Gray Floral Loom-Woven Wool and Tencel Rug, Günyolu Series

There is a bird on it, small, standing in one corner, and nothing else on the rug acknowledges it. Gray Floral Loom-Woven Wool and Tencel Rug, Günyolu Series — large flowers and thin branches thrown across a light gray ground in terracotta and cream, woven over a cotton foundation.

01How many centimeters, which room

One size only, three meters long and two wide, or 9'10" by 6'7". The composition refuses symmetry. Flowers of unequal size talk to one another across the field, branches run where they like and off the edges, and nothing is centered or mirrored — nearer to the balance of a Japanese ink drawing than to the geometry of a classical rug, although the drawing itself is Anatolian.

02Color that shifts through the day

It wants a plain room: white, cream or light gray walls, and textiles beside it in single colors rather than patterns. Terracotta and cream in the petals are what keep the gray from turning cold. Two fibers, two jobs, and the picture is made out of the difference between them.

03How it feels underfoot

Wool is the matt half and it carries the depth of the gray; Tencel® is the reflective half and it keeps the petals and the terracotta marks alight. Weaving is done on Kütahya and Oushak looms by the loom-woven method — the loom ties the knots and the finishing is done by hand. The house tree of life is worked into every piece.

04From the hand of the weaver

Cleaning is a workshop job: the two fibers do not take water in the same way. Woven on Kütahya and Oushak looms, finished by hand. A cotton foundation under a surface of wool and Tencel®. Large asymmetric flowers and thin branches on a light gray ground. One small bird in a corner, and no companion to it anywhere. Terracotta and cream petals warming a cool gray field. Two meters by three. The house tree of life is worked in. Send it to a rug workshop for cleaning. The series is named for Günyolu, a mountain village up in Kemaliye, Erzincan — not for anything drawn on the rug.