In partnership with Armadillo
Since its inception in 2009, Armadillo has carved out a distinctive space within the world of interiors, where design is never divorced from ethics or beauty.
Founded by friends Jodie Fried and Sally Pottharst, the studio has become synonymous with rugs that transcend function to become vessels of craft, culture and conscience. Their work begins with the hands of artisans in India, evoking the earthen tones and elemental rhythms of nature – asking us to consider our own place within them.
With the launch of the Gaia Collection – a collaboration with Spanish artist Carla Cascales Alimbau – Armadillo expands its creative vocabulary, exploring the intersection of fine art and design through texture, form and tonality. The series of six new rug styles hero hand-carvings and intricate weavings, calling up on the transient and erosive energy of wind and salt.
In conversation, Fried and Pottharst reflect on the evolution of their practice, the challenges of innovating within the woven medium, and the values that remain as vital today as when Armadillo began.
Armadillo has always stood for craftsmanship with a conscience. How do you balance artistic innovation with sustainability at the heart of every collection?
JF: Our rugs bear testimony to the company’s ongoing preservation of artisanal weaving and hand-knotting skills – as well as the evolution of new developments to pass on to future generations.
There’s a wisdom in the practice of hand-craftsmanship. Especially with pure natural fibres like silk, wool, linen and jute. We place deep trust in our craftspeople in India, knowing that they have the patience and precision to interpret our designs and innovate on traditional techniques to create truly unique pieces.
That’s what’s really special about our new Gaia Collection. It really pushed us out of our creative comfort zones and we couldn’t be prouder.
Looking back to when you founded Armadillo in 2009, what core values or instincts from that time remain central to the brand today?
SP: The strength that comes from paring things back and removing the superfluous in order to reveal the true essence of a piece continues to guide our design philosophy. For us, every thread carries intention. Nothing is rushed. Our rugs continue to reserve a space for stillness within the home, enabling the body to feel supported and the mind to rest.
A dedication to people and planet is another cornerstone of our brand. We are incredibly proud to be the first Australian and American rug maker to become a certified B Corp – recently re-certifying with a score amongst the top five interiors brands worldwide.
We’ve expanded our philanthropic remit in the communities where our rugs are made and beyond, currently partnering with ten organisations across four countries on issues as diverse as sustainability, education, women’s rights, the arts and disability. Making an impact beyond the home is our greatest legacy.
How do you see Armadillo’s role in bridging the worlds of interior design and fine art?
JF: Gaia is both tonally and texturally alluring, each rug a highly sculptural and painterly object that deserves to be appreciated like fine art.
Marea and Alma, two signature designs from our new collection, expand on the expressive potential of the woven form in ways not seen before, making them as suited to being displayed as wall hangings in addition to grounding interiors.
What’s really special about our rugs is that, unlike art, you can not only observe their craftsmanship but experience them with your hands, feet and body. The rugs become a tactile part of our habitual experiences. That kind of intimacy is rare with a painting, photograph or sculpture.
The Gaia collection is deeply tied to nature’s cycles – what story did you hope these rugs would tell when they enter someone’s home?
SP: Gaia’s earthen colours and tonal nuances are an ode to the transformative power of the natural world and its rhythmic cycles. Each rug tangibly embodies the contours and textures of environments shaped by wind, water and time. Inspired by the feminine shapes and organic pigments used in Carla’s work, these woven forms bring a fragment of the living landscape into the domestic space. Like a quiet echo of nature underfoot, they help us find the meaning of our place in the world.
This marks your second design partnership. What drew you to work with Carla Cascales Alimbau in particular, and how did her practice influence the creative direction?
JF: I had admired Carla’s work for some time, appreciating the natural beauty and multi-disciplinary skills she brings to her practice. A mutual friend introduced us, and there was an immediate synergy from the moment we connected.
Over the course of three and a half years, we spent a great deal of time together – much of it in her Barcelona studio – immersing ourselves in her work. Ultimately, it was her resin paintings and terracotta series that became the key inspiration, offering a natural foundation from which to evolve the designs into a new medium: rugs. Carla’s work is incredibly feminine and beautiful, yet raw, strong and deeply textural – a combination that resonated with Armadillo’s own practice. Together, we translated that essence into pieces that are soft and elegant yet incredibly grounding.
Can you share a moment from your time in Carla’s Barcelona studio or in India with the artisans that felt especially transformative for the collection?
JF: One of the most delicate challenges was translating the colour gradients that are so central to Carla’s work upon a woven medium. On canvas, they emerge fluidly, but in weaving, each thread holds a fixed tone. We had to orchestrate different yarns to recreate that softness, allowing the colours to dissolve into one another with subtlety and depth.
Another challenge was creating volume upon some of the rug surfaces. Carla’s paintings often use dense resin which dries slowly, forming raised surfaces that cast shadows and bring light into motion. To echo that sculptural quality in a rug, which is inherently flat, we experimented with varying pile heights through hand-carved contours with incredibly smooth gradients until we achieved a similar effect. In a sense, our artisans shaped texture as if it were light itself.
The Gaia series pushes technical boundaries in carving, dimension, and oxidisation – what excites you most about these innovations?
JF: For the Marea series, we worked closely with our artisans in India to pioneer a unique approach to carving into high pile heights to create a layered, almost poured-resin effect inspired by Carla’s paintings. Bringing this undulating surface to life was a major technical achievement that required extensive exchange and testing with our weavers. We’re keen to develop this technique further to create other surface patterns and outlines in the coming years.
We also experimented with a meticulous oxidisation process on our silk and wool series, Alma. Though woven with the same pattern, each piece has a weathered beauty that’s one-of-a-kind because the wool fibre erodes differently each time - resulting in a luminous texture and nuanced tonal gradations that’s utterly singular. The fine pile appears to be capturing the shimmering movement of light in a fleeting moment. Combined, these two signature designs are testimony to Armadillo’s ever-evolving artistic enquiry.
With Gaia marking a significant evolution for Armadillo, where do you see the brand’s creative path heading next?
SP: It was such a privilege working so closely with Carla that the potential of other artistic collaborations really excites us. They challenge us to interpret the visions and practices of others in ways we hadn’t conceived before in the woven medium. The evolution of the Gaia Collection took almost four years, as we never rush our processes, so we’re excited by the prospect of delving deeply into the universes of other creatives.
The Gaia Collection is available online and in-stores at Armadillo from Tuesday 14 October 2025.
