Blue Oushak-Pattern Hand-Knotted Wool Rug, Retro Series

Oushak motifs in blue: a Retro-series rug of 150 × 193 cm (4'11" × 6'4"), hand-knotted with a wool pile on cotton, its ground running from a clear mid-blue through gray and anthracite to near-black at the edges.

01Comes from from Afghanistan

Tied in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One piece. The blue is not uniform and the rug is better for it: several values sit beside one another across the field, so the pattern seems to surface and submerge depending where the light falls.

02The origin of the pattern

Anthracite and black gather toward the borders and hold the whole thing down. Classical Anatolian motifs in a blue this cool would ordinarily look transplanted, yet the drawing is fine enough and the tonal range wide enough that they settle instead. The washing and coloring method the series uses is what draws this many blues out of one dye lot, and the same treatment leaves a low shine on the pile.

03From ground to pile

Cotton and wool are worked together into a thin, firm structure, with a small amount of recycled synthetic in the skeleton and none at all in the surface. Weavers in Pakistan and Afghanistan tie every knot. Sunlight moves a blue faster than it moves a brown, so keep this one off a south window. Hand-knotted in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Wool pile on a cotton foundation, with a small amount of recycled synthetic yarn used only in the skeleton. Blue running through gray, anthracite and near-black across a single field. Classical Oushak motifs drawn at a fine scale. Low sheen from the finishing wash the series is given. 150 × 193 cm (4'11" × 6'4"), for an office, a study, or in front of seating. Professional washing; keep it away from strong direct sun. In a room with a lot of wood in it the blue is the one cool thing, and that is usually enough.