Oushak-Pattern Handwoven Wool and Silk Rug, Harem Series

First-shearing oily fleece from Erzurum and real Bursa silk, knotted together by hand into an Oushak-pattern rug from the Harem series — wool carrying the ground, silk laid in where the drawing has to catch light. Woven in Türkiye for Halıcızade by the Çınhar workshop, on the Anatolian double knot.

01Reading the motif

There is one of it. Oushak — a weaving town out in the west of Anatolia — has been supplying this kind of drawing for five centuries: broad medallions, a field left generous rather than crowded, borders that frame instead of compete. The Harem reading keeps that architecture and loosens the rest, so the ornament sits apart with air around it.

02What Wool does

Where the silk runs through the motifs it answers light differently from the wool beside it, and the pattern seems to float a knot's height above its own ground when you cross the room. The fleece is Erzurum yağlı yapağı, the oily first-shearing wool that keeps most of its lanolin and therefore most of its shine. The silk is reeled in Bursa, which has been a silk town since the Ottomans made it one.

03At the loom in in Anatolia

Çınhar ties the pile on the double knot, the Anatolian method, and the piece was made for this house rather than bought in. Silk and wool take water differently, so this one goes to a specialist and to nobody with a bottle of shampoo. Handwoven in Türkiye by Çınhar, made for Halıcızade. Wool pile with real Bursa silk worked through the motifs. The fleece is Erzurum first-shearing oily wool, chosen for its shine. Tied on the Anatolian double knot. Classical Oushak drawing, opened out and read for a modern room. Specialist washing only — never a home shampoo on the silk. One piece, and it will not be woven again. The silk announces itself only to somebody moving past it, which makes this a rug for the part of a house where people walk slowly.