Beige Framed Hand-Knotted Wool and Silk Rug

The drawing starts in the center and the frame keeps it in. A hand-knotted rug of 196 × 254 cm (6'5" × 8'4") made in Anatolia in beige, cream and brown, wool doing the field and silk worked into parts of the pattern, in motifs descended from Oushak weaving. Each motif opens like a flower and the next begins where the last one finished, so the field fills from the middle outward rather than repeating a fixed unit.

01The origin of the pattern

The border is a wide plain frame that competes with none of it — its job is to stop the drawing, and it stops it cleanly. Beige holds the ground, cream does the outlining, brown weights the corners. Where silk was used the same beige turns bright, so the pattern separates from the field by light instead of by color. Knotted in Anatolia by the traditional method, at a density high enough to carry motif drawing that fine.

02From ground to pile

Wool is the body of the rug and silk appears only inside the pattern, which is the older way of using it: silk as a highlight, never as a whole surface. Fewer weavers work at this density with each passing year.

03After the color

Professional cleaning keeps the silk from dulling, and a rug with silk in it belongs away from the sunniest part of a room. Hand-knotted in Anatolia in the classical Turkish manner. Wool field with silk worked into parts of the pattern for contrast in light. Beige ground, cream outlining, brown weighting the corners. Dense knotting, which is what allows the fineness of the motif drawing. A wide plain border frames the field and closes the pattern off. 196 × 254 cm (6'5" × 8'4"), for a seating group or a bedroom. Professional washing; keep it out of direct sun so the silk holds its brightness. Beside walnut and stone it looks as though it was always in the room; against white walls the silk is the only thing that moves.