Red Heriz Hand-Knotted Pure Silk Azerbaijani Rug

Şeki, in northern Azerbaijan, has raised silkworms since the sixteenth century and built its first silk mill in 1829. This rug was knotted there: a pure silk Azerbaijani rug, 250 × 337 cm (8'2" × 11'1"), in a Heriz drawing with Oushak inflections, cream at the center and red around the edges, and between eight and fourteen months on the loom. The Heriz layout is large-scale by nature — big angular medallions, broad corner pieces, borders wide enough to carry a pattern of their own — and at this size it has the room to be what it is.

01Color, by the light

Cream holds the middle. Red runs the edge and does most of the shouting. Between them the palette opens into gold, burgundy, a water-green and a soft gray that keeps the whole from settling into a single loud statement.

02Knot by knot, by hand

The Oushak influence shows in how the motifs are spaced rather than in any one figure, which is the sort of borrowing that only appears on a close reading. Silk warp, silk weft, silk pile, tied with the single-knot technique at six by six, which is thirty-six knots in a square centimeter.

03From ground to pile

That is sparser than most silk rugs, and it is a choice rather than a shortcut: the looser structure gives the fabric a softer hand and a heavier drape than a tightly packed silk piece has. The silk is Azeri, rare enough that a woven statement on the underside says so.

04Coming off the loom

Surface marks come off with a damp cloth; anything deeper goes to a specialist, and never to an attempt at home. Hand-knotted in Şeki, Azerbaijan, in pure Azeri silk throughout. Thirty-six knots in a square centimeter, six by six — sparser than most silk rugs, and softer for it. Tied with the single-knot technique, silk wefts over a silk warp. Between eight and fourteen months at the loom. A woven mark on the underside states that the silk is Azeri. Heriz drawing with Oushak influence: cream center, red border, gold, burgundy, water-green and gray between. 250 × 337 cm (8'2" × 11'1") — a salon size that will take a seating group standing inside it. Damp cloth on the surface, a specialist for the rest.

05What Silk does

One piece. What makes Azeri silk different? Şeki has raised its own silkworms since the sixteenth century and milled silk industrially since 1829, dyeing with natural dyes throughout. Rugs woven there carry a mark on the underside stating that the silk is Azeri, because the material is scarce enough to be worth naming. Is six by six a low knot count for a silk rug? It is sparser than most.

06At the loom in in Iran

Thirty-six knots per square centimeter gives a looser structure than a densely packed silk rug, and the result is softer and more pliable with a heavier drape. The fine detail is carried by the drawing rather than by density. What is a Heriz pattern? Heriz is a weaving town in Iranian Azerbaijan, known for large angular medallions, broad corner pieces and wide borders. The drawing works at scale, which is why it is used on big rugs; this one adds spacing habits borrowed from Oushak in western Anatolia. Pure silk rugs of this size get harder to find every year, and a large one out of Şeki is not something that comes around often.