On a recent trip to England, I visited York Minster. Despite my fascination with gothic architecture in all its forms, I found myself running around snapping photos of—of all things—the carpets. (I figured a much better photographer than I had already spent time with the stonework and the medieval stained glass.)
There was nothing strikingly rare or unique about these particular carpets; it's the fact that they were there at all. Too often, churches use godawful bordello-red synthetic broadloom. But here, at last, were carpets used appropriately, highlighting all their artistic, symbolic, and practical qualities and helping to create a feeling of transcendence.
A gorgeous antique Kurdish rug before one of the altars:
We've moved! Our new office and design studio is just down the street from our original location in beautiful, historic 
The collaboration between Davis Freud and 
Davis Freud has joined 321 Artisans' Guild in Minneapolis. The Guild building, located in the Design District, is in the beginning
stages of a prolonged renovation, but has great ambience with
its hardwood floors, high ceilings, and open staircase. The new
showroom will provide a convenient location in which to meet
with clients as well as additional display space. Davis Freud looks
forward to announcing the grand opening event.
After meeting in New York with the VPs of development for Schumacher and Patterson Flynn Martin, Tracy and Danielle visited Taliesin West to meet with the design team for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and discuss licensing rights. Oskar, the chief archivist for the foundation (at left in photo) graciously gave them access to the vault where they were able to see many of Mr. Wright's original drawings and look through the archives for inspirations. 
Davis Freud had several meetings with architects and designers in New York, as well as a presentation to the VPs of development for Schumacher and Patterson Flynn Martin. Watch for breaking news on this front as soon as it can be made public.....
Tracy and Danielle attended the Arts & Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. Though Donegal Carpets was not an official exhibitor, they were able to display a few samples from the GuildCraft collection which were enthusiastically received by exhibitors and public alike.
The October 2005 issue of Old-House Journal featured an excellent article on Arts & Crafts carpets, in which Donegal Carpets were, naturally, quite prominent. The article, entitled “Arts & Crafts Rug Renaissance,” provides one of the best overviews of the subject available to date. The text of the article (minus the excellent photographs) can be seen on the 
Donegal Carpets’ new 
After a series of meetings and events in Chicago at which the 
But even more impressive was their visit to Crab Tree Farm north of Chicago, where a private collector has created an awe-inspiring environment for what is probably the finest collection of English and American Arts & Crafts furniture and decorative arts anywhere in the world. The workshop there was in fact where the exhibition's famous "Stickley Room" was actually made. So this was one of the instances where the museum exhibition, well done as it was, paled in comparison to the collector's vision. 
