Patricia B.A. Shea says that people have only one qualm about her bespoke rugs.

“Everyone’s so scared of walking on my rugs,” she said, bewilderedly. “But they’re rugs. They’re meant to be walked on.”

Maybe it’s because the Belfast woman’s vibrant pieces are more works of art than utilitarian floor coverings. In fact, some of her clients have used them as wall hangings instead.

A blueberry-themed rug features succulent berries surrounded by green leaves and curlicues, all framed by bold red lines. Another design has red and gold diamonds inside clusters of red and blue flowers.

Three elements blend in Shea’s creations: nature, geometry and strong colors.

“Most important is that it’s colorful,” she said recently in her farmhouse home. “Most of my designs come from flowers. The geometrics just build on their own.”

Like Shea herself, the word bespoke is British, meaning custom or handmade to order. Her rugs, which she designs, are crafted by a manufacturer in Lewiston. They are made of New Zealand wool and are stain- and flame-resistant.

The Manchester, England, native’s business is relatively new, as she has only been at it for a year and a half.

However, Shea is a longtime textile and home-d?cor designer, who lived in New York City for years. When she tired of the city, she and her companion of 12 years, fine artist James Strickland, moved to Cape Cod for a time. Then, intrigued by Down East magazine, they decided to move to Maine.

“We moved to Maine by sailboat,” recalled Shea, 45. “We got on the boat and sailed up the coast, to find a town we liked, and we found Belfast.”

That was five years ago, and Shea has found Maine to be much to her liking.

“The landscape is more inspiration [than New York],” she said. “You’re not as confined. It’s quieter, a much more pleasant environment. Also, there’s so many other artists in Maine, there’s a basic creative energy here.”

The bespoke-rug process starts with a client and Shea collaborating on a design.

“I’ve got a portfolio of 100 available designs,” Shea explained. “Usually, they see something they like, and we tweak it and move forward. I can mix and match [elements from designs] or design completely from scratch.”

A client receives sketches, hand-painted illustrations and yarn swatches for approval. The next stage is a handmade sample, a quarter of the final rug, in full scale. It can take as little as six weeks for delivery of the rug once the samples have been approved, although it can be several months as client-mandated adjustments are made.

If the client lives within a couple of hours of Belfast, Shea will drive to the site for meetings. But she has done jobs entirely by e-mail, never seeing the house, sending digital photos, sketches and swatches. The heirloom rugs can be as small as 3-by-5 feet and as large as 23-by-18 feet. Her clients have come from as far away as Paris, California, Kansas and Long Island.

On this recent day, Shea has borrowed Strickland’s studio, because “I work in mayhem.” She’s overstating the point, as her tiny workspace is relatively organized. On her desk is a logo she is developing for a California home-d?cor store owner who enjoyed the rug Shea had created. She spends her days shepherding through ongoing projects while expanding her offerings.

“People will say, ‘I love your rugs’ and want to know what else you do,” she explained. “They want more things from you in different areas.”

To that end, she has added porcelain dinnerware and ceramic tiles in the same designs as the rugs, so that everything in a room can coordinate.

So far, Shea has been unable to find sufficient rug wool produced in Maine. She is working with Hope Spinnery to find such wool that can be naturally dyed there, so that “I could have a complete Maine-made product, which is my goal.”

Designing bespoke rugs enables Shea to meet several of her goals.

“I get to work at home and do exactly what I like to do for a living,” she said. “Also, people respond to my work happily and positively. A Long Island woman recently told me, ‘Your rug makes my room smile.’ There couldn’t be a better end result to why I do this.”

For more information, go to www.mainemade.com and type “bespoke rugs” in the search box, or contact Shea at 338-5177 or pbashea@midmaine.com. Dale McGarrigle can be reached at 990-8028 and dmcgarrigle@bangordailynews.net.