This Tucson maker brings pop culture to life through handcrafted mini rugs

If you were to ask 27-year-old Tucson native Sam Seemann a little over a year ago what he’d be up to today, he probably wouldn’t have said “making rugs.”

But if you ask him today, he can confidently tell you that he’s handcrafted 44 fun, fuzzy, pop culture-inspired mini rugs in the last year through his newest venture — Red Bottom Rugs.

Since he started his tufting journey last year, he has created numerous rugs with logos of sports teams (including one for his favorite team, the Arizona Diamondbacks), along with rugs inspired by movies, TV shows and anime. Seemann has even created a few custom rugs for local businesses including Desert Garden Collective and Scuba Stash.

His most recent creation and the most difficult rug so far is a portrait of the internet’s favorite movie cowboy, apocalypse survivor and space daddy: Pedro Pascal.

“Of course, I had to do Pedro Pascal as the subject for my first portrait rug,” Seemann said. “I've been obsessed with him for a minute now and I feel like I was really able to execute his likeness. It was just super fun and gratifying to have this idea that seems like it was kind of over the top or that it was going to be too much to do a photorealistic portrait, and then just being able to pull it off, basically, as well as I was hoping I could. It has been my favorite one so far.”

Seemann also created a rug of the “Jackass” logo, which he was able to give to “Jackass” member Steve-O last year when he made a tour stop in Tucson.

“It's definitely really gratifying to see the volume being there and just feeling more comfortable taking on more ambitious rugs as I go,” he said. “And just feeling like I've been able to pull them off or where I'll do variations on the same logo and each one gets better than the last. So, it's definitely super cool to be able to continue making so many rugs and being able to look at how the process changes across all of them.”

Seemann was inspired to start tufting rugs about a year ago after he saw other creators posting videos about it on Instagram Reels and YouTube. He mentioned to his fiancée that he thought rug-making was really cool and something that he could possibly get into, but didn’t really think anything of it at the time.

For their anniversary, his fiancée bought him a tufting gun, which he describes as a device similar to a handheld sewing machine, to start crafting rugs. But more importantly, they provided him with something else he needed: the encouragement to start.

“If my fiancée hadn't really encouraged me and gotten me the equipment to get started, I don't think I probably would have done it myself. But with their encouragement, I've really been able to kind of turn this into a hobby and into another job,” Seemann said.

“At first, I wasn't really thinking I was going to do too much with it. I just wanted to make some rugs because I thought it would be a really cool way to just have, you know, a hobby and make some art on the side,” he added. “I was making a Yankees logo (rug) that I gifted to my stepbrother for his birthday and I remember realizing at that point that I felt like I got to a point where I could start looking to (sell) rugs and doing custom rugs.”

Seemann officially started selling rugs about eight months ago. He's since been able to participate in local events, meeting other local artists and finding community in Tucson.

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He handcrafts each 2-to-3-foot rug on a wooden frame (that he built himself) in his one-bedroom apartment. 

The process of creating a rug is a lot more complex than you might think. Seemann starts out with a fresh needle punch cloth on the frame, then projects the designs on the blank canvas to trace them and mark where the colors will interact (he usually completes a couple of rugs on one frame).

He’ll then begin tufting the rugs, carefully examining the tufts to make sure the shape is correct and that the colors are perfectly set throughout the whole process. After that, he’ll glue the backs, patiently wait a few days for the glue to dry and cut the rugs out of the frame.

He then adds the finishing touches on the rugs by cleaning up the edges and adding a vibrant red felt back — his signature finish for a Red Bottom Rug — which was inspired by luxury brand Christian Louboutin’s red bottom shoes.

Typically, each rug takes three or four days, or up to 20-30 hours, to complete, depending on the complexity of the design.

Currently, Seemann charges around $100 to $150 per square foot per rug.

“Sometimes it's a bit less if the design is simpler, it really just kind of depends on how many colors are used, how complex the design is going to be, how much trimming is going to be involved at the end of it because that's where most I feel like most of the time and effort goes into,” he said.

Most of his designs are one of a kind, meaning he usually doesn’t recreate them unless it’s for a commission. 

“I feel like once I've done that design once, it's kind of fun just to push on to try and challenge myself with something new,” he said. “I'm definitely not opposed to doing multiple designs at the same time, but after a while, if I need to make the same rug several times, I'll do a frame in between, where I'm doing some stuff that I've been wanting to do just to kind of break it up a little bit.”

Seemann aspires to take Red Bottom Rugs bigger — but also smaller — by creating smaller items like tufted car coasters, car floor mats and even tufted mirrors. As for his bigger aspirations, he’d like to craft larger rugs (once he gets a bigger space) and more movie-inspired rugs, such as the “Rocky IV” cover.

But for now, you can find Seemann and his Red Bottom Rugs at local pop-up events and in the artist alley at Tucson Comic-Con this fall. 

“I'm just hoping to be able to have an opportunity to continue to grow my artwork and continue making connections locally,” Seemann said. “It's been a super fun ride and I'd like to keep going and see where I can take things.”

For more information about Red Bottom Rugs or to commission a custom rug, check out their Instagram page.