Rude awakenings

ARTIST Hilary Mennell loves watching people’s expressions when they first see her rugs and wall hangings. They often comment on the beautiful colours and flowing shapes and even stroke the thick, soft wool before they realise what it is exactly they are looking at.

“People often spend ages admiring the designs, and they’ll say: ‘Is that a shoulder? Is that an arm? Oh my goodness, it’s a boob, and that’s a bottom’.

It’s very amusing to watch people’s faces when realisation hits,”

laughs Hilary.

The reason Hilary’s award-winning Rude Rugs take so many people by surprise is that, although they feature breasts, bottoms and various other male and female body parts, they are all very subtle and tasteful and not really rude at all. “They are sexy, but not overly so,” says Hilary.

One design, called Tom, Dick and Harry, features three male behinds; another, Bottom’s Up, is based on the female form.

Hilary’s abstract styles, which she insists are made in England from exclusively British wool, cover the walls and floors of some of the smartest homes in the North-East.

They can also be seen in upmarket gyms and spas, as well as hotels and restaurants.

One of them, showing a woman’s breast and stomach, even featured in an episode of the ITV series Diamond Geezer, part of which was filmed in Hilary’s Harrogate home.

At one point, the cameraman had to ask actor David Jason to move and redo a scene when they realised that the nipple was right beside his head.

Now Hilary, and her sister Jan Mackaness, who started their Rude Rugs business in 2007, have joined with footballer David Beckham’s tattoo artist Louis Molloy to launch a new series of stunningly different rug designs.

Manchester-based award-winning celebrity tattooist Molloy, is most famous for being the man behind Beckham’s huge Angel tattoo and a star of the Discovery TV Channel’s London Ink series.

“He is normally booked up years in advance and only takes on commissions that inspire him, but we knew that his style of body art would be perfect for our Rude Rug themes. We were thrilled when he agreed to do it,” says Hilary.

As an established interior designer and painter, Hilary first got the idea for her innovative business after a chance meeting with a rug and carpet importer at a party in London. She had always painted nudes, even as a teenager.

“My bedroom didn’t have pictures of the Bay City Rollers like everyone else, just lots of nude paintings. I have always had a thing about nudes.

I love the shapes, angles and curves and the simple designs you can create from them. I went on to decorate all my homes with my own, handpainted nudes, colour coordinating them to suit the decor.”

IT was in the middle of her conversation with the carpet importer that she suddenly got the idea of combining rugs with nudes.

“I thought of the name, Rude Rugs, in the middle of the night and phoned my sister, Jan, first thing in the morning to see if she would go into business with me. It was as simple as that.”

Her age was a driving force. “I was just coming up to 50, and I wanted to achieve something for myself before then. My daughter, Sophie, had just gone to university. My husband, Alan, was semi-retiring from the motor trade. I had always had ideas for businesses, but didn’t have the time. But now I had the chance to put myself first and do something about it.”

It was a bit of a leap into the unknown: “I had no idea. I had never done anything like it.” Luckily Jan, who used to work in publishing, had a good business head.

The sisters found a hand-tufting company based in Bradford and managed to launch just before Hilary turned 50. Within the first year, they had won a British Interior Design Association award for a product of outstanding quality.

The sisters insist on using British wool. “It’s not quite as soft as wool from New Zealand, but it is springy and hard wearing and will last forever.

You will never wear out one of our rugs. We could do them a lot more cheaply if we made them in India with not very nice wool, but we don’t want to churn them out like that.”

There are very few British wool dyers and hand tufters still working in this country. “I have always tried to buy British,” says Hilary. “It is awful when companies that make British goods go out of business. I want to support them. There is only one other company we know of producing British rugs using British wool and our hand-tufter says there are only three dyers left in the country now.”

So far, the sisters have sold several hundred rugs, costing from around £1,000 to £2,000 and it usually takes between eight to ten weeks between order and delivery. “They are hand-made in England and they’re bespoke floor art, so they’re not cheap,” says Hilary. “You’re not going to see your rug anywhere else, though. We’ve never produced two exactly the same. We sell lots of them through interior designers, to all sorts of people. You find them everywhere from family homes to funky flats.

Those who want their best bits immortalised in wool can commission nudes of themselves, which Hilary is happy to do from photographs. One couple had one of themselves made as a wedding anniversary present.

Another woman simply had her hairstyle incorporated onto a nude female shape on a hallway runner and Hilary has created a design based on one young man’s muscular back for another. “People don’t realise it’s you on the rug, it’s very subtle,” she says.

One of her favourites is the particularly perfect specimen featured in one design – which now hangs in a spa – and which she calls My Husband’s Bottom. “At least, that’s what I imagine when I shut my eyes and fantasise,” she says. “He takes it all in good humour. He is very cool about it.”

■ Rude Rugs 01423-871155 or ruderugs.com. Rude Rugs are also on sale at the Funky Rug Shop, Portrack Lane, Stockton, 01642- 704100. Louis Molloy, Middleton Tattoo Studios, Manchester info@tattoos.co.uk