Creative Accents Teams with Wools of New Zealand

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 7/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

Marietta, Ga. —

Area rug producer Creative Accents has partnered with Wools of New Zealand. The high-end, custom manufacturer will carry the Wools of New Zealand brand on four collections of rugs, including the Rick Lee Collection from the San Francisco industrial and furniture designer.

Established in 1963 by Ken Hensler, who made his first custom shag area rug on his wife's sewing machine with scrap yarn, Creative Accents is still family owned and operated in California City, Calif., under the leadership of Mike Hensler, son of the founder.

"We decided to partner with Wools of New Zealand because it represents generations of New Zealand farmers, who are producing the finest wool in the world. It will bring it to us for our third generation business," said Ryan Beauchamp, vice president of Creative Accents, who is married to Katie, Hensler's daughter, who is also active in the company.

"Being able to trace the wool back to its origin is important to our consumers. We know from our dealers that we have an affluent, sophisticated clientele that is aware of the environmental and quality characteristics of New Zealand wool," he added.

The company is also working with its suppliers to develop a dye process that will satisfy the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and is exploring ways to both reduce the water and energy the dye process uses while developing ways to recycle the water.

Creative Accents manufactures rugs one at a time, by hand, using a combination of small, table mounted and hand-held tufting machines. Each rug is then sheared, hand sculpted and edged to specification. Production from design concept to delivery takes one to three weeks.