From farm to floor: Canadian Wool
In 2020 a partnership between The Campaign for Wool, Creative Matters and celebrity interior designer Sarah Richardson led to the release of three unique 100% Canadian wool rugs. Featured in Architectural Digest, they immediately garnered attention from consumers and interior professionals alike, proving that Canadian wool isn’t just a sound ecological choice, it’s a beautiful one too.
The collaboration celebrated the tenth anniversary of The Campaign for Wool - a patronage of long-time environmentalist HRH The Prince of Wales. This initial success led to Creative Matters and the Canadian Wool Council, official implanting partner of The Campaign for Wool in Canada, to come together again— this time to promote custom-designed rugs in Canadian wool.
Why Canadian Wool?
Wool itself is the ultimate fibre for rugs, renewable and sustainable to the extreme, and offering stain, odour and fire resistance without added chemicals. As our introductory offering demonstrated, wool from Canadian sheep is ideally suited to designer rugs. The artisans who worked with the wool shared that the wool absorbed dye well, creating supple texture and rich colours. Canada’s cold winter climate also creates an elastic wool that enables the fibre to bounce back into its original shape.
Creative Matters has been creating floorcoverings from wool for more than 30 years.
From a design and production perspective, Canadian wool rugs benefit from the tried and trusted system we already use for handknotted rug collections and custom floorcoverings. The Creative Matters design team creates their magic in the Toronto design studio. The carpets then come to life in the capable hands of artisans in mills in Nepal and India. These skilled weavers work in fair trade facilities audited by Label STEP, an independent Swiss NGO that ensures good working conditions, fair wages, eco-friendly production and the prohibition of child labour.
The Canadian Wool Story
The wool comes from Canadian sheep growers like Breezy Ridge Farms in Georgina, Ontario where it is harvested safely and humanely by a skilled shearer before being sent off for grading and sorting. Then the wool proceeds to family-owned Briggs & Little Mill, which has been operating in New Brunswick since 1857, to be washed, picked, carded and spun into yarn. Briggs & Little is one of the last mills in Canada to carry on this tradition and is a major local employer.
Social Impact
Canadian wool rugs support the entire value-chain of wool production and demonstrate a value-added use for this precious natural resource. A portion of the proceeds of every rug goes to The Canadian Wool Council, a non-profit organization devoted to supporting Canada’s wool growers, educating consumers on the wonders of wool and championing The Campaign for Wool in Canada. The sale of each rug also supports the fair trade work of STEP in production countries abroad.
