Blue Mihrab-Arch Loom-Woven Tencel® Prayer Rug

A mihrab is the niche in a mosque wall that marks the direction of prayer, and it is the figure drawn across this loom-woven Tencel® and cotton prayer rug — an arch in light and dark blue over cream, with red and navy in the smaller motifs and fringes at both ends. It measures 80 × 130 cm (2'7" × 4'3"), the format prayer rugs have kept for centuries.

Inside the arch the ground is filled with plant forms rather than left open, and a fine border runs around the whole thing to hold the drawing in. Blue does most of the work: the pale blue keeps the surface calm, the darker blue gives the arch its edge, and the cream between them stops the rug from going cold. Red appears only in small quantities, which is what makes it register at all. It is a traditional composition handled with a light hand, and it will sit in a modern room without looking transplanted from somewhere else.

Tencel® is made from wood pulp, and what it does here is put a soft, faintly bright face on a rug that contains no silk at all. Cotton underneath supplies the strength and holds the shape, which matters in an object that is rolled and unrolled daily. The rug is loom-woven, so the structure is regular and the motifs come out sharp; the fringes finish it in the older manner. It is a common gift, and at this size and weight it travels well.

• Loom-woven in Türkiye, with fringed ends.
• Tencel® face on a cotton foundation.
• A mihrab arch in light and dark blue on cream, with red and navy in the detail.
• Plant motifs inside the arch and a fine border around the field.
• One size: 80 × 130 cm (2'7" × 4'3").
• Silk-like softness from the Tencel®, with the cotton holding the form.
• Professional washing rather than a home wash.

It is the kind of object that ends up folded on a shelf in a household for thirty years and comes out looking much as it went in.