Purple Oushak-Pattern Hand-Knotted Carved Wool Rug, Safir Series

Every motif on this rug was cut around by hand with shears after it came off the loom, one at a time, so the pattern stands a few millimeters above its own ground. Hand-knotted in India in purple, in the Oushak family of large floral drawings, over a surface of wool, cotton and bamboo viscose.

01How many centimeters, which room

Six sizes are made, up to 255 × 380 cm (8'4" × 12'6"). Purple is a hard color to keep from going flat, and the carving is what stops it: the trimmed outline throws a shadow of its own, so the field reads as two purples rather than one, and the depth changes as you walk past.

02Knot by knot, by hand

Dense knotting is the second half of the answer, because the Oushak drawing depends on thin scroll lines that a loose weave simply loses. Against walnut, brass and unbleached linen it looks its age; in a white room it is the whole argument. Knotted in India, on a cotton foundation, with bamboo viscose worked through the pattern for its shine.

03Choosing the size

Two of the six sizes are long runners, one of them 85 × 400 cm (2'9" × 13'1"), cut for corridors rather than shortened from a rug. The relief has a cost worth naming: a carved surface is not flat, and a chair leg dragged across it finds the low channels.

04How it feels underfoot

Lift furniture rather than sliding it. Hand-knotted in India; each motif carved around by hand with shears. Wool, cotton and bamboo viscose in the surface, on a cotton foundation. Purple Oushak drawing, held by a dense knot count that keeps the thin scrollwork legible. The carved outline gives the field a shadow, so the purple shifts as you cross the room. Six sizes, including 80 × 390 cm and 85 × 400 cm corridor runners. Do not drag furniture over a carved surface. Washing is a job for a specialist. The carved channels are where the wear will show first, and in thirty years they will be the reason anyone can date it. This rug belongs to the Safir Series.