It is to open the first volume of its "artists' notebooks" that Atelier Tortil presents TERRA, carpets designed by the architect and designer Charlotte Biltgen who draws her inspiration from
mystery of an art craft born in Japan.

Interview by Serge GLEIZES

How was this collection born?

Charlotte Biltgen: From a meeting. I had been looking to create a line of rugs for a year but did not know how to proceed. It was then that I met Jean-Pierre who helped me to develop this idea, to interpret it in a textile creation.

What is Terra's inspiration?

Charlotte Biltgen: Raku, a Japanese ceramic firing technique at low temperature which gives rise to enamelled pieces whose surfaces crack and take on different
shapes and tones.

Jean-Pierre Tortil: The fascinating side of this meeting resided in Charlotte's vision during the presentation of these drawings. The challenge was to transcribe the effects of raku, its cracks, its nuances of colors and light, into the textile. Our exchanges led us to develop the designs in three dimensions, then to produce them using the Hand Tuft technique, ideal for staying as close as possible to Charlotte's vision and playing freely with the effects of textures, color gradients and reliefs... In order to play on the effects of material and rendering, we used different types of yarn such as wool, combed, semi-combed, felted... Tencel, mercerized cotton, sisal, as well as some technical fibers such as nylon baptized Gleam.

Charlotte Biltgen: For this collection, I actually focused on the effects of material and embroidery, on the reliefs created by the different rug techniques that Jean-
Pierre introduced me. A handmade design brings a particular vibration that is felt in the weaving.

An inspiration that is also found in the names of the rugs?

Charlotte Biltgen: Indeed, to baptize them, we were inspired by the names of Japanese volcanoes Usu, Asama, Kazan, and therefore by the synergy between earth and fire, two elements that evoke the
raku, a living material born from fusion. The three weavings are available in mineral colors, kaolin, clay, bronze as well as in a blue gray flint tone. They could be from
square, rectangular or even free form, in order to adapt to any type of decor and room.