Waterlake Floor Runner, license
British Wool Floor Runners with Alternative Flooring
"Interpreting Waterlake into a carpet runner has felt very natural. I was able to adapt the design to fit the format perfectly, and despite concerns as to whether we would be able to achieve the right blue in the dying process of the YSP wool, it has all been achieved."
Back in 2016/17, Ella was on a residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, commissioned to create a collection of designs to celebrate 40 years of ‘Art Without Walls’. This was when she first created the ‘Waterlake‘ design, inspired by the movement of the lake with its birdlife.
During her stay, while photographing the Park’s trees and the sheep grazing around the Henry Moores, she came up with the idea of working with the wool from the sheep and demonstrating a circular story of working with natural, biodegradable materials from the land. Ella wanted it to involve following every step of the process that wool has to go through to become a woven textile or floor carpet. Nearly two years later, she achieved that with her 'Sheep to Seat and Fleece to Floor' exhibition at YSP.
Alternative Flooring loved Ella's Waterlake design so much that they decided to introduce it into their Quirky Collection of patterned woven Axminster carpet runners, in the classic Blue colourway and a Black version. Quirky Waterlake went on to be the winner of The Campaign for Wool’s British Wool Carpet Award 2019, which highlights the best showcase of the natural features of British wool, which was a very proud moment for us.
