to go from this….

to this….

The photo above right shows the reverse side of “Agas”, which shows the beauty of a hand knotted rug whereby the design is fully visible on the rear in great detail.

“Agas” is 100% pure Chinese Silk with dimensions 124cms x 160cms, 150 knots, 3mm pile.

The rug has loops at the top end to be hung as a wall hanging.

“Agas” is also a LIMITED EDITION rug.

The following samples are of “Charis” – the first image is my design of “Charis” in full…

…and the following are images of the 60×90 sample I ordered but in reverse coloring…tell me which you prefer! (the white background or the blue background?)

“Charis” is hand knotted in Tibetan wool and Chinese silk, 150 knots, 5mm pile…

Finally, “Peacemaker mini gold”…the design…

…and the 60×90 sample…

“Peacemaker mini gold” is hand knotted in Tibetan wool & Chinese silk, 150 knots, the background (wool) is 4mm pile & the gold motif design (silk) is 5mm pile giving it a textured look & feel…

All designs can be customised to your preference as regards size, materials, texturing and coloring.

Samples can be viewed at my studio or can be brought to your premises if you are located in Athens.

Oh! and I almost forgot to mention…..

All original Lena Blonsky Creative Design Studio rugs come with our brand label attached to the rear side of the rug and a Certificate of Authenticity.

Please respect that all designs are copyright protected.

thanking you

Marina’s vibrant designs were the first thing that drew my attention to them and I connected with Marina on Facebook. Synchronicity played a role in our collaboration as we simultaneously communicated to each other our desire to meet and discuss the possibility of working together!

Elena, the interior designer and Marina, the artist teamed up in 2004 offering interior design services with mural artwork and creative, hand made products of their own…

Our creative minds, our love of art and design, our enthusiasm and common outlook quickly revealed to us that our collaboration, if anything, would be creative, fun and inspiring…and so it is that today we have begun what I hope will be a fruitful part of our creative journeys…

Read more about them here and view their designs here…

thank you

The “eye” is known to have been a fixture in Greece dating back to at least the 6th century BC, when it commonly appeared on drinking vessels. In Greece, the evil eye is cast away through the process of ksematiasma (ξεμάτιασμα), whereby the “healer” silently recites a secret prayer passed over from an older relative of the opposite sex, usually a grandparent. According to custom, if one is indeed afflicted with the evil eye, both victim and “healer” then start yawning profusely. The “healer” then performs the sign of the cross three times, and spits in the air three times.

Evil eye charms are either worn as jewellery or placed in the home, car or office (actually, wherever one feels it necessary) to ward off the evil eye cast by the onlooker. The above photograph of these beautiful bowls and vases by Sebastian Bergne for GAIA & GINO were what actually triggered my inspiration. My initial design was for an oval rug of a single eye and then I went on to design a larger rectangular rug and a runner with many eyes.

I first made up a sample of Evloghia oval in hand knotted method of manufacture in Nepal using 100% Tibetan wool…

…but then I also wanted to try it out in hand tufted version using various other materials as options as laid out here below:

My original design in hand tufted, 100% NZ wool with blue border, cut pile…

Left: hand tufted, NZ wool, 100% loop pile, Right: hand tufted, NZ wool, loop & cut pile…

Left: hand tufted, NZ wool 80%, Viscose 20%, Right: hand tufted, 100% viscose

I must admit, I personally love the grey versions and viscose gives a luxurious, silky feel to it.

I don’t consider myself to be an extremely superstitious person, but I do like the evil eye charm and, seeing as this is the first post of my newly designed website I thought it appropriate, and not at all coincidental, that this should be the subject!

If you would like a version of these please contact me via the following:

email: lena@lenablonsky.com or

contact form

thank you

…and another on how it translates from fashion to home….

living authentically

lena

Hand-tufted rugs are also referred to as handmade rugs although they are made using a drill gun that inserts the pile into a cloth backing creating a loop pile. When this pile is sheared (trimmed) the loop piles turn into a cut pile. These rugs may be referred to and look like handmade rugs but cost less since the gun makes for faster production. However, these rugs are not as valuable to a rug collector or someone who wants to buy an area rug as an investment. Handmade rugs are almost always made out of wool and/or silk and sometimes out of cotton and new materials such as Aloe, Hemp, Linen and Mohair are now being introduced to create interesting textures. Wool is also used in machine-made rugs as well as man-made fibers such as nylon, or polypropylene.

