Michael Christie

Upside Down | Monologue

6 July 2020 Michael Christie Monologue

Certainly there will be those who cling to what has been, to power structures that favour themselves, to systematically unfair labour practices, to a world in which luxury wares such as handknotted rugs and carpets are often made as inexpensively as possible to thus ensure maximum exploitive profit for a select few. These ideas belong to some elitist elysian days of the past no longer suitable for modern man. This is now the raison d’être of The Ruggist, to align with those who see a different – and better – path forward. I look forward to sharing with you what I uncover on this journey of discovery. Godspeed.

Brave Conversations | Over Coffee
What began as a coffee curiosity transformed my perspective on rugs and carpets.

3 January 2020 Michael Christie Over Coffee

It began innocently enough as I was preparing in May of 2018 to travel to Portland, Oregon to observe and document the making of ‘Intimacy Portland,’ a joint project between Christiane Millinger Handmade Rugs and Rug Star by Jürgen Dahlmanns. I was conducting field research for the article and eventual presentation ‘Inside Intimacy Portland’ for Rug Insider Magazine and – as one did in 2018 and still does in 2020 – I was browsing the titles available for download on Netflix; plane travel after all can be notoriously monotonous. One documentary quickly caught my attention: ‘Coffee for All,’ or ‘Caffè Sospeso’ as originally titled. I downloaded it partially out of sincere interest, partially out of the serendipitous nature of traveling to a renown coffee mecca: Portland, Oregon. The short film proved to be the entrée which has refocused my life.

Fruition | Handknotted Nylon Part 5 of 5
Feedback, caveats, and the quest to learn more highlight the introduction of 'Nylon Engulfed.'

2 January 2020 Michael Christie Commentary

To explore the creation of a new product is to take a step away from what has been into the unknown, the perhaps unfathomable, the hitherto unrealized. It requires a degree of modernism and a progressive mindset insomuch that conservatism simply tends to favour the status quo. With that comes a degree of irony associated with rug makers of today who while immediately embracing the aesthetics du jour, also favour steadfast traditional techniques even at the expense of efficacy and efficiency, socio-economic concerns, and as is relevant to ‘Nylon Engulfed’ the prototype handknotted carpet made of ECONYL® regenerated nylon, contemporary environmental and climatological concerns.

The Handmade Carpet | A Review
In attempting to balance the duality of contemporary, the authors err toward history and technicality as opposed to style.

30 December 2019 Michael Christie Commentary, Opinion

The nearly three-hundred pages of text and imagery of ‘The Handmade Carpet’ contain a wealth of knowledge accumulated over the long and storied careers of the authors Fritz Langauer and Ernst A. Swietly. The assertive authors undoubtably put forth superior and exhaustive efforts in compiling what amounts to multiple lifetimes of experience, information, expertise, commentary, and so forth as they attempt to explain, as the subtitle of the tome – ‘A Comprehensive Guide to Contemporary Rugs’ – purports, contemporary rugs and carpets. In the final analysis however, it must be stated that while the volumn is indeed comprehensive in regard to certain aspects of contemporary carpetry, it likewise lacks in its treatment of contemporary as the word has come to be employed in the colloquial of today.

Crafting | Handknotted Nylon Part 4 of 5
Weaving and finishing now complete, 'Nylon Engulfed' sparks interest in novel carpetry fibres.

22 December 2019 Michael Christie Commentary

On 10 November 2019 Peter Goudeseune and Sergey Burattin of Aquafil, makers of ECONYL® nylon, Shally Sarawagi of Sarawagi Rugs, and myself traveled to the north-east outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal in order to ceremoniously remove the prototype handknotted carpet made from ECONYL®, now named ‘Nylon Engulfed,’ from the loom. This is not in any way a tradition within carpet making in Nepal – it is a commercial industry after all – but it is ceremony within weaving in Aubusson, France. The tombée de métier, the ‘falling from the loom,’ when a tapestry is removed, via cutting of the warp yarns, from the loom; it’s an irreversible step that concludes the weaving.