The beauty of the Wooden Rug, according to designer Elisa Strozyk, “is its flexibility. It can be rolled up and transported easily… the carpet’s ability to move implements a potential of change.” Looking at Strozyk’s alluring, perception-defying agglomerations of wood pieces on a textile backing, I’d expand on that declaration. For not only are these innovative pieces flexible, they’re unprecedented—beautiful and strange, with the textural and tactile interest of a hand wrought mosaic

Colored Wooden Rug. Designed and Manufactured by Elisa Strozyk.

Elisa Strozyk’s Wooden Rugs Challenge Assumptions and Defy Expectations

The comparison between mosaics and Strozyk’s Wooden Rugs goes further than one might have guessed, for the process of creation and assembly is surprisingly similar. While a traditional mosaic uses porcelain and bits of glass glued to a cementious backing, Strozyk’s Wooden Rugs employ bits of oak, maple, birch, and beech, hand dyed and attached to various textiles.

The technique creates a happy synthesis: the timeless look and feel of wood and the casual, comfortable quality of fabric. Of course, Strozyk’s Wooden Rugs aren’t soft, though several of the pieces mimic this relaxed aspect.

“Ashdown” features various varieties of wood, hand-crafted and carefully assembled into a starburst pattern that’s fringed with linen; “Mortimer” offers a linen backing and several shades of teak; and “Wentwood” is comprised of transecting triangles of linen, cherry, pear, and mahogany.

Beautiful, all. But for my money the piece de resistance is “Mostly Red.” This tantalizing colored Wooden Rug offers a dizzying array of triangular wood pieces that are mostly red indeed, but also white, grey, orange, black, navy, pink, cream, and cassava. I could go on, such is the astounding variety of coloration therein, but suffice it to say that “Mostly Red” is like a fresco in a technicolor villa, a lavish flooring in a Moorish Palazzo, the most treasured of a Sultan’s prized possessions—for its comely aesthetic, yes, but also for the way it dares to experiment, to craft a new vision with a material as old as time.

Via MocoLoco.

About the Designer: Elisa Strozyk hails from Berlin. Schooled there, as well as in Paris and London, Strozyk began to exhibit her art and design in Berlin in 2009 at the “Buffalo Shoe Shop.” Since then, she’s shown her clever machinations with wood, textiles, light, and paper across the globe, including Milan, Korea, Guangzhou, Lodz, and Amsterdam. She loves challenging the prevailing wisdom and toying with common expectations about design.