Many designers are inspired by the Highlands of Scotland with the colours and shapes influencing textiles, jewellery, glass and ceramics.  One of the most unusual materials used, however, must be the one chosen by designer MARIE ANN WEIR.  Her love of the Scottish landscape is expressed in rubber.

With names such as Red Rooster, Tickled Pink and Cushy Little Number her range of home furnishings are irresistibly tactile and decorative sculptural objects.

Marie Ann, who lives in Fort William, graduated in embroidered and woven textiles from Glasgow School of Art in 1989. She then worked as a designer for a commercial weaving company and worked on other diverse projects before deciding to pursue her desire to create fun and unconventional textiles for contemporary interiors.

After developing and patenting her own highly original textured fabrics using moulded rubber, she started Cushy Number in 2000, with the help of a business start-up grant from Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Her designs echo the natural rhythms and forms of the untamed landscape of Lochaber. She explains “The textiles I produce create an illusion, redolent of sea creatures, grasses, plants of heath and wetlands. The feeling is soft and the material yields to form a cushion around the body similar to lying on soft moss or heather.

“It is the ambiguity between form and appearance that appeals to me and my clients. The concept can seem quite serious although the end product is bright, cheerful and great fun.”

Her original and innovative products led to her being selected to exhibit at Chelsea Crafts Fair last year for the first time.

She has been featured in Wallpaper* magazine, Marie Claire, GQ and in interior magazines in Italy, Switzerland and the US. Her products were also included in the book Rubber! which was published last year and explores the versatility and diversity of end uses of rubber.

To find out more about her work, which is all handmade, visit her website at www.cushynumber.co.uk.