The Fully Automatic Craftphilia Tufting Machine Launches on Kickstarter With a Bang

Tufting is a really cool technique for creating rugs and textile wall art. Unlike traditional weaving methods, tufting doesn’t require confusing patterns — it is really just stuffing yarn into a substrate and that yarn can be trimmed afterward to achieve a desired pile. But as with any other artistic endeavor, nice results require skill. That’s why the new Craftphilia fully automatic tufting machine is so appealing.

Craftphilia is to tufting what Cricut is to drawing or vinyl cutting. Where your handwriting may be imperfect, a Cricut can write with a pen with perfect computer-controlled precision. In the same way, Craftphilia can perform perfect tufting and your ability to do manual tufting is irrelevant.

The machine itself resembles a CNC router and I suspect that it works similarly under the hood. At this time, there are two variants: the Craftphilia 50 and the Craftphilia 70. They have working areas of 50×50 cm (19.7×19.7 inches) and 70×70 cm (27.6×27.6 inches), respectively. Both have available extension kits and those double the Y axis length. So, for example, the Craftphilia 50 with the extension would be 50×100 cm (19.7×39.4 inches).

Both machines have an advertised max movement speed of 2400 mm/min, max stitch rate of 500 stitches/min, and positioning accuracy +/- 0.5 mm. The pile height is 14-16 mm, so there is plenty there to trim down to the pile length you want.

All of the marketing material shows multi-colored designs, but I do not see any hardware to switch between spools. It seems safe to assume that you will need to manually swap spools during a job. That isn’t a big deal, but it is worth considering.

In practice, the usability and success of Craftphilia will all come down to the software. That looks promising and the workflow appears to be user-friendly. You just import an image, then the software will separate that into shapes by color. You make any adjustments as necessary, then send the file to the machine.

If that sounds good to you, you have until July 16th to back the Kickstarter campaign. The cheapest option is the super early bird special for the Craftphilia 50, which is $499. Prices go up from there. Rewards should ship in August.