OBEETEE X PARSONS
A collaborative project between Obeetee Pvt. Ltd. and Parsons School of Design. The project involved 16 students from the MFA Textiles Program at Parsons envisioning the future of rug design merging craft with technology and promoting the hand made. Focusing on natural fibers, handmade, artisanal, and design collaboration with skilled rug weavers from Mirzapur, India.
Role: Designer, Trend research
Timeline: July - September 2019
Team: Parsons MFA Textiles, Obeetee Pvt. Ltd.
#rugdesign #craft #handmade #artisanal
#handwoven #trends #handknotted
#designcollaboration #naturalfibres
Our team of students explored ideas such as foldable rugs, upcycling old samples into soft seating, glow in the dark, led activated, sculptural artistic rugs, and material innovation milk yarn dyed with onion skins. Our core strategy was promoting the artisans, collaborating with them in the design process, and honoring the value of the skilled and handmade. We worked with trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort as a mentor to develop a color palette and operated between New York and Mirzapur for sampling. I along with three other students had the opportunity to work for a month sampling flat-woven, hand-knotted, and machine tufted options with the skilled rug weavers at the Obeetee factory in Mirzapur in India. The final designs were presented at the Obeetee showroom in New York in September 2019.
Developing the color palette and color trends with Li Edelkoort at Parsons, NY
India team members: Olivia Koval, Laura Kung, Jacob Olmedo and Pallavi Padukone
Developing the color palette and color trends at the Obeetee Studio, Mirzapur, India
A sampling of flat wovens and hand-knotted at Obeetee factory, Mirzapur
Weave patterns I developed for flat woven and tufted foldable samples
Sampling of flat wovens with Lalluji at Obeetee factory, Mirzapur
Sample checks with Sumit
Hand knotted sampling with Maujilalji at at Obeetee factory, Mirzapur
Technique and yarn sampler
Flat woven process and finishing
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Sample checks - Flat woven foldable
Tufting sampling with Rajkumarji at Obeetee factory, Mirzapur
Photochromic and glow in the dark machine tufted samples
Flat wovens/Terracotta palette designed in collaboration with weaver Lalluji
Flat wovens and machine tufted/ Foldable displayed at the Obeetee Showroom, NY
Samples displayed at the Obeetee Showroom, NY
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