Pink Vintage Handwoven Round Rug, Ferforje Series

Ferforje is the Turkish word for wrought iron, and the motif is exactly that: scrolled bars, curled at the ends, the drawing of a garden gate laid flat. Pink Vintage Handwoven Round Rug from the Ferforje series — a 200 cm circle (6'7"), woven in India with a bamboo viscose surface over a cotton-and-wool foundation, in faded pink on cream. Iron drawn in pink is the joke the series is built on, and it works because the pink is pale enough to strip the motif of any weight.

01Which tone on the ground

The scrolls run around the field without a center, and where they cross the cream ground the two tones meet with no hard edge, so the whole thing looks a little sun-faded from the day it was made.

02Which furniture, which room

In a room with white walls, powder-pink or lilac upholstery and light walnut it reads as the softest thing on the floor. Against strong color it disappears. The pile is bamboo viscose, a cellulose fiber that gives the surface a silky lift; underneath it the foundation is cotton and wool.

03Knot by knot, by hand

Everything is tied by hand at a close knot spacing. Two things to weigh: pale pink is unforgiving of stains, and a viscose pile marks where people walk and wants the pile brushed back rather than scrubbed. Washing is a workshop job.

04From ground to pile

This is one of the series' limited pieces and there are two of it. Handwoven in India, bamboo viscose surface over a cotton-and-wool foundation. Wrought-iron scrollwork — the Ferforje motif — in faded pink on cream. Round, 200 × 200 cm (6'7" × 6'7"), with no center to the drawing. Silky underfoot, with the low sheen of a cellulose fiber. Suits white, powder, lilac and light walnut; lost against strong color. Marks where it is walked on; brush the pile rather than scrub it. Professional washing. It is the rare pink rug an adult buys for a sitting room, and the ironwork is the reason.