Multicolor Sivas Zara Hand-Knotted Wool Rug, Anadolu Şal Series

Zara is a district of Sivas, and it lends its name to a family of rug patterns. This piece follows that family's barred layout: part of the Anadolu Şal Series, made by hand in Türkiye, wool throughout. The field is divided into lengthwise bars of cream and honey yellow, separated by thin dark burgundy stripes, with a single turquoise bar running down the center. The bars on either side of the turquoise one carry a navy figure with a curled tip, repeated one after another; the outer bars carry a zigzag line, with small flowers scattered between. On a barred field each bar reads as a strip that runs in one direction.

01A line from the archive

Any pattern that repeats along a single direction falls into one of at most seven arrangements. The curled figure here only slides along its bar; it neither turns nor mirrors, so the eye keeps moving the same way down the length. Narrow burgundy, turquoise and cream borders run around the edge.

02Choosing the size

It measures 125 × 190 cm (4'1" × 6'3"), about 2.4 square meters. In a study, laid under the desk with the long side running away from it, the rug keeps the chair on wool even when it is pushed back.

03Which tone on the ground

The burgundy stripes meet a dark walnut desk and the turquoise bar a pale blue seat cushion at nearly the same tone, and close tones keep a room quiet. With an off-white wall the cream bars merge into it and the navy figures come forward. Among the cream fringes at the short ends there are a few colored threads.