Tufting is a carpet manufacturing technique which involves inserting strands of wool and acrylic fibers through a stretched canvas using a tufting gun . This method is appreciated for its speed of production and the possibility of creating complex and personalized designs. Indeed, this practice is increasingly used by artists and designers to explore new creative approaches and experiment with materials, shapes and textures.

Tufting workshop at Villa Arson

Recently, the Villa Arson national higher school located in Nice hosted an introductory tufting workshop led by Karima El Karmoudi, co-founder of LeTufting and young artist who graduated from Villa Arson in 2020. This workshop allowed students to discover the tufting technique. Indeed, for three days, participants had the opportunity to learn about this artisanal practice and create their first tufted rug.

Excerpt from the work of the artist Karima El Karmoudi

The course of the workshop

After a presentation of the machine, the set-up and the safety rules, the workshops took place at each person's pace. Participants were guided through each stage of making their rug. Thus, they were able to discover all the subtleties of this technique, from the transcription of their drawing on the stretched canvas to the tufting, gluing and shearing of their creation.

At the end of the workshop, they acquired the necessary skills to create their own works and use a tufting gun to develop design projects. Although constrained by a format of 70 cm x 70 cm, the size of the frame to be tufted, the participants were able to divert this limitation to create original shapes. Indeed, some have created geometric shapes playing with reliefs and different textures such as wool, acrylic, cotton or even merino wool. Others chose figurative drawings or explored more complex shapes, one student duo even created a 3D dumbbell.