Gunilla Lagerhem Ullberg´s rug Herbarium is awarded with Design S

22 November 2012

Jury statement: With its kaleidoscopic pattern and a three-dimensional textile experience, Herbarium creates the impression of a poem in the form of a floor rug. With a personal feel, a pattern is created on the floor with the same self-evident presence in a fine salon as the best tapestry. A pattern which can withstand being looked at for a long time and, like a pressed flower or classic haute couture, survives season after season.

Herbarium is an example of how classic handicrafts – weaving and pressing flowers – can become new forms of expression in their encounter with modern manufacturing and printing techniques. Printed rugs are often associated with large rolls of flat, synthetic wall-to-wall carpeting. Between that and Herbarium – woven rugs made of a natural material with printed, high-resolution patterns in an almost unlimited colour scheme – stand a number of years’ of experimentation on the production machinery.

Gunilla Lagerhem Ullberg began working with wool and then went on to test a chenille yarn made of wool and flax. This gave the surface a different effect and the pattern a new dimension. For many years she has been pressing flowers and combining them into kaleidoscopic patterns. Herbarium is based on these but is also inspired by all the digital patterns of the fashion world. Every woven rug varies slightly in its length and breadth, and the pattern and printing process must be continually adjusted for this. Each Herbarium is unique, just like every herbarium.

Learn more about Gunilla Lagerhem Ullberg

Learn more about Herbarium