Mink Floral Loom-Woven Wool Rug, Heritage Series

Mink Floral Loom-Woven Wool Rug, Heritage Series: the flowers are scattered over it the way a fresco comes off a wall after a few centuries, in blue, red and olive on a mink ground. New Zealand wool over cotton, loom-woven in western Türkiye near Uşak, at 200 × 300 cm (6'7" × 9'10"). Mink is the color that makes the rest of it work. It is warmer than gray and cooler than beige, and against it the blue stays blue instead of sliding to navy, the red stays a dry brick, and the olive reads as olive rather than as an absence of color.

01A line from the archive

The flower forms are not set in rows or in a lattice. They fall across the field at irregular intervals, and that irregularity is what produces the worn-wall quality. Each form is a version of a motif far older than the rug carrying it. The structure comes off a mechanical loom at close density, and everything past that point — the ends, the edges, the finish — is done by hand in the villages around Uşak. New Zealand fleece makes the pile, chosen for its long staple and the way it takes dye.

02Choosing the size

The pile is fine rather than deep, so a rug this size stays manageable and holds very little. Heritage is produced in short runs, and no two pieces leave the finishing identical. Vacuum on suction, and leave the washing to people who wash rugs. Loom-woven near Uşak: machine structure, hand finishing. New Zealand wool surface over a cotton base. Blue, red and olive flower forms on a mink ground. Motifs fall at irregular intervals rather than in rows. Fine pile at high density; firm underfoot. 200 × 300 cm (6'7" × 9'10"), scaled for a salon or a wide sitting room. Produced in limited numbers; each piece is a little its own. Professional washing. Put it in a plain room and the room stops being plain without becoming busy.