Kilim, Dhurrie or Flat-weave rugs are essentially similar in that they are rugs with no pile. The yarns are woven through the vertical cotton yarns of a loom. They are usually reversible.

There are three main ways to tell the difference between a handmade and a machine-made rug.

1. Fringe

2. Edge Finishing

3. Back

FRINGE

This is one of the most distinguishing factors betweeen a handmade and machine-made rug. If the rug has a fringe check to see if the fringe is sewn over the rug or was added to the rug as a finishing touch or if it is an extension of the rug. If it is sewn over it is a machine-made rug. If it is an extension of the rug it is handmade.

Machine-made vs handmade fringe

EDGE FINISHING

If binding or serging is used the rug is machine-made. Hand knotted rugs are always finished on the edges by hand which looks like serging but you do not see the machine stitch tracks on the back.

Machine-made edge finishing

BACK

When looking at weaves or knots check the back of the rug. In handmade rugs they are slightly uneven or have imperfections whereas they are perfectly even in machine-made rugs. Hand-tufted rugs have a cloth backing and the edges normally do not have a finishing such as serging or binding.

hand knotted front and back

Machine-made front and back

Hand tufted front and back

Regardless of how a rug is made, the more detailed and pronounced the design when looking at it from the back, the better the quality. This means there are more knots  per square inch and therefore it is more durable – and if it is handmade it means it took a lot longer to be made.

Well, it’s official…Pantone’s new selection for the 2012 Color of the Year is Tangerine Tango, a “richly enticing reddish-orange hue with a spirited glow emanating from a hint of yellow in the blend.”

“Sophisticated, but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenalin rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

Funnily enough I must admit I’d already (intuitively perhaps) used this color for a rug design I did last year, but haven’t yet used, inspired after an interior of a room designed by Tobi Fairley that you see here below……

and the rug I designed….

Ialso used a softer version of this color when repainting my fireplace just before Christmas! I love the synchronicity of it!

Here above you can see our living room fireplace and dining room that is basically neutral with a ‘daring’ attempt at some color on the fireplace that does not do justice to the stonework….

So! I took the plunge and the opportunity with my husband away on work over the holidays (naughty me!) and decided to do what I’d been itching to do and add a mighty punch of color and vibrant life into both my living/dining room and my life….

I already knew what colors I was going to use because I’d played this in my mind so often. For the dining room I used a warm turquoise on the north wall that would contrast beautifully with the oil painting of pomegranites and I painted two of the bookshelf recesses in the same warm coral that I used on the fireplace….

I can’t tell you how much I love the finished result! Pics don’t do it justice really. Suffice it to say that as soon as my daughter saw it she said “Ok! so when are we going to paint the whole house?!” LOL! and I’m so pleased that whoever’s seen it absolutely loves the result…now, I don’t know how my husband will react….he might even divorce me, I don’t know! But I know what I’m going to say…. it’s either me and the colors of my life or nothing!

(I think he might choose the former…)

There are invariably moments when my drive takes a dive, especially in this challenging economic crisis we are having to work through and I wonder if I am going about this in the right way…after all, I am creating a luxury item, using the best quality materials and skills I can find… and the competition is wicked out there, I know… and yet I must stick to what I am passionate about, to what I believe and to what my intuition tells me to do…

Even by opening myself up here, in this way today, I am making myself vulnerable by not putting up a super professional, all-is-working-perfectly-and-efficiently-and-business-is-booming image and appearance …. but I have decided, consciously, to be human, to be me, to be authentic…

It has been a long and challenging journey to get here and I know that there is no ‘end’ on this particular path but a continuous process of learning, experiencing, growing and evolving…lol it took me a long time to realize this and I am just beginning to relax into it….now I think I can begin to enjoy it one day at a time, one rug at a time….