Floored: 20 Years of Creative Matters

It was a coming out party 20 years in the making: Creative Matters, a small designer carpet company founded in Toronto in 1988 by principles Donna Hastings (below right) and Carol Sebert, threw itself an anniversary bash at Gallery 345 last night, where a superb career retrospective has been mounted for a limited three-day run (November 13 – 15, 12 – 5 pm).

If you’re in Toronto, I highly recommend Floored, which provides a lush and fascinating window into the design process. Inspiration photographs are juxtaposed with artistic renderings and finished woven pieces (below). As I gushed over one display, Hastings reminded me, “we didn’t use computers back then, either.”

Creative Matters has left its fabulous imprint on hotels and glitzy retail establishments around the world but until recently you couldn’t buy one of its carpets without stepping into the custom order process. That all changed this year when the company teamed with Michael Pourvakil of Weavers Art to make these sumptuous carpets available to the public.

Pourvakil says Creative Matters’ 2009 Aerial Collection (below) has been an instant hit. “The colourways and designs are completely contemporary and perfect for the interiors we want today,” he said. “These carpets truly are works of art for the floor.”

Priced from $4,500 (6’ x 8’) to $7,500 (8’ x 10’), Creative Matters carpets are designed in Canada and woven in silk and wool in Nepal. All Creative Matters carpets are hand-knotted and certified child-labour-free by RugMark, the U.S.-based non-profit foundation working to end child labour.

Hariti, the stunning Creative Matters carpet pictured below, is being raffled during Floored ($30 per ticket) with all proceeds going to RugMark. “We’re absolutely passionate about the cause,” says Hastings.