The Story of the Pixel Cushions

A graphic new weave, brought to life on a rare loom, with a yarn that took us somewhere unexpected…

A Yarn with a Different Ending

In early 2022, we sourced a batch of wool and mohair yarn from Stucken, the renowned South African spinners based in Uitenhage. The goal? A new Mungo blanket. Something warm, weighty and soft, that could be cherished for years to come. But as we began weaving test runs, something wasn’t quite right. The yarn’s micron count – the measurement of fibre fineness – gave the cloth more structure and texture than softness. Beautiful, yes. But not quite right for the kind of blanket we had envisioned.

But one of the perks of having our own mill, and our full operation (from design through to finished product) under one roof, means that we have room to reimagine and reiterate…

So our design team went back to the drawing board, and looked for a new application. We considered the yarn’s qualities – handle, weight, texture – and began to reimagine it as a cushion cover. What emerged was the Pixel Cushion: bold, graphic, and dimensional.

With just a limited run fresh off our looms, this is a special once-off weave that will briefly join our current cushion cover range. But the good news is that this isn’t the end of our wool story. We’ll continue to refine and develop our approach to weaving with animal fibres – so a wool and mohair blanket is still on the horizon…

On the loom - the Mungo Pixel Cushion Covers.

On the loom – the Pixel Cushion Covers.

The Weave: Overshot, Reimagined

The Pixel Cushion design uses a traditional overshot weave – a structure that pairs a plain (tabby) weave with floating weft threads to create a patterned, raised surface. Originally popular in the 18th and 19th centuries for bedspreads in America and England, it’s been reinterpreted here for a bold, modern cloth, full of depth and dimension.

“By enlarging the block design, using some vibrant colours, and incorporating yarns with varying textures, we were able to create this graphic, textural effect – something that feels quite contemporary. The final cloth is full of dimensional blocks, contrasts and shadows. At the same time, there’s this very traditional weave structure. So it becomes a fabric that’s both modern and rooted in tradition. This old-meets-new design approach is very true to Mungo and how we work – drawing on contemporary palettes, aesthetics and influences, while using traditional weaving techniques and technologies (like our antique shuttle looms) to create something that’s both modern and timeless.”

– Lenore, Mungo designer

: The Saurer’s pattern card

: Stu’s early sampling on the Saurer

The Challenges of the Saurer Loom

The Pixel Cushions were woven on a particularly special machine: our mid-century Saurer shuttle loom, donated to us by renowned South African mohair weaver, Jan Paul Barnard. Thought to date back to the 1960s, the Saurer was once the height of weaving technology. It bridges a key gap in our collection at the Mungo Mill – sitting between our 100+ year-old Hattersley domestic loom and the modern Dornier rapier machines crafted by the post-WWII aircraft company of the same name. This loom’s inclusion completes our story: a working display of weaving evolution, from hand looms to industrial-era innovation. And it’s one you can witness in person – our open mill in Plettenberg Bay invites you to see the full process, from first threads to finished cloth.

While the Saurer has its charms, it’s not without quirks – particularly when it comes to patterning. To create the Pixel Cushion weave, our design team worked with an old-school pattern card system. Unlike modern Jacquard or electronic looms, the Saurer reads punched cards, fed in by hand. Each hole determines which threads lift or stay down, guiding the formation of the weave. Complicating things? The cards had to be punched in reverse order. A painstaking process, requiring close collaboration and a good deal of patience.

“This was our first experiment with patterning on the Saurer. We had only woven plain weaves on it before. But we were excited to push the loom further. It took quite a lot of figuring out and reiterations, but I think the end result is something quite special.”