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kitchen and bath design business, but she never stopped drawing on
paper with pencils. "I've always been an artist," Hurd explains. "From
the time I was a small child, I loved drawing rhythmic patterns. In
2006, I reignited my love affair with textiles when I found myself
drawing rug designs with colored pencils, sharpener at the ready. It
is an extremely time-consuming process and I thought, 'There must
be a CAD (computer-aided design) program that does this.' When I
found one and tried it out, I was blown away."
Eventually Hurd met a representative from a Nepalese rug com-
pany, who connected Hurd with weavers in Katmandu. "He and I
have developed a good working relationship," she says. "He has the
same computer program as I use, so he can produce the rug design
from my graph and put the knots exactly where I want them."
Hurd created her first rug for clients in 2011. She had designed a
new kitchen for them, and they liked the process of working with
Hurd so much that upon completion, they asked what else they
could do together. When she suggested a custom rug for the living
room, they enthusiastically agreed. "We designed and produced an
11- by 15-foot rug that has the colors, details, and motifs they liked.
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