SATURDAY IN DESIGN

If you're in Sydney this weekend don't miss Saturday in Design. Leading industry showrooms will open their doors for two days, showcasing the best product releases from over 350 local and international interior design brands. Registration ends Tuesday at 5pm, click HERE to register now.


Preview our latest outdoor collection, Australian Botanicals Outdoor, at Ke-Zu. This bold collection of 100% recycled outdoor fabrics is perfectly suited to our indoor-outdoor lifestyle and unique environmental conditions. The constructions are inherently stain resistant, antimicrobial, anti-fungal, bleach cleanable and extremely durable.


All yarns from the Australian Botanicals Outdoor collection are:
- 100% recyclable
- Made from post industrial waste
- Produced using eco-friendly processes
- Certified Cradle-To-Cradle™

BEFORE & AFTER

Before

After

I am obsessed with drawing birds at the moment, in saying that I find them a real challenge! This lamp shade took me a month to complete, painting straight on to fabric is a real challenge in its self, the fabric bleeds and absorbs all the paint leaving watermarks. Once I had painted a few coats it made it a lot easier to create more detail. Now this lamp is in my living room and I look upon it with an eye of love and painful memories.

THE SIX WEEK BOUTIQUE

The talented bespoke designer Tamara Maynes is no stranger to the Mokum design studio. We love Tamara’s work and have commissioned her to create loads of props for our events, displays and photoshoots.

Maddha Wall Hanging for Modern Maroc Launch, by Tamara Maynes

Tamara’s latest creation The Six Week Boutique is an online store, refreshed every six weeks with a new collection of her limited edition craft pieces. Her first collection includes the most divine macramé owl wall hangings, titled ‘to john denver, with love’. The next collection is due online later this month and is a range of cross-stitch kits titled ‘the saturday night girls’. Subscribe today, so you’re notified of each creative collection (every six weeks)!

Macrame Owl Wall Hanging in Grass Marle

Macrame Owl Wall Hanging in Charcoal Marle

SYDNEY RUG LAUNCH

Congratulations to the NSW team for being great hosts at our Sydney rugs launch on Wednesday night! With cheese platters to DIE for, the evening was a great success and attended by our much loved clients, (pictures below).

Sarah, David and Carol Cooper from Coopers Store, Ben from Mokum and Pam Fielding

Sally from Tempo Interiors with Penny from Mokum

Kaman & Erica from BBG-BBGM, with Amanda (centre) from Mokum

Rachelle from Insignia Interiors, Alistair from James King Interiors, Kathy from Devise Decor & Ben from Mokum

Jacinta & Sonia from Designers In The City

Victoria from Coco Republic & Amanda from Mokum

John from Mokum & Eberto from Thomas Hamel

Amanda, Stephanie & Ngahuia from Mokum

Stephanie Moffitt, Mokum’s Design Director, gave a short speech about the studio’s inspirational trip to Nepal and our commitment to supporting RugMark and the Nepalese weaving community.

State of Design

If you're lucky enough to be in Melbourne this month be sure to check out the events surrounding the State of Design Festival. The festival is an initiative of the Victorian State Government, and will host over 100 interactive events, exhibitions, workshops and talks from 15 – 25 July!

Decoration + Design is a key satellite event of the festival and this year includes an innovation fabric sample bank - Sampling Future Materials.

Australian Botanicals Outdoor Collection

The sample bank showcases innovative materials from local manufacturers and suppliers and includes key designs from our latest outdoor collection - Australian Botanicals Outdoor. (Available in North America and launching in August throughout Australia & New Zealand)

WEAVING MADDHA

Maddha rug being woven in Kathmandu, using traditional Tibetan style

When visiting Kathmandu, to monitor the development of our rug collection, the studio captured a short video which demonstrates the incredible skill and speed of the Tibetan weavers. Tibetan rugs are distinct from other types of hand knotted oriental rugs, in that the knot system is totally unique. Tibetan rug weavers loop weft yarns around warp threads and a metal rod and then cut the loops to create the pile. No other rug is created in such a way.

Preliminary artwork for Maddha

The elegant graphic within Maddha was inspired by the play of light from a decorative iron window.

Modern Maroc collection

Maddha Rug was inspired by the elegant silk jacquard from our
Modern Maroc collection.

Maddha rug colour Sable

The intricate detail is beautifully captured within the finely woven 150 knot silk construction of Maddha.

Maddha Plain rug colour Sand

Maddha Plain takes the background pattern from Maddha and removes the circular motifs, to create a stunning semi-plain.

