Kathleen Jones and Diana Kerr share a love of art, design, textiles and travel.

Together the two artisans design and produce state-of-the-art home décor in the form of pillows, furniture and decorative accents. They also do custom upholstery.

When they met, in the early ’90s, they traded stories about places they had traveled to, and soon made a pact to start traveling together.

“We just clicked on so many levels,” Jones said about her friendship with Kerr. “We not only loved to travel, but we both liked out-of-the-way places. The more remote the better.”

Their first trip was in 2004, when they traveled to San Miguel De Allende, in Mexico.

“It's an artist's town,” Jones said. “And there are a lot of expats there, which is good and bad.”

Over the next few years, the pair also traveled to France, Morocco, Guatemala and Peru.

Seeing all the beautiful, colorful hand-woven ethnic textiles in the remote areas of those places led to an idea. Kerr said they began talking about starting a business together.

They began researching areas with cultures that were rich in woven textiles and fabrics.

“We wanted to start something with unusual pieces from all over the world,” Kerr said.

Their first trip to Guatemala confirmed their resolve.

“When it really took hold was the first time we went to Guatemala and saw the textiles,” Jones said. “We were smitten, and overwhelmed by the quality, the colors and the textures. We knew we wanted to start designing things with fabric.”

In Guatemala they started buying both vintage and new “huipiles,” traditional women's blouses, and using the pieces in their own designs, making pillows and ottoman covers. They said that they loved some of the pieces they bought too much to sell, or use in their products.

“We have kept some of the huipiles intact,” Jones said. “They were too beautiful to take apart, but many of the pieces were damaged or worn, so it wasn't so hard for us to take them apart to use the good parts.”

Kerr said that every huipil says something.

“There are symbols or written embroidery. One I have says 'I remember’ in Spanish,” Kerr said. “Many of them are made to be passed down in families.”

They also bought hand-woven belts, skirts, children's clothes, and tzutes (carrying cloths).

The pair visited Colibri, a shop in Antigua, Guatemala, and found what they described as beautiful hand-woven table runners and napkins, which they brought back to re-sell, as well as to incorporate into their own designs.

“One of the designs that they do in Guatemala is a classic design, an ikat,” Jones said. “We made some contemporary pillows using modern ikat fabrics.” An ikat design is made by dyeing the warping threads using an ancient method, then working the loom to create a certain pattern when the weaving is finished.

Kerr said that every village in Guatemala has its own colors, weaving styles, and designs of skirts and huipiles.

It had been a long-time desire of both women to travel to Morocco. In 2006  they lived their dream.

“We were entranced,” Kerr said. “It was like going back 1,000 years. The tanneries, the street smells — it was sensory overload — in a good way.”

They said one of their biggest concerns was shipping the products back to Maine.

“That's been a bit of a handicap for us,” Jones said. “At least in Morocco we were able to go to the post office with most of our rugs.”

Kerr said Jones has a thing for Moroccan rugs.

“Kathleen would walk into a restaurant and look at a rug on the floor and say, 'I want that rug. I don't care how old it is.'”

One of the coveted rugs was spotted in a kitchen area of a restaurant.

“It just looked like an old rug,” Jones said. “It had a soul and I loved that it had been walked on by many people over the years. It sits in front of my hearth now.”

In the beginning Kerr and Jones took a trip every two years. It has now evolved into an annual adventure.

On a trip to Peru in February of this year they went to a remote village at 12,000 feet.

While in that village Jones spotted a woman wearing a colorful traditional red wool skirt.

“The Peruvian women have these wonderful skirts and incredible hats,” she said.

Luckily the skirt in question was worn over another skirt beneath it, because Jones talked the woman into selling it to her.

Kerr/Jones Design — Uncommon Goods has been busy with new pieces for the coming holidays. Many of the newer pieces are a combination of vintage and contemporary.

The contemporary fabrics they use are silks, linens and cottons. A Newcastle seamstress, Lori Cash, puts them together.

As they continue to plan their annual trek to distant, remote places, they said half the excitement is in the planning.

“We plan our trips for four months,” Kerr said. “Some people choose to go on a tour when they travel. We make our own itinerary. We use local transportation, and choose our hotels.”

And there is little disagreement in the planning.

“We travel well together because we can read each others' minds,” Kerr said.

Jones nodded in agreement. “Ninety-nine percent of the time we're on the same page.”

They haven't determined yet where they'll go next year.

“We've got a lot of places yet to see,” Jones said. “We really want to go to Turkey in 2015, but this may not be the best time to go there, so we're contemplating going back to Morocco. And now that we know how to ship packages from there, we may be bringing back a lot of rugs. We're going to ship as many as we can.”

“There's a part of me that really wants to go someplace else, but another part of me wants to go back to Morocco,” Kerr said. “Wherever we go next we're going to get a lot of pieces to work with.”

Visit the Kerr/Jones Design — Uncommon Goods website at www.kerrjones.com. Contact them at 207-633-2534.