GAIA by Armadillo x Carla Cascales Alimbau pushes the boundaries of rug-making with intricate wool carving, selective silk oxidisation and a nuanced layering of fibres, offering a depth that sets a new benchmark in Australian contemporary rug design.
The GAIA Collection by Armadillo x Carla Cascales Alimbau marks a defining moment in Australian contemporary rug design, where material form mirrors the rhythms and cycles of the natural world.
In Partnership with Armadillo.
For many, a rug is little more than an accessory—a decorative addition that softens floors or defines a layout. Yet a thoughtfully crafted rug can shape the mood, character and emotional resonance of a space, a quality Armadillo has long championed.
The GAIA Collection marks the Australian-born, female-founded rug house’s second collaboration, uniting Armadillo with Catalonian artist Carla Cascales Alimbau, whose practice spans art, sculpture and design. Together, they translate the subtle rhythms of nature into woven form, blending traditional artisanal mastery with a shared, intuitive understanding of the depth and quality of natural fibres.
Each of the six hand-knotted and flat-woven rug styles—Marea, Alma, Cirrus, Aerie, Palloza and Willow—balances imperfection and refinement, structure and softness, earth and emotion. Their organic forms and layered textures evoke the characteristics of the natural world, inviting pause and connection—a collaboration the contemporary market has quietly awaited.
“This marks a significant step forward for Armadillo, both artistically and technically,” Armadillo co-founder Sally Pottharst says. “It expands our vocabulary of what a rug can be, moving beyond function into sculptural and painterly territory. Innovations such as intricate wool carving and oxidisation on silk place GAIA as a defining focus within our broader range, embodying Armadillo’s ongoing pursuit of beauty, craft and innovation.”
"Our ethos is to tread lightly on the earth and honour the hands that create. With GAIA, we worked side by side with artisans, training new techniques while respecting time-honoured traditions."
– ARMADILLO CO-FOUNDER, JODIE FRIED
Each rug embodies a dialogue between Carla Cascales Alimbau’s sculptural and painterly vision and the precision and craftsmanship of Armadillo’s Indian artisans, resulting in pieces that feel both lived-in and artful.
Developed over several years—from Cascales Alimbau’s Barcelona studio to artisan workshops in India—the collection is centred on the artist, whose washed terracotta paintings and poured-resin pieces inspired its exploration of nature’s cycles and their effect on the land.
“My practice always begins with a consideration of how form can alter surroundings, how matter can carry emotion,” she says. “With GAIA, I approached the rugs as I would a sculpture or painting—considering proportion, rhythm and restraint. Each design seeks balance, paring back to reveal the essential while still evoking movement and depth. The rugs are not only functional objects, but extensions of my artistic language translated into a woven medium.”
“Nature is always my most profound teacher, especially its cycles of flow, erosion and renewal,” Cascales Alimbau continues. “For GAIA, I drew from the Mediterranean horizon—the shifting sea, terracotta earth, and light dissolving across sky and ground. These motifs became the gradients of colour, undulating textures and soft rhythms within the rugs. The result is a quiet echo of the landscape underfoot.”
Each rug is hand-crafted from silk, jute, linen and New Zealand wool, chosen for their longevity and expressive qualities. “Wool provides warmth and resilience, silk introduces a luminous patina, and jute and linen add earthy tactility,” Pottharst says. “By layering these materials and applying carving and oxidation, we created a sculptural interplay of light and shadow.”
Designed to be stepped on, touched, and lived with, GAIA transforms domestic spaces into intimate sanctuaries where beauty, craft and everyday rituals converge.
Barcelona-based artist Carla Cascales Alimbau
Marea, named after the Spanish word for ‘tide’, is a hand-carved wool rug offered in four tones, its rhythmic gradients evoking ripples on sand, finished with a long fringe. Alma, in a silk-wool cut Persian knot, features an ultra-low pile treated with selective oxidation to produce a luminous patina, available in three palettes. Cirrus, hand-knotted from New Zealand wool, rises in pillowy, undulating bands for cloud-like underfoot comfort, offered in two ethereal tones.
Aerie combines a taut linen warp with an alternating jute and wool-blend weft, ideal for high-traffic areas. Flat-woven from jute, Palloza features a tight weave and tonal grid in two complementary natural shades. Finally, Willow, with a linen warp and wool-jute weft, offers a lightweight, airy surface with a loose fringe, now refreshed by Cascales Alimbau in two soft, feminine tones.
At its core, the GAIA Collection transcends collaboration—it’s a meeting of artistic intuition, technical innovation and elemental materiality, where each rug bears the mark of both the artist and the artisans who bring it to life.
"Working with Armadillo’s artisans was deeply humbling. This collaboration pushed me to refine my vision and accept the beauty of the process itself—that every knot carries intention. The rugs are as much shaped by their hands as by my original artworks."
– Carla Cascales Alimbau
Willow Henna’s light, airy weave and loose fringe are paired with warm terracotta tones, providing a gentle, tactile presence that complements both contemporary and classic interiors.
Alma Urn’s silk-wool blend undergoes a selective oxidation process, creating a unique lustrous patina in each piece—evoking the shifting hues of the Mediterranean captured in a floor-bound artwork.
The Marea Clay rug’s hand-carved wool gradients echo undulating sand and tidal movement, the long fringe providing a tactile flourish that mirrors nature’s subtle rhythms.
"Every rug was made with care and precision, allowing the natural materials to guide the process. This not only ensured ethical production but also imbued each piece with integrity, intention and enduring beauty."
– ARMADILLO CO-FOUNDER, JODIE FRIED
