Green and Orange Sivas Zara Handwoven Wool Rug, Anadolu Şal Series

Sivas Zara Handwoven Wool Rug from the Anadolu Şal Series — orange, navy, yellow, burgundy and green motifs set in horizontal bands through the center, surrounded by a calm green field and framed with red.

01Knot by knot, by hand

It measures 166 × 240 cm (5'5" × 7'10") and was woven by hand in Anatolia. Green around the outside is what makes the arrangement work: it cools the bands, gives the eye somewhere to rest between them, and stops the red frame from turning the rug into a signal.

02A line from the archive

The figures inside the bands are the traditional ones of Zara, in Sivas province, and they are dense enough that there is something new to find at close range after a year of walking past. Beside warm, natural-toned furniture it gives a room an identity rather than a decoration. Women weaving in Anatolia made it over months.

03How it feels underfoot

The yarn is first-grade wool, and two things follow from that: a soft surface, and a rug still in use in twenty years. This is a size that does real work — big enough to hold a seating group or to furnish a bedroom, small enough to move without help.

04From the hand of the weaver

There are fewer weavers doing this each year than there are patterns left for them to weave. Have a rug washer do it. Woven by hand in Anatolia, by women, across months of work. First-grade wool yarn — soft, and built to be walked on. 166 × 240 cm (5'5" × 7'10") — a seating group or a bedroom floor. Orange, navy, yellow, burgundy and green bands through the middle. A green surround, closed with a red border. Traditional Zara figures, dense enough to reward close looking. Sits well with warm, natural-toned furniture. One rug.

05The origin of the pattern

Professional washing. It is the size most people actually need and the pattern most people do not expect to want.