Textile artist, Rosemary Hallgarten, believes it is a great privilege to be able to align her personal values with her work. To that end, when she began making rugs in Nepal, she joined RugMark. “With RugMark,” she explains, “I am not only sure that the work is done in decent conditions, but also that I am contributing to the education of the workers and their families.” Family is important to Hallgarten. She works closely with families of rug artisans in small communities in Peru, Brazil and Nepal. “Each country has different techniques and materials, and it is important to me that these crafts, these traditions are not lost. I can help preserve them by helping to support the families.”

Her interest in rug design comes, in part, from her own family. Her mother, Gloria Finn, is a well-known fiber artist, and Hallgarten grew up in Beruit and London in a milieu of art and artists. Her earliest memories are of the brightness of the colors of sky, sun and water in Beruit and of the textures in the archeological ruins which she explored with her mother. Bathed in that aesthetic, Hallgarten turned to jewelry as a medium to express her fascination with color, texture and found objects, but after more than a decade making jewelry, she wanted a bigger canvas and with some encouragement from her mother, began to design and make rugs. There are still influences in her work from her jewelry, she says. “The jewelry used wire, paper, acrylic and beads to create a variety of textures. As a rug designer everything I do is three dimensional, too, and I am fascinated with the contrasts of silk, wool, cactus and nettle fibers.”

Hallgarten’s inspiration for designs often comes from nature. The Rivulet series grew out of her interest in the shapes that water makes in sand, and her Lake rugs were inspired by the colors of Lake Michigan. She says that her designs seem to appeal to people with a modern aesthetic and European sensibility. Just as she tries to have personal relationships with the artisans with whom she works, she also likes to connect with the people who buy her rugs. “I do think about the rugs when they are gone.” she says.

For Rosemary Hallgarten rugs are art, culture and community. “I like tapping into the core of each country’s techniques, traditions and fibers,” she explains.

To find out more about Hallgarten and her work go to www.rosemaryhallgarten.com.

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