After graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2007, Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay set up Raw Edges, a design studio where their imaginations could take flight: furniture, installations & products began to develop with a strong accent on playfulness and childlike wonder. The studio became a place where curiosity would be a prevalent factor in the creation of their designs, a place where they could embark on a continuous journey of discovery, turning the world upside down and inside out, cracking things open & studying their structure, always striving for surprise, wonder, humour.
The reverse side of embroidery work was the inspiration from which the Backstitch collection was born, with its seemingly random stitches, the result of the pattern that is meant to be shown on the side that is visible. Raw-Edges’ designers discovered this frantic and irregular world while learning the technique of embroidery and, fascinated by its hidden and involuntary beauty, they created the suggestive designs that make up the Backstitch collection.
Its manufacture combines a hand loom technique with hand-embroidered areas. The embroidery work is made by our GAN Women’s Unit, a team composed of female artisans in northern India. Powered by GAN, it offers autonomy and economic independence to the women who make up this group through stable and well-paid work.
Backstitch, a series in our hand loom collection
Deepening the possibilities offered by hand-operated looms, at GAN we have gone a step further by exploring not only the traditional flat hand-loom designs, but also elements with high volume, practically three-dimensional, using pure virgin wool that is knotted, cut, braided or looped.
Raw-Edges, designers of the Backstitch collection
After meeting in Jerusalem, Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art, where, in 2007 they founded Raw-Edges, after finishing their studies. With a very experimental approach, influenced by this famous British institution, their work methodology has always been based on a combination of personal research and practical exploration. Guided by curiosity, their studio works largely as a laboratory in which, for example, they have tried paper molds to create expandable foam furniture or produce tiles industrially. Likewise, they also work with everyday objects, always giving them a surprising twist.
Manufacturing technique
Kilim + Embroidery
Material
Fibre composition: 100% wool
Approx. total height
7 mm / 0.28"
