MODERN CARPETS&TEXTILES - autumn 2006

Between Artist and Artisan
With many of New York's top rug retailers offering a bespoke design service, Natasha Randall
talks to three leading designers about how they interpret and execute each commission

When carpet designer Joanna Michalowicz tries to capture her metier in words, "it's like having a foreign language at your disposal. A tactile language." Whether she is translating an interior designer's scheme for a room onto the floor, or composing fresh new designs herself, she is always trying to express something with her textiles. The wool, the weave and the colour are the syntax for her creations.
A visit to her studio in Brooklyn, New York, gives you a sense of this tactile language. Michalowicz (otherwise known by her nickname Asha) prefers not to describe her designs but to make you touch and see them. She will flip through books of ancient patterns, showing you similarities and derivations between patterns that would take an unexperienced eye hours to notice. This is how Asha "reads."
The job of a carpet designer is poised somewhere between artisan and artist; their work is motivated by commission and inspiration in varying measure. Rather than diluting the creativity involved in a project, the specifications of a commissioned work can often provide invigorating challenges. The first rule of thumb, as any designer will tell you, is that clients will always want something different to what you already have in your showroom.
Often client requests are as abstract as the resulting design. On the wall of Asha's studio, there are various photographs of paintings, pieces of furniture, views from a window - all things that have been sent to her as some sort of guidance with regards to the carpet she is making for a client.
(...) Another great motivation for carpet designers - is their competition. The realm of carpet design is as cut-throat and dirty-tricking as the fashion industry. One designer who asked not to be named said: "Everyone is constantly ripping each other off- a year after you release a line, there are copies everywhere. It keeps you on edge, it keeps you moving. You have to have three new designs ready for next year to keep up!"
The pace means that many designers like Asha, Staron and Klisanin make multiple trips to their weavers each year. Asha goes to Nepal where she asks for a small loom to be set up for her upon arrival on the factory floor. On this loom she explores design and materials. "I play with it, listen to it, find out what it wants.. .I can't sleep in Nepal because I'm too excited by the things that are taking shape at my fingers and in my head " Such is the life of these talented carpet designers from New York.