At the Salone del Mobile in Milan this spring, Kasthall will be launching its design collaboration with the British designer Ilse Crawford. The collection, called Grönska, consists of two tufted and three woven rugs. Crawford drew inspiration for Grönska from the Swedish landscape around the Kasthall factory in Kinna, Västergötland.

The design collaboration, which began in spring 2017, consists of three woven rugs, Fåra, Glänta and Äng, as well as the hand-tufted rugs Täppa and Åker. Crawford and her team, in collaboration with Kasthall Design Studio, explored different weaving and tufting techniques in order to reflect the rythm, irregularity, and diverse tones of the different types of landscapes throughout the year. These qualities are infused into the rugs – and in turn into the homes and public spaces where we live and spend time. Developing the right greens was a challenge. For example Kasthall Design Studio together with Crawford and her team started experimenting with a new dyeing method for melange hair yarn. It was important to make sure that dynamic, natural colour shifts in the wool shone through. The result was a yarn with new depths. This yarn is an important component of two of the new rugs, the woven rug Äng and the tufted rug Åker.

The Grönska collection will be displayed in a retrospective exhibition of Studioilse furniture at the Kasthall showroom in Brera during the Milan Design Week.

While Kasthall’s customers are found all over the world, each rug crafted by the international brand is custom made in Kinna. Kasthall does not keep stocks of rugs and they are not transported to and sold in shops. In this way, unnecessary consumption of materials, dyes, resources, energy and transportation are kept at a minimum. All rugs in the Grönska collection will be part of Kasthall’s permanent collection, except for the rug Åker, which is being produced in a limited edition of 50 rugs in total.