A handmade carpet where craft, landscape and human stories come together Antwerp, June 2026 — Ashtari Carpets and Belgian designer Tim Van Steenbergen join forces for GRADIENT, a handmade carpet that brings together aesthetics, craftsmanship and ethical production. The collaboration is developed in dialogue with Nepalese carpet weavers and carries the GoodWeave philosophy at its core: a commitment to transparency, dignified working conditions and respect for the people behind the product. GRADIENT is a quiet, almost cinematic carpet. Subtle colour gradients, soft transitions between light and shadow, and fading horizon lines evoke the image of a landscape slowly dissolving into mist, colour and silence. The design feels like an echo from nature: layered, understated and quietly resonant. The name GRADIENT refers to these soft transitions in colour, depth and landscape. At the same time, it also speaks to the handmade character of the piece. Every nuance, every shift and every irregularity is shaped by the hands of the makers and by the time that true craftsmanship requires. For Tim Van Steenbergen, this collaboration is part of a broader evolution in his work. The designer no longer starts solely from an autonomous idea or an image born from his creative imagination. Increasingly, the design process begins with the people who will make the object, with their knowledge, their techniques and their rhythm. “For me, design today no longer begins only with a sketch,” says Tim Van Steenbergen. “It begins with the question: who will make this, with which technique, under which circumstances, with which material and with what kind of knowledge? With Ashtari Carpets, that immediately felt right. The makers are at the centre. Their hands, their experience and their way of working help determine what the design can become.” This shift in mindset runs like a thread through Tim Van Steenbergen’s recent projects. His decision to close his own-name label and to found REantwerp together with Ruth Goossens and GATAM vzw came from the same conviction: that design can only be truly sustainable and honest when the maker becomes visible and essential again. At REantwerp, newcomers and people with textile experience are given a central place in the atelier, and garments emerge from the interaction between deadstock materials, craftsmanship and human stories. For GRADIENT too, the design was not developed separately from the production process. Ashtari Carpets and Tim Van Steenbergen explored together which techniques the Nepalese carpet weavers use, how colour gradients can be built up in wool, and how the weaving process itself helps shape the final image. The result is not a translation of a drawing into an object, but a collaboration between designer, atelier, material and maker. Ashtari Carpets has been connected to GoodWeave for many years. GoodWeave is the internationally recognised organisation working to end child labour and forced labour in the carpet industry. A GoodWeave-certified carpet stands for monitoring, transparency and support for weaving communities, including in Nepal. Within this collaboration, GoodWeave is not approached as a separate label, but as an essential part of the story: a shared belief that beauty and responsibility are not opposites, but can strengthen one another. “True luxury begins with respect,” says Ashtari Carpets. “Respect for craft, for heritage, for material and, above all, for the people who make each carpet by hand. The collaboration with Tim Van Steenbergen feels natural because we share the same values: time, humanity, craftsmanship and sustainability.” GRADIENT brings together three worlds: Tim Van Steenbergen’s refined visual language, Ashtari Carpets’ expertise in handmade carpets and the ethical framework of GoodWeave. The carpet is an object for the interior, but also a statement about the future of design. In a world where production often becomes fast, anonymous and invisible, GRADIENT chooses slowness, transparency and human presence. GRADIENT — by Ashtari x Tim Van SteenbergenCrafted with GoodWeave The carpet will be launched in June 2026 as part of the ongoing collaboration between Ashtari Carpets, Tim Van Steenbergen and GoodWeave. Custom sizes are available upon request. About Ashtari CarpetsAshtari Carpets stands for handmade carpets in which craftsmanship, heritage and contemporary interiors come together. The brand works with artisanal ateliers and places great importance on quality, timeless aesthetics and ethical production. About Tim Van SteenbergenTim Van Steenbergen is a Belgian designer with an internationally recognised signature, known for his refined visual language, his sensitivity to materials and his social engagement. After closing his own label, he founded REantwerp together with Ruth Goossens and GATAM vzw, a social and circular atelier and fashion label in Antwerp where makers, craftsmanship and reuse are placed at the centre. About GoodWeaveGoodWeave is an international non-profit organisation working to end child labour and forced labour in global supply chains. Through certification, inspections and programmes focused on education and community support, GoodWeave works towards greater transparency and better conditions for makers and their communities.
