Here’s a handful of new terminology for the always growing 3rings A&D glossary: “Loden,” “Smock,” and “Sapperlot.” The first is probably familiar to textile aficionados, as it’s simply a traditional woolen fabric. The second sounds like an artist’s favored form of dress but is in fact a venerated embroidery technique. And the third refers to Hans Sapperlot, the clever manufacturer of the lovely Smok collection of Loden-based fabric furniture.

Smok chair. Designed and Manufactured by Hans Sapperlot.

Hans Sapperlot’s Loden Fabric Collection Includes Rugs, Chairs, Lamps, and Partitions

Commonly employed in the regionally-oriented charms of Tyrolean fashion, Loden is an oily wool with a distinctive bluish-green tint procured from Mountain sheep. Smocking, for its part, is a common textile manufacturing technique in which fabric is gathered together such that it hides seams while developing impressive pliability.

Hans Sapperlot’s Loden furnishings use smocking to manipulate the material into an intricately weaved and texturally appealing textile that can be used with equal facility as upholstery, floor covering, or lampshades.

As Hans Sapperlot says, “Because of how the technique allows the seams to actually disappear into the smock, there is virtually no restriction to size and shape… especially with carpets, this makes this material very free and easy to work with.”

It also gives the Smok collection its own inimitable charm. Given that the wool can be dyed in nearly any color, Hans Sapperlot’s Smok collection of furniture, carpets, and lights will appeal to any sensibility: “an inimitable series of furniture that is sure to inspire a slew of other unexpected Loden designs.”

Via Inhabitat.

About the Manufacturer: Hans Sapperlot is a German design firm with a taste for the unconventional and a rare talent for achieving the unexpected. Their latest achievement is Smok, a clever application that expands this classic weaving technique beyond carpeting and into contemporary furnishings and lamps.