ArtAndes Blog

Heirloom designs

Posted June 28, 2016 @ 1:49pm | by Melanie

Heirloom designs

I recently was invited to visit our rugs in Jim’s new condo. Jim is a Mill City, Mpls resident who moved from the historic Northstar Blanket Lofts to the newish Zenith Condo building. For a bit of the Mill City History, The Northstar building, was originally a textile mill for the North Star Woolen Company, built in 1864. High quality wool blankets, scarves, flannels, and yarns were manufactured at the facility and it became the nation's largest manufacturer of wool blankets by 1925. The mid-west proved to far from the denser population of the East Coast and the operation was eventually relocated east. The building sat empty for almost fifty years until it was re-developed ( by one of my favorite women) in 1998 into lofts. Arts Andes rugs are scattered throughout the Mill City area but I feel they are especially rooted in that building of rich wool history. However, Jim moved and took the rugs with him. I think the rugs brought instant warmth and character to the more austere setting of the new building. It also prompted me to photograph the same design of Jim’s kitchen rug that I have currently in my bedroom. It was the first rug I commissioned from Wilber in 1996 when we met in Ayacucho. The rug has lived in two different homes and moved around within those homes. The rich pink/reds of the cochineal dye are as vibrant as they were 20 years ago, Heirloom!

 
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