In 2019, as part of the Bauhaus centenary celebrations, Wallace Sewell were authorized to create a re-edition of Gunta Stölzl’s original ‘Prellerdecke’ blanket. The project was initiated by Jörg Klambt, founder of Designshop at Bauhaus Dessau; where in 1926, the first Prellerhaus blankets were made in the weaving workshops. The original design having been lost, Wallace Sewell have realized and recreated the design, with help from Gunta Stölzl’s daughter, Monika Stadler, and archive drawings and photographs.
Gunta Stölzl was fundamental to the Bauhaus weaving department and when the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, Stölzl, who was a master of the weaving workshop, designed a blanket for the ‘Prellerhaus’ student dormitories. The original is a bold interaction of horizontal and vertical, positive and negative.
Through textile detective work Emma and Harriet analyzed an existing photograph of the original blanket. Sketches and colour swatches were followed by more detailed design development, undertaken by hand on small looms in the our studio, before weaving full-scale pieces at a mill in Lancashire.
The Wallace Sewell Prellerhaus blanket harks back to the original as closely as possible, picking up on the rhythm and simplicity of Gunta’s design. Wallace Sewell have also created four new colour ways, which keep the tonal balance and design that is essentially Bauhaus, whilst updating to a more contemporary palette.
