The kooky Dutch design collective WE MAKE CARPETS recently wove paperclips together to create this beautiful carpet for Amsterdam Design Week. Strangely alluring and uplifting this lovely stair runner is carpet is all in day's work for the the group, as Belinda Aucott discovers.

Made up of agitators and artists, WE MAKE CARPETS is a Dutch collective that consists of the socially minded Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten and Bob Waardenburg.

Based in Amsterdam this little collective now travels the world creating carpets that both shock and delight. Taking a pointedly critical view of consumerism WE MAKE CARPETS (or WMC for short) use every day objects to create temporary carpets with mandala like intricacy.

Dennis Elbers, curator at Graphic Design Museum, Breda, says WE MAKE CARPETS is a collective deeply aligned with the contemporary revaluation of craft.

“At a distance, we simply see a decorative carpet. Closer inspection will, however, surprise us. WE MAKE CARPETS sampled analog everyday items of use into carpets of impressive sizes. Products that normally have no value once they have been used, such as plastic forks, plasters, paving tiles, pasta, cotton balls and pegs are arranged in an inventive way to form a graphic pattern.

Using materials as diverse as pasta, forks, balloons and paperclip WE MAKE CARPETS layer their chosen object in a repetitive pattern, giving a contemporary edge to the age-old craft of weaving carpets.

“The weaving method, use of materials and patterns reflect the 21st century,” says Elbers.

“WE MAKE CARPETS are inspired by the colour, shape and possibilities of the material chosen. The result is not just a decorative carpet, but an object that makes us think about the consumer society that produces these ‘weaving materials’. A contemporary interpretation of wealth,” Elbers says.

www.wemakecarpets.nl