Dezeen Magazine

Wool pyramids form origami-inspired Bloom blanket

Brazilian designer Bianca Cheng Costanzo has created a woollen blanket from 180 triangles hand-sewn into tessellated pyramids (+ slideshow).

Bloom blanket by Bianca Cheng Costanzo

The triangles for each Bloom blanket are cut using computer numerically controlled (CNC) fabric routers to Costanzo's digital design.

Bloom blanket by Bianca Cheng Costanzo

The pieces are sewn together by a team of seamstresses, who spend five hours stitching the triangles along their edges into tetrahedrons and then combining the 3D shapes into a larger sheet.

Bloom blanket by Bianca Cheng Costanzo

"Bloom blanket is a design project rooted in the exploration of relationships between memory, art and maths," said the designer. "Geometrist Ron Resch's research into tessellations in the 1960s influenced me to craft a blanket that was not only visually intriguing, but also incredibly warm and soft to the touch, enveloping you with its continuous geometry."

Bloom blanket by Bianca Cheng Costanzo

Available in grey or white, the textile is composed of a 20 per cent cashmere and 80 per cent wool blend.

Bloom blanket by Bianca Cheng Costanzo

The material is custom-woven to Costanzo's specifications at a factory in Prato, Italy – an area renowned for cashmere, a soft fibre woven from goat hair.

Bloom blanket by Bianca Cheng Costanzo

"The blanket is a representation of an intricate three-dimensional origami tessellation pattern," Costanzo told Dezeen. "As a child I was drawn to geometric shapes and spent my playtime experimenting with origami, but it was only while studying at MIT that I realised how intricate the study of geometry could become."

Bloom blanket by Bianca Cheng Costanzo

"I learned how to apply this way of thinking to engineering, but I didn't want to stop there," she added. "I wondered how it could be applied to design."

Bloom blanket by Bianca Cheng Costanzo

The Bloom blanket was successfully funded on Kickstarter earlier this year and production will now begin in Poland.