People / Izzy Rough
Born and raised in Lisbon and now based in London, I am a designer interested in materiality, making, and craft traditions. Alongside my full-time role at Christopher Farr, my personal practice explores historical techniques and their place within contemporary design. Influenced by Portuguese cultural heritage, I am particularly interested in how traditional forms of making can be reinterpreted through contemporary materials, processes, and perspectives.
Rug
Working full-time as a designer in London, I develop my personal practice in the evenings and at weekends. I was drawn to punch needle as a rug-making process that could be carried out domestically using simple tools and materials. Using commercially available yarn, a punch needle and a frame, I began translating my artworks into textiles without requiring access to large-scale tufting machinery or a dedicated workshop. The piece was developed gradually alongside my professional work, within the practical limits of my home environment. This influenced both the scale and approach of the work, allowing me to explore textile craft through a process that could exist alongside my everyday working life.
Tapestry
Without access to a dedicated studio or workshop, I looked to a making process that could exist entirely within a domestic setting. This led me to Arraiolos rug making, a traditional Portuguese craft practised by my grandmother from home while working full-time and raising five children. Like her, I balance my own practice alongside full-time work, making in the evenings and at weekends. The project embraces the domestic nature of the craft while reinterpreting it through a contemporary lens. Because my making time is limited, and contemporary craft is often expected to be produced at a faster pace than traditional practices, I adapted the technique by using a larger 3 × 3 stitch rather than the finer 1 × 1 stitch. This reduced production time while preserving the texture, rhythm and hand-made quality of the process.