Mink Abstract Hand-Knotted Wool and Viscose Rug, Aren Series

Aren, in the series name, is a word for the single brightest grain of sand in a desert, and it turns out to describe the color: Mink Abstract Hand-Knotted Wool and Viscose Rug, Aren Series — a wool and viscose pile with gold and amber drifting through light mink, made in two sizes, 168 × 244 cm (5'6" × 8'0") and 201 × 301 cm (6'7" × 9'11").

There is no motif to find. What the surface has instead is movement — warm gold and amber scattered across the mink like light over dunes, with occasional cool gray-blue accents cutting the warmth so that it never turns yellow. The rug changes hour by hour: pale and level in morning light, gold and considerably more emphatic after five. Beside cream linen and woven baskets it reads warm. On white walls with nothing else in the room the transitions are the only thing to look at, and they hold.

It is knotted by hand over months at a high knot count, and density is why the pile stands upright and why the rug will keep its shape rather than spread at the corners. Wool carries the warmth. Viscose is blended in for the sheen, and the sheen shows most in the pale passages, where there is least color to compete with it. Each Aren piece is made in small numbers, so finding a second one like it years from now is not a realistic plan. Day to day it wants a vacuum and a wipe; a deep clean is a job for a professional washer and nobody else.

• Hand-knotted pile of wool with viscose blended through it.
• Light mink ground with gold, amber and cool gray-blue accents.
• A high knot count, which is why the pile stands up instead of leaning after a few years.
• Two sizes: 168 × 244 cm and 201 × 301 cm.
• Aren is the brightest grain of sand in a desert; the name was chosen for the tone.
• Made in small numbers rather than in a standing range.
• Wipe and vacuum for daily care; professional washing for anything deeper.

What does the name Aren mean?

Aren is the brightest grain of sand that can be found in a desert. The series was named for it, and this piece carries the tone the name describes: a light mink ground with gold and amber running across it.

Why is viscose blended into the wool?

Viscose reflects light in a way wool does not. Blended into a wool pile it puts a silk-like sheen on the surface, most visible in the pale passages, while the wool keeps the warmth and the body. The two fibers are doing different jobs.

It is the rug that will look different at breakfast and at dinner, and that is the entire reason it was drawn without a pattern.