Cecilia Setterdahl’s inspiration with hand-woven and custom rugs present a modern take on traditional rug-making, where the artful compositions on Setterdahl’s canvasses are transformed by the skilled artisans from Uttar Pradesh, India into one-of-a-kind, collectible rugs.
We at SBC are honored to present Cecilia´s story of how her paintings magically becomes carpets.
Who is Cecilia Setterdahl? Tell us a bit about your background.
I was born in Ronneby in the south of Sweden. I am married to Mikael who is working in the business as well and we have two grown up children. I have always been interested in art. I was educated as a teacher and attending different art schools in Sweden and in Switzerland. After moving to Switzerland in 1988 I founded together with other artists Atelje BV5, to have a working gallery where we could meet, paint, and exchange ideas.
You are currently a designer of luxury carpets – how did you come up with this idea?
During a wedding in Mumbai, I was introduced to a carpet maker, and it happens that we were looking for a modern, funky and elegant carpet for our house in Sweden. The carpet that arrived was a lovely luxury piece, suddenly the idea to use my designs for carpets was born. We got in contact with Dubai Design District and decided to move to Dubai. We opened up Carpets CC showroom and gallery at Dubai Design District in 2016.
What are some of your proud moments in this industry?
I have many proud moments in my career of which some of them are:
– Working with interior designers to create something completely new from my art.
– I have also had several editorial articles in Design magazines and my first award evening attendance was an exciting moment.
– Each delivery of a new carpet is a proud moment.
– I was selected to participate in a charity design initiative ‘Designed for Sharing’, Fantini Mosaic produced a wonderful mosaic table from my art.
– When my UNCLE THEODORE carpet won over the jury for its concept and design. I was delighted to be the only UAE based design company awarded under Décor category as a Winner of the 2021 Archiproducts Design Awards Milan, Italy
How did you find setting up a business here in the UAE? What were some of the challenges and what have some of the advantages been?
Whenever doing something from scratch and without experience there are difficulties. In short it was both easy and difficult. The main challenges were actually to bring potential customers to our showroom, but that seems now to have been solved with an increase in online sales.
What does your bucket list look like? Do you have any specific art dreams to do?
I’m currently waiting for one of my designs to be bought for a hotel lobby, which I very much hope will come through.
The other dream I have is to do some pottery with my designs. Hopefully one day that dream will also come through.
