Kids With Rugz Shapes a Tufting Studio in Cairo

Imagine walking into a space you’ve been shaping for weeks, maybe months, adding furniture, art, and lighting, everything just so. You’ve got the mood you want, but there is one thing missing to tie it all together. You need a rug.

In the Cairo studio of Kids With Rugz, large tufting frames line the walls and shelves are stacked with cones of coloured yarn. Founded by Mohamed Zohair and Shahd Hisham, the studio started with custom-made rugs, and later expanded into workshops that let others experience the craft. What started as a small, self-initiated project has grown into a space built around making and learning together.

Workshops were part of the vision from the start. “Even when we were just making rugs at home, we always imagined sharing the process with other people,” Hisham says. Early sessions with friends helped them understand how people would engage with the craft, paving the way for the full workshops in the studio today.

Tufting was not something easily found in Cairo. Zohair had first discovered rugs online with graphic compositions and colour palettes he could not find locally, which led him to research carpet production and tufting techniques. Tools and materials were difficult to source, and much of the early work relied on trial and error. “We were doing everything, from the frames to the marketing,” Zohair says. Equipment had to be brought in from abroad, while other materials were adapted to suit what was available.

That early process of figuring things out now informs how the workshops are run. Participants arrive with a sketch or idea, which is drawn onto stretched fabric before yarn is applied using tufting guns. Sessions move through outlining, filling, and refining, with several people working at once across different stages. The studio is designed to keep the process visible, so everyone can see the rugs take shape and learn by watching and doing.

Workshops originally took place in rented studios across Cairo until the founders found a space large enough for multiple participants and bigger frames. “The main thing we were looking for was space, because bigger rugs need larger frames and room for people to move around them,” Hisham explains.

The tools themselves are central to the experience. Loop and cut pile tufting guns are used depending on the texture required, each producing a distinct surface. Even understanding the tools came through experimentation. “When we first used it we thought the machine was broken because it was making loops,” Zohair says, referring to their first loop pile gun. Over time, they refined their technique, which now forms the basis of how participants are introduced to tufting.

For many people, the workshops are a first encounter with tufting. Learning happens through doing, handling the gun, controlling movement, and working across the frame. “I started with punch needle and then felt I needed to speed things up, which is why I moved to learning the gun,” Hisham says. Today, Kids With Rugz continues to produce custom rugs alongside workshops, with both practices informing each other.