Navy Abstract Hand-Knotted Wool and Silk Rug, Rast Series

The navy ground reads close to black in the photographs, scattered with pinpoints of white and cream. Down the length of the rug runs a bank of cloud in ice blue and pale gray, with patches of sand between.

01Up close to the pattern

At one edge of the cloud sits a small cream oval, the only closed shape in the whole design. In the rug tradition a star is usually an eight-pointed geometric motif and part of a repeating order. Here the star has shrunk to a point and been scattered loosely; the design repeats nowhere.

02The Wool on the surface

It belongs to Halıcızade and is found only here. Wool, silk and cotton, hand-knotted in India. Within the cloud, color is not a single tone but blue and gray flecks mixed together, with white points among them: a soft gradient from across the room, a surface of dots up close. 251 × 352 cm (8'3" × 11'7"), about 8.8 square meters (roughly 95 square feet).

03Knot by knot, by hand

In the Rast series each design is woven once or a few times. A dark rug loses its edge in a dark room, and that can be used on purpose. With walls in ink blue or dark walnut paneling, floor and wall join into a single night color and the pale cloud in the middle becomes the focus of the room.

04Color that shifts through the day

A round cream travertine table set at the center of the cloud repeats the oval on a larger scale. Upholster the sofa in a pale gray bouclé and it leans toward the ice-blue areas. At the middle of one short side, in the darkest part, a small red mark is woven in.