Two decades ago, neither Donna Hastings nor Carol Sebert, founders of Creative Matters, ever imagined they would be well-known throughout the world for custom handcrafted rugs. Each woman started off in a different direction, Hastings in fashion design and Sebert in textile art. The fashion world just wasn’t artistically satisfying enough for Donna Hastings and, as Carol Sebert tells it, her job “matching nylon broadloom to couch fabrics wasn’t at all what she dreamed of” when she studied at the prestigious Sheridan Institute in Toronto. What did not change for either woman, however, were their principles, so as Hastings explains, “When we heard about RugMark, it was absolutely ‘yes’. We have to do that!”

Today Creative Matters, with its staff of 7 designers, has provided Nepalese hand knotted wool, nettle and silk carpets to clients as diverse as the Canadian Embassy in Paris to a chic nightclub in Tokyo. Hastings and Sebert say their ideas come from a variety of sources in addition to their vast design library. “We’ve gotten ideas from a photo of an Indian building reflected in water and from a dried flower. Our ideas come from all kinds of things”, says Sebert. One idea, however, did not originate with the women. A client asked for a rug that would run from one end of their house to the other, a length of seventy-two feet! “We had to rent a soccer stadium in Nepal to assemble it!” That kind of derring-do is typical of the women, who travel around the world for their work. One of their favorite things is to “visit” one of their rugs either in a longtime customer’s home or in one of the public places where their rugs are. “I just love dropping in to one particular hotel in Vancouver where they have a twenty by thirty carpet of ours, says Hastings. I get to have lunch AND see one of my favorite rugs.”

Donna Hastings’ and Carol Sebert’s love of carpets, they say, has to do not only with their beauty but their longevity and character, a character that comes, in part, from the people who make them. The women say their customers care about the rug weavers as well. “We get asked a lot if the rugs are made by children,” explains Hastings. “It’s nice to say we’re with RugMark. It gives our clients confidence in our work.”

To see Creative Matters designs and learn more about the company, go to www.creativemattersinc.com. 

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