A Canadian Story, in Canadian Wool

The Vice-Regal Rug created for the Right Honourable Mary Simon. This project was a collaborative partnership with Campaign for Wool in Canada.

When Governor General Mary Simon shared her memories of growing up in the Ungava Peninsula of Nunavik, Quebec, she recalled Cape Hopes Advance. The bay area has been a place where local Inuit have harvested food from the land and sea for generations. Understanding the weight of this specific geography, which has shaped Inuit identity, it became clear that the project called for something beyond producing a likeness. Rather than portraying the landscape itself, the challenge was to translate its atmosphere, its shifting light, quiet expansiveness and enduring sense of place, into material.

The design process began with illustration by Ann Malone-Bianconi from the National Capital Commission. This visual study was inspired by Simon's recollections before resolving the composition into textile. The objective was not to recreate a place, but to understand its rhythm: the shifting quality of northern light, the quiet expansiveness of the landscape and the subtle impressions that remain long after precise details have faded.

To express this, twenty custom colours and tonal variations were developed, each contributing to a palette designed to move gently across the surface. Blended yarns allowed one tone to dissolve into the next, creating transitions that behave more like changing light than applied colour.

Handtufted construction offered the precision required to introduce variation in pile height, fibre density and texture. These material decisions created depth, movement and softness, allowing the composition to reveal itself gradually.

The finished rug is not a representation of Canada’s North, rather, it is an interpretation of its memory. Colour, texture and craftsmanship come together to create an architectural surface that quietly shapes the experience inside Rideau Hall, inviting visitors to connect with Simon’s lived experience through a feeling rather than an image. 

This project was a collaborative partnership involving the Canadian Wool Council, Creative Matters, and the Campaign for Wool in Canada.