Cream Medallion Hand-Knotted Silk Rug

At 124 × 183 cm (4'1" × 6'0") it is small for a silk rug, which is why people hang it. Cream Medallion Hand-Knotted Silk Rug — pure silk, knotted in China, one medallion in the exact center of a cream field, ringed by curling leaves and thin flower stems. The medallion does all the work and the rest of the field is left to it.

01Knot by knot, by hand

Around the center, leaves curl outward on stems drawn only a knot or two wide, and the border closes them without adding another argument. Cream silk under light is not a flat color: it lifts to a low gleam where the pile lies away from you and sinks to bone where it lies toward you, so the same medallion appears to float or to sit depending on where you stand. On a wall it reads as a picture. On a floor it redefines whichever end of the room it is in. Every knot in it is silk, and the knot count is high enough to hold a curved stem — that density is what makes the months of weaving necessary.

02The rule of care

A rug this fine is a delicate surface: it needs professional cleaning, and it should not go where a chair is dragged. Both pieces at this size are alike, and it suits an entrance, a bedroom or the near end of a sitting room rather than the middle of one. Hand-knotted in China from pure silk. A single central medallion in a cream field, with curling leaf and stem work around it. Dense knotting — fine enough to draw a stem a knot or two wide. 124 × 183 cm (4'1" × 6'0") — hall, bedroom, or hung on a wall. Cream silk shifts between gleam and bone depending on where you stand. Months of weaving per piece. Not for a spot where furniture is dragged; cleaning by a specialist. Silk rugs at this size get hung more often than walked on, and there is no argument against doing both in turn.