Little Field of Flowers

“We ordered the first prototypes in an embossed pattern,” explains Marquina, who works with several Indian manufacturing facilities. The Nanimarquina team instructed the manufacturers to use a traditional rug-making technique called hand-knotting to transform Boontje’s iconic graphics into relief patterned rug samples. In weaving there is a warp and a weft. The weft threads weave over and under the tensioned warp threads, row after row, to create a surface. When hand-knotting woven carpets, the technicians tie knots to the warp threads and use a tufting gun to secure them in a rapid pulling motion.

As Boontje’s signature style is often associated with cutouts, Marquina’s solution was a good fit. Sheets of felt from Rajasthan go into a die cutter, which is essentially a combination of a waffle iron and a cookie cutter. An iron press cuts outlines into shapes. Using Boontje’s designs, the team at Nanimarquina created six flower combinations for the process, connecting a large blossom to a small one with a narrow stem that is then attached to the rug. The team had to simplify some of the flowers’ intricacies to keep the corners clean and resilient. Die cutting takes place at SPN Carpets in Panipat, an industrial town and weaving hub on the massive outskirts of Delhi. “We outsource the die–there are lots of die manufacturers in Delhi,” says Tony Mittal, the factory owner. “The machine is about the size of a washing machine. After we press the flowers, we remove them from the machine by hand. Occasionally we find that the edges are no longer crisp, at which point we replace the die.”