Multicolor Sivas Zara Handwoven Wool Rug, Anadolu Şal Series

Zara is a district of Sivas in central Anatolia, and its motifs are what this piece is drawn from. Multicolor Sivas Zara Handwoven Wool Rug, Anadolu Şal series, woven by hand in Türkiye from first-grade wool, in red, blue, green, orange, yellow, purple and mink, at 82 × 120 cm and 84 × 126 cm. Seven colors in a rug under a meter wide should be chaos and is not, because the motifs are small and the colors distributed rather than blocked — no single one holds more than a fraction of the field, and the mink running through them takes the edge off the brights.

01Choosing the size

At this size it is a mat: in front of a door, beside a bed, under a desk chair, or on a wall. Against oak, gray upholstery and plain walls it does what a painting would do, for a tenth of the effort. First-grade wool, and it shows in two ways: the surface has a natural shine that synthetic yarn does not reproduce, and the piece will still be worth having when it has been walked on for twenty years.

02Knot by knot, by hand

It is woven by women, by hand, over months, and the two pieces in stock differ by a couple of centimeters in each direction because each was finished on its own loom. Small handwoven rugs like this are made in falling numbers.

03The tone of the ground

Professional washing. Handwoven in Türkiye from first-grade wool, in the Sivas Zara pattern tradition. Red, blue, green, orange, yellow, purple and mink, distributed across small motifs. 82 × 120 cm (2'8" × 3'11") and 84 × 126 cm (2'9" × 4'2") — the two differ because each was finished at the loom. Wool with a natural shine, and the wear to last decades. Months of hand weaving per piece. Small enough for a doorway, a bedside or a wall. Professional washing. It costs a room nothing to carry a rug this size, and little else puts seven colors into a corner without shouting. This rug belongs to the Anadolu Şal Series.