Design studio Studio Agne has created a collection of rugs that were crafted using textile dyes made from byproducts from industrial processing.

The studio applies natural dying techniques to industrial-scale production in an attempt to avoid the environmentally harmful use of commercial textile dyes.

"Commercial textile dyeing causes a significant amount of environmental and health problems due to the chemicals used in the process, whereas natural dyeing is rarely employed on an industrial scale," Studio Agne explained.

"Typically, secondary raw materials don’t meet the 'industry standard' or are contaminated and are therefore dumped or down-cycled."

The studio's Lutetia and Juno linen rugs were coloured and hand-dyed using nine textile dyes. These were made using byproducts from industrial pharmaceutical and food processing, including materials such as hemp, mustard, evening primrose, coal and iron.

Studio Agne collaborated with and collected waste residue for the dyes from companies including Jorus, a Lithuanian food manufacturer that provided hemp waste from food and pharmaceutical products, and Forest Energija, which focuses on botanic waste.

Lutetia and Juno take their names from two asteroids, and the organic, amorphous shapes embedded into the pile of the rugs were informed by the shapes of these same planetoids.

The rugs, which have been shortlisted in the homeware design category of Dezeen Awards 2021, come in a rectangular and a circular shape.

The linen for the rugs was hand-tufted within the asteroid-like shapes to form multicoloured rectangular strips. The fabrics were then sheared at different lengths and heights, creating varied textures and depths of pile across different areas of the rug.

The rug collection forms part of Studio Agne's "Ignorance is Bliss" project, which the studio describes as "ongoing experimentation and disruptive cross-disciplinary thinking".

Studio Agne hopes that this experimentation and development of natural dyes from botanical and metal waste can eventually be applied to architectural materials and interior surfaces.

Other projects shortlisted in the homeware design category of the Dezeen Awards include design studio Kukka's vibrant tapestry collection titled Chromarama and Armadillo and House of Grey's collection of minimal rugs.