Terre de feu

Wool is an animal fibre, most often derived from sheep fleece. Wool was already being spun as early as 5,000 BC. In Roman times, wool, leather and linen were the main materials used to make clothes. With the progressive development of mechanical processes and the evolution of breeding techniques, wool became the economic lung of several countries in the Xth century, and again in the XIIth. Renowned for its thermal and sound insulation properties, wool also offers the advantage of absorbing moisture. It is a noble and timeless material, used from time immemorial for its strength and durability. PINTON uses local wool with shorter carded fibres, which make it fluffier and give it more volume, or a specific type of wool from New-Zealand with long combed fibres that are more resistant to heavy traffic. Both types of wool are spun (carded or combed) and dyed in the spinning plant located in Felletin. Whether they are made in 100% pure virgin wool or blended with other materials like linen, silk, bamboo, leather or many others, PINTON wool rugs and carpets bring comfort and quality.

Etel Adnan was born in Beirut where she grew up with a Greek mother and a Syrian father. She went to French-speaking schools and has been speaking several languages since her multicultural childhood. After studying philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, she went to the United States to study at Berkeley University in California and Harvard in Massachusetts. At the Dominican University of San Rafael in California, she taught art philosophy for nearly 15 years. After a visit to Lebanon, she went back to the Unites States before settling in Paris in the 1980s. Etel Adnan is a multi-disciplinary artist: a poet and writer, she also expresses herself through painting, drawing or video. The author of novels, essays, poems and plays, she is considered one of the most important contemporary writers of the Arab world. Giving a free rein to other artists’ interpretation of her works, several of her poems were put to music, some of her writings were adapted for the theatre, others became films. Her paintings are rooted in the landscapes that she visited during her life, including her native Lebanon or her adoptive California. Her work is famous all over the world and is exhibited in the greatest museums in Europe and the United States, from the Museum of Modern Art of San Francisco to the Serpentine Gallery in London or the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, among others. She considers her paintings as celebrations of the world. Colours are usually applied straight from the tube or with a knife, bringing a feeling of joy.

In addition to a rug, PINTON produced several tapestries based on original art works by Etel Adnan, whose distinctive colourful, bountiful and joyful designs find a new interpretation in this form of expression.

The hand tufting technique is a process combining centuries-old skills and modern weaving tools. The canvas is perfectly stretched over an upright loom and the craftsperson transfers by hand the future design of the rug with the utmost precision. Threads are inserted manually, one by one, working with a gun on the back of the canvas, following the colours, the drawing and the different tuft heights. PINTON was one of the first manufactories to use the gun tufting technique to produce some of its rugs and carpets and is the only French workshop offering very high quality tufted rugs. With this technique, production times are reduced compared to the knotted stitch weave or point noué. Finally, hand tufting offers a large range of possible depths. Carving is the technique that consists in sculpting the wool and creating textures within the woven rug. Since the early 1990s, PINTON has been specialising in the production of hand tufted rugs for which it also collaborates with famous designers and artists.