Multicolor Abstract-Pattern Handwoven Wool Rug, Maison Series

Three yarns share this rug. Wool builds the pile, viscose and bamboo viscose are worked into the pattern where the drawing needs to catch light, and cotton carries the warp underneath. It is handwoven in India, measures 172 × 248 cm (5'8" × 8'2"), and the abstract figure across it is drawn in gold-yellow, silver-gray, copper and chrome. Those four tones are metals, and they behave like metals on a floor. Gold-yellow holds steady under any light.

Silver and chrome flip between bright and dull according to which way the pile has been laid, and the copper is the warm anchor that keeps the whole thing from going cold. The pattern has no repeat you can trace and no border to close it, so the figure runs off all four edges as if the rug were cut from something larger. The weaving is done by hand on a cotton warp in India.

01What Wool does

Wool takes the traffic and the two cellulosic yarns take the shine, which is a division of labor rather than a decoration — a rug made entirely of viscose would gleam everywhere and read as flat. Viscose is spun from wood pulp and is weaker wet than wool is, so this rug goes to a professional cleaner and never into water at home. Wool in the pile, with viscose and bamboo viscose put through the pattern for sheen. Handwoven in India, over a warp of cotton. 172 × 248 cm (5'8" × 8'2"). Gold-yellow, silver-gray, copper and chrome, in an abstract figure that runs off all four edges. The metallic tones change value as the pile turns; the wool areas do not. Professional washing only — the viscose content rules out home cleaning. Against a plain sofa it does the work a painting would do, and it is the one thing in the room that answers a change of light. This rug belongs to the Maison Series.