
1970–1978 :: Tents & Beadwork
Colorful Pakistani wedding tents were the inspiration for a line of tented rooms designed in partnership with the designer Angelo Donghia. In 1974 Ira and Sylvia designed a twelve-sided tent, which they completely patch-worked in beaded and embroidered "scraps" from the Kabul bazaars.
Bringing trunks full of antique Czech beads and metallic threads from NYC to Kabul and incorporating the tiniest metallic colored seed beads that a friend found in the Paris flea market, Ira and Sylvia and a group of wonderfully talented Afghani women created a series of a dozen or more 4x6 beaded tapestries.