RugMark label

Our rugs carry a RugMark label. RugMark is a non-profit organisation which monitors and removes child labour from the rug industry throughout South Asia. A RugMark label ensures the following:

• No child labour was used in the manufacture
• RugMark inspectors have visited the loom where the rug was made
• The rug has helped pay for the education of former child labourers
• You are helping to build a market for humanely produced goods
• Your rug is beautiful, inside and out
  

THINGS WE LOVE – NYC

I decided to break up our winter with an inspirational holiday to New York.
Above is me standing outside the Rockefeller centre.

The architecture of this city is incredible and a great way to see it is from the top of the Rockefeller Centre. Unfortunately on the day we visited the weather was miserable but luckily when we reached the top the view was breathtaking as the rain had given the city a beautiful moodiness!
The museums in this city are amazing and you are spoiled for choice, I visited Moma, the Guggenheim, the Met and The Museum of Natural History.

While I was visiting the MOMA I came across these two lovely surface patterns that were created for a theatre costume. What I love about them is how they repeat and are interlocked as though they are dancing.

The collection at the Met is so inspiring; I loved seeing my favorite artists from the 20th Century!
I loved viewing this portrait of Mada Primavesi by Gustav Klimt

The Guggenheim, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is also a must see.

It wasn’t so much the art that was exhibited that I enjoyed but rather the originality of the building itself

While I was in the Museum of Natural History I came across these two cute little dinosaurs, I always thought these type of Dinosaurs were only really large, so I was immediately smitten with them.

I greatly enjoyed my week in New York and relish a chance to return and indulge my love of art and design.

BEFORE & AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

One of my favourite Mokum fabrics is Cross Stitch from the Modern Maroc Collection. I love the quality and scale, and the coral colour always catches my eye when I'm in the showroom. I found this lampshade, and knew instantly it could be given a new lease of life if it was covered with fabric. Cross Stich seemed perfect because of it's small all-over repeat system. To hide the raw edges I used a Nina Campbell beaded Trim.

Above are the images of the lampshade before and after.

COVERS

HOME New Zealand - June / July 2009

Your Home & Garden - July 2009

Two of our favourite New Zealand homemaker magazines feature our product on their covers this month!

HOME New Zealand features an Auckland townhouse, designed by Matt Brew of Cantilever Architects. The chair within the living room is upholstered in Celosia from Meridian's Folk Revival collection and the cushion on the sofa is in Lillypilly from Meridian's Australian Botanicals collection.

Your Home & Garden features Mokum's Rzma rug in colour Ruby. Rzma was inspired by a bold 19th century Moroccan embroidery from the Rabat region. The striking central motif is woven in New Zealand wool and Indian silk, anchored with corner details, creating a colourful statement piece.

OUR VISIT TO KATHMANDU

Visiting Kathmandu to research Tibetan style weaving techniques for rugs, was a fascinating experience and one we will never forget. Kathmandu is a chaotic sprawling city and we spent much of our time driving through its bustling streets visiting spinning factories, dye houses and weaving mills. This gave us an excellent snapshot of the city and its people.



We were so impressed with the skill of the weavers and stunned with the speed at which they could work and as a designer there’s nothing like seeing the production first hand to learn the tensions of the process.



It was also very fulfilling to see our first trial weaves. Above is Cathy Brown holding a sample of Rabat, her first ever rug design, see full rug below.

We did manage some down-time and spent an amazing afternoon at the Boudhanath Stupa, a sacred Buddhist Shrine and the surrounding markets, where we were tempted with jewellery and local crafts. Both Cathy and I brought beautiful silver necklaces.

Image by U. Roberto Romano, courtesy of Rug Mark

The most profound experience for myself, Cathy and Edwin Rysenbry (owner of Mokum) was seeing firsthand the poverty of Kathmandu, which was also present within the weaving community. After visiting Rugmark and learning of their educational programmes we became extremely committed to their cause and through Mokum’s association with them we have an unique opportunity to improve the lives of the weavers and their children through Rugmark’s education programmes and support services.

We also enjoyed spending time with Sonam Tsomo and her family who took such wonderful care of us and shared their extensive knowledge of Tibetan rug weaving during this and subsequent visits.

In our next rugs post we look forward to sharing the entire launch range with you. Mokum rugs will be available within Australasia later this month. Please contact your nearest Australian or New Zealand trade showroom for further details www.mokumtextiles.com.

By Stephanie Moffitt