Inge and Jørn live in Copenhagen’s historic Christianshavn district in a newbuilt housing block situated face to face with the canal. From their home they have a view of moored boats, the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson’s Circle Bridge and the Royal Danish Library building – the Black Diamond – across the waterway. Inge and Jørn have always been interested in quality furniture, and the couple’s home is an oasis of craft objects, designer furniture and books in Danish mid-century modern bookcases by Mogens Koch. They already had rugs created by the acclaimed weavers Trine Ellitsgaard and Märta Måås-Fjetterström, but the Ellitsgaard rug was worn and needed replacing. With that in mind, the couple visited the annual crafts fair at the Frue Plads square in central Copenhagen, where they met Pia Jensen and discussed their options while they were able to examine the weaver’s rugs and materials first-hand. The rug was to have a particular function: to be a subtle welcoming feature in the hallways while also expressing character and volume. A warm welcome.
‘At the crafts market, we saw several rugs and arranged for Pia to visit us to sort out the colour scheme and dimensions of the rug. When Pia came to see us, she brought several hand-drawn sketches based on our conversation with her. We picked a pattern, and then it was time to talk about colours. We had both been wondering whether it was really necessary to have a weaver make a house call. It was. After the initial visit, Pia sent us yarn samples and yarn-wrapped cardboard in the mail, instructing us to place them on the floor where the rug would go and to look at them during the day and evening in order to sense the colours.
The lines in the rug had to match the hallway and our movements in the flat. Also, the rug shouldn’t feel like a boundary one had to step over; quite the contrary. We agreed on the format. Pia suggested a slightly bigger size to match the scale of the hallway, the harmony of the room and the patterns of the rug. The patterns run across, rather than lengthwise, which gives them a different optical impact in the room and allowed for a larger surface. The weaving also made a difference, Pia explained. She is an experienced weaver, with a deep understanding of the many different notes in a single colour. An awareness that there’s not just one shade of brown but maybe three different ones, and perhaps one of them has a touch of green that adds more life to it. We felt that we were in good hands, because Pia is so knowledgeable and saw things that we didn’t notice, such as including the brown colour from the wood in the door jamb and the blue colour of Jørn’s dad’s chair in the rug design
Every single day, we notice how beautiful the rug is. We have always spent money on furnishings, and a hand-woven rug really isn’t too expensive, because it lasts and lasts and lasts. Of course, price matters, but we are willing to invest in quality. And then we hope that our children or grandchildren will want to inherit it.’
Inge og Jørn
Åben Blå Logik (Open Blue Logic)
Wool on linen warp
160 x 92 cm
2017
‘A rug should never be so thick that you feel you have to step up onto it. When I come in and lay down the finished rug it should settle on the floor and adapt. That is an important aspect of the craftsmanship. You should also remember to rotate the rug from time to time to make sure it wears evenly.’
Pia Jensen
