Burgundy Geometric Hand-Knotted Wool Rug

The pattern here is cut in relief rather than drawn in color: squared zones of flat pile set beside raised linear ones, all in the same burgundy, on a hand-knotted rug of wool and cotton woven in India, at 250 × 305 cm (8'2" × 10'0") and 252 × 356 cm (8'3" × 11'8"). You read it with a raking light, or with a hand.

One color and two heights is an austere way to build a rug, and it works because burgundy is dense enough to hold shadow. Where the pile stands up, the line throws a thin shadow along its own edge; where it lies flat, the color goes deeper and the surface catches the light. Move a lamp and the whole geometry rearranges. From a doorway it looks like a plain dark floor with a grid in it; from a chair it becomes texture.

Wool takes the wear and cotton takes the strain — the pile is wool, the structure cotton, and the two together are why a rug this large keeps its shape under furniture. The relief is worked knot by knot, and the knotting is tight, which is why the squared edges stay square instead of blurring at the corners. At over two and a half meters wide it is a room-sized piece and wants a room-sized space around it.

• Hand-knotted in India, tightly enough to keep the geometry square.
• Wool pile on cotton, which is what holds a rug this size flat.
• A single burgundy ground worked in two pile heights — flat zones against raised line.
• Two large sizes: 250 × 305 cm (8'2" × 10'0") and 252 × 356 cm (8'3" × 11'8").
• The design appears and disappears as light moves across it.
• Medium thickness overall; comfortable to sit on as well as walk on.
• Made for large sitting rooms, studios and meeting rooms.
• Professional washing keeps the relief standing; home cleaning flattens it.

Rugs that rely on relief instead of color tend to outlast the fashions that produced them, because there is nothing in them to date.