Cream Pazyryk-Pattern Loom-Woven Tencel Rug, Günyolu Series

Kemaliye, in Erzincan, has a mountain village called Günyolu, which is where this series got its name: Cream Pazyryk-Pattern Loom-Woven Tencel Rug, Günyolu Series, of 200 × 290 cm (6'7" × 9'6"), carrying a Tencel® pile set down on a loom in western Türkiye and finished by hand. The Pazyryk rug is the oldest knotted rug anyone has found — lifted out of a frozen Scythian tomb high in the Altai, and held today by the Hermitage — and its drawing is where this pattern comes from.

01After the color

On cream the motifs are worked fine and low in contrast, close enough in tone to the ground that from standing height the rug looks nearly plain and only resolves when you are on it. That restraint is deliberate.

02From the hand of the weaver

Nothing on it is competing for attention. Kütahya and Uşak are where it was made, on looms that tie the knots, with the finishing done by hand. Tencel® is a lyocell filament made from wood pulp, and light behaves on it much as it behaves on silk: the cream goes bright where the pile leans one way and quiet where it leans the other, so the floor changes as you cross it. A cream floor in a room with children will need washing sooner than a patterned one, and that is simply what pale rugs cost. Made in Kütahya and Uşak on looms, with the finishing done by hand. Tencel® pile — a cellulosic filament spun from wood pulp, cool to the touch and reflective. The rug spans 200 × 290 cm (6'7" × 9'6"), enough to cover a living room or take a bed and both sides. Fine cream-on-cream drawing after the Pazyryk rug, the oldest knotted rug known. Named for Günyolu, a mountain village in Kemaliye, Erzincan. Pale grounds need washing more often; that is the trade. A specialist washer, when the time comes. Put it where the afternoon light crosses the floor and the pattern will spend half the day appearing and disappearing.