Dutch design house Nightshop sourced soft urethane nonskid foam, which starts off as a liquid that you squirt out of a syringe, and they proceeded to weave a series of handmade rugs out of it.
“It was a natural process,” van der Ploeg says. “When we made a couple, we became quite skilled at just pouring the foam by hand. This makes the carpets also a bitmore ‘rougher’ and, in our opinion, cooler.” The designers would mix each color themselves, adding pigment to the urethane and pouring it across a table; once the creations dried, they simply peeled them off. But as they began to execute more complex designs, they found themselves needing more control over the material. Looking for a way to make thin lines, van Gemert and van der Ploeg turned to large plastic syringes, filling them with the different hues and slowly squirting the liquid foam across a flat surface. “It took a lot of practice,” van der Ploeg says.
Because the foam begins to expand and solidify shortly after leaving the syringe, the designers have to work fast—which suits them just fine. “We really like working quick and making quick decisions,” van der Ploeg says. “All our new projects and products we made last year share this way of working. Also, the material both helps in this way but at the same time limits your choices. You can’t work really detailed and you have to work really fast.”p
Showdown [Nightshop]
Squirted-Foam Rugs? Yes, Please
[Carly Ayres/Core 77]
