In the cultural hotbed of the U.K. where YouTube CEO Lyor Cohen says “If you cut a person from the UK open, they bleed music,” there is an emerging scene where dancehall, reggae, dancehall and punk collide, portrait artist Paige is turning images of album covers and artist into home made decorative rugs and art pieces.
The musically themed works fit into any corner of home even if you don’t list to these genres of music. With works reflecting the image of Protoje’s Third Times The Charm To The Weeknd and Drake, the street artist speaks to WMV and details the process in making these eye catching lifestyle made for home art works.
What is your name and where are you based?
My name is Paige (@right.frequencyy), based in Nottingham, in the UK.
What inspired you to make rugs featuring album covers?
Music has always motivated me creatively and has been an integral part of my identity. I wanted to combine my two interests in rug making and music.
How did you come up with the concept for your rugs?
The concept came about from wanting to make rugs for my home that would represent my interests. I noticed a pattern, that the rugs were all inspired by music.
What has been the most challenging rug you have made?
The rug portrait I made of Post Malone challenged me the most. I found imitating his face tattoos in rug form difficult, the small detail took multiple attempts.
What is the most popular album cover rug you have created?
I recently made a portrait rug of The Weeknd taken from his Kiss Land album cover. I feel this rug was best received on social media and gained the attention of the XO fan base.
What process do you use to create your rugs?
I follow tufting methods to make each rug. I use a cut-pile tufting machine, with the use of primary cloth attached to a frame. The machine consists of a needle that punches the yarn through the cloth, producing a rug.
How have your rugs evolved over time?
I kept it simple at the start, but quickly became drawn to making more detailed rugs that aligned with and reflected my inspirations and interests. From this, I decided to reach out to artists with the idea of making their album cover into a rug. Late last year, I had the privilege of making UK artist Greentea Peng a GREENZONE 108 mixtape cover rug.
What materials do you use for your rugs?
I use 100% acrylic yarn and rug wool. Carpet adhesive is used for gluing the rug, which I then cover the back with felt fabric.
What makes your rugs unique compared to other album cover rugs?
I think what makes my rugs unique is the amount of detail kept in the rug from the original album art. Some of the other album cover rugs I see online tend to be simplified to minimize detail which can be difficult to tuft.
Could you tell me more about your Protoje’s “Third Times The Charm” rug?
The experience of making this rug has been my favorite yet. I reached out to Protoje with the idea of making Third Times The Charm into a rug. I was lucky to get a reply from him saying he was interested. I updated him with some photos of the rug in progress and was honored to read that he’s going to gift it to his daughter once received. Grateful for the opportunity to connect with an artist that has influenced me in a lot of ways.
