that is generated from fishing nets waste. We also produce pattern matching cuts according to seaming diagrams for all our carpets, ensuring the minimum amount of carpet waste. We donate 1% of our custom carpet revenue to DIFFA, which goes towards fighting HIV and AIDs.
If you’re interested in this design or would like to create a custom carpet of your own, please contact our team. We can help you make the perfect carpet whatever your needs or budget. To that extent we provide a choice of nine carpet substrates.
