Demand for Chch-made designer rugs

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 18

Demand for Chch-made designer rugs

By

GARRY ARTHUR

Newest tenant at the Christchurch .Arts Centre is a maker of designer rugs whose products are rapidly spreading around the world —’from 'the cabin of an Auckland pleasure cruiser to the apartments of .American tourists who have seen the Christchurch rugs on their Vcis.

Dilana rags are made by Hugh Bannerman, a Southland sheep breeder's son who has found ways of adding both style and value to New Zealand wool. After doing a Diploma of Agriculture course a: Lincoln College, he wen: into the marketing of woollen textiles. Five years ago he began a partnership with an airline pilot buying redundant carpet wool and making hearth-rugs. He dismisses these now as having "no design or quality." In 1982. when his partner got a job in Bahrein, he bought him out A customer in Hawaii suggested a new approach, using different techniques to produce high-quality rugs. "Wq did a lot of work with the Wool Research Organisation, analysing overseas samples. Then we decided to go for international style, with service." be says. Leaders internationally are Edward Field of New York'and Tai Ping of the Philippines and Hong Kong. Hugh Bannerman decided there was a gap for designer rags of that quality in New Zealand and Australia, combining the same standard of design with the yarn construction used by the Chinese hand-knotters.

"We put all that together." be says, -and we passed the Woolmark with flying colours." That involved subjecting the rags to a 7000-rub test the Dilana rags went to 25.003 rubs with insignificant wear.

Hugh Bannerman says the reason for this is that his rags contain three or four times as much wool to the square yard as a conventional carpet — more than 130 ounces per square yard. Three months ' ago 'he moved from an upstairs workshop in Lichfield Street to a big former schoolroom in the old Boys' High School block at the .Arts Centre. The move proved well worth while. Even though the tourist season has not yet started, overseas tourists already comprise 70 per cent of his customers.

Some are spending thousands of dollars at a time, ordering rags to

be shipped home after them. Hugh Bannerman says New Zealand and Australia have a poor selection of rags for tourists, and when they see his rags they immediately relate to them on quality and price.

He designs some rugs himself, and also commissions designers for special projects. Interior designers and architects bring their own designs to be worked in wool and customers often want rags matched to other furnishings One Auckland client sent a packet of rose petals which she wanted matched exactly. Mount Cook .Airline ordered 50 rags showing the Mount Cook lily emblem as gifts for V.I.Ps. The workshop carries a 30-shade colour range, and sends white wool out to be dyed to special shades.

Hugh Bannerman says he is working with interior designers in the United States, one of whom rang from Portland. Oregon, to negotiate for a 5.18 metres by 10.66 metres rag for a hotel 1.8 metres bigger than a conventional carpet roll. He is worrying about how to get it into an aircraft The .American designer had seen a range of Dilana rags at a design school” in Portland. Bannerman and his assistant. Ralph Woffenden. work on a huge upright wall of polypropylene carpet backing to which the design has been transferred. Complicated designs are first photographed and projected on to the backing. Tne wool is shot through the backing with a tufting gun. and then sealed with a latex that had to be developed specially for the highdensity rags. This is covered with a calico’ backing. Because the wool is so dense.

they are able to sculpt patterns in the surface, using a shearing handpiece. "It realiy'brings the’design alive." Hugh Bannerman says.

His main New Zealand market is Auckland, where interior decorators have discovered his rags.. He gives his clients a complete colour co-ordination service, 'striving to achieve colours and patterns "that will "tie a room together." Now be

is doing wall-to-wall carpets in special for houses

One of his biggest jobs has been the entranceway of an exclusive Wellington apartment "I was up there for four days with colour coordinators and designers from all over New Zealand."'he says ".After the entranceway. they wanted rags for the hallways and bedroom as well."