Orange Shawl-Pattern Loom-Woven Wool Rug, Karnaval Series

The shawl drawing is the one that traveled — the repeating teardrop figure that came off Kashmir shawls and that English ended up naming after Paisley, the Scottish town that copied them — and here it is worked in wool over an orange ground, loom-woven in India, in three sizes: 60 × 90 cm (2' × 2'11"), 150 × 217 cm (4'11" × 7'1") and 197 × 279 cm (6'6" × 9'2"). Orange asks a lot of a floor.

01After the color

This one earns it by staying warm rather than bright, nearer the color of a clay tile than of a signal. The shawl figures repeat across the field in a way that is ethnic in origin and modern in effect, because the repetition is regular and the ground is left visible between them. In a room of one flat tone it becomes the depth the room does not otherwise have. Where a scheme already has orange or its neighbors in it, the rug reinforces rather than competes.

02From the hand of the weaver

It sits against natural wood, against white, and — surprisingly — against black. Weavers in India work the wool on the loom, and the fringes at each end are tied by hand once the rug comes off it.

03The Wool on the surface

Wool is what gives the pile its resilience and the color its depth; a synthetic yarn would take this orange much brighter and much flatter. Keeping it is simple: vacuum it on a regular schedule, which is most of what the color needs to stay where it is.

04Knot by knot, by hand

Two remain. Loom-woven in India, with the fringes tied by hand afterward. Wool pile; the depth of the orange comes from the fiber taking dye unevenly. A repeating shawl figure — what English calls paisley — over an orange ground. Three sizes: 60 × 90, 150 × 217 and 197 × 279 cm. Reads as a single focal object in a room of flat color. Regular vacuuming is what keeps the orange from going dull. Two pieces in stock. It is the rug that gets bought for a child's room and ends up in the living room within a year.