Design Moment: Knot cushion, 2011

Coming across a faithful copy recently of Ragnheiður Ösp Sigurðardóttir’s (b. 1981) Knot cushion prompts me to think that the Icelandic product designer’s simple yet striking creation is edging its way into design classic territory.

After studying at the Iceland Academy of Arts and then the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Arts in the US, Sigurðardóttir founded her own studio in Reykjavik, in a country where textile artists continue to build on their rich heritage to create contemporary objects. There is no mystery to how it is made (and many online tutorials give crafts fans instructions), it being a long knitted tube knotted to create a compact, yet soft cushion. She has said that her original idea was to create a cushion in the shape of a teddy bear with long legs, but experimentation with a long stuffed knitted tube brought her to the more sophisticated knot shape. It is now made in a wide range of colours and produced from 2016 by Design House Stockholm.