Weaving it All Together
Photo by Jennifer Esperanza
Designer Robin Gray with the Konya runner
After 17 years in the building business, Santa Fe architect Robin Gray decided to return to a passion of her youth. In 2004, she launched Robin Gray Designs, an environmentally friendly, handmade rug and wall hanging business that gives her creative vision a new twist: In addition to designing high-end living spaces, she’s also designing the textiles that adorn them.
This Pratt Institute–trained architect, whose buildings have been featured in such books as Home by Design and Outside the Not So Big House, remembers being drawn to the world of weavings as a child. “My grandmother exposed me to museums—particularly ethnic costumes and textiles,” says Gray. Travels through Eastern Europe, Iran, and Turkey further cemented the passion. “I fell in love with the colors, patterns, textures, and the people.”
Gray conceptualizes each piece, finding inspiration both locally and globally. Some patterns appear like wild grasses, while others may be a detail from a kimono cloth or a calla lily, each striking a balance of form and color reminiscent of a Mark Rothko painting. “I love exploring how a design is transformed by simply changing the relationships of the colors,” she explains, and sites such artists as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, and architect Luis Barragán as inspiration. “Similar to architecture,” she says, “the materials you chose could affect the quality of a space—embracing, nurturing, adding warmth, drama, and vibrancy.”
Early on, Gray made the decision to outsource the hand-crafting to areas desperately in need of the work, lest these ancient looming traditions be lost. She’s managed to find artisans in Mexico, Turkey, Romania, and India, traveling to each of these countries biannually to fine-tune working relationships and ensure her continued support of this centuries-old craft. “I am drawn to the various traditional styles of the places and people I have chosen to work with,” she says. “I love to work with the artisans in these countries, combining my designs with their fiber art.”
Each rug is made according to the region’s specialties: flat weave rugs in Mexico; kilim flat-weaves in Turkey; and hand-knotted rugs in India. “There is something special, unexpected, and original the artisans bring to the design process,” she says. Each pattern is woven from natural fibers—including mixtures of churro wools, mohair, and silk—and colored using 100 percent vegetals in small-batch analine dyes, ensuring that the work is eco-friendly in addition to being sustainable. Because of her exacting methodology, each rug can take up to five months to complete, but it’s a process worth waiting for. “Every rug becomes a one-of-a-kind piece,” she says, “a unique expression of this collaboration.”
The work seems to be finding a fit. Her line, which initially began with two collections, has grown to seven—Africa, Tribal, Cuatros, Nuevo, Pattern Language, Kimono, and Contemporary—each offering a mix of patterns and diverse cultural images. “They are all inspired by my love of ethnographic, tribal, and pre-Columbian textiles,” she says.
While she continues to maintain an active architectural practice, she simply juggles the two callings. “I work all the time,” she says. “At my in-town office during the day, it’s mostly architecture. Evenings and weekends are dedicated to rugs. Sometimes the boundaries get fuzzy, but luckily I have several people who help share the load for both the architecture and design.”
Robin Gray’s custom textiles are available locally through Wiseman, Gale & Duncan Interiors (wgdinteriors.com) and Santa Fe Modern Home (santafemodern.com). Info: robingraydesign.com
