Blue Oushak-Pattern Handwoven Carved Round Rug, Safir Series

A round handwoven rug in pastel blue, worked in Oushak motifs and finished by carving: once the pile is tied, the outline of every motif is cut back with shears so that the pattern stands above its ground in relief.

01From ground to pile

Wool and cotton carry the body of it, bamboo viscose carries the drawing. Woven in India for this house. One piece only. Oushak drawing is normally large and open. Here it has been reduced and softened until it sits inside a circle with no corner to anchor it.

02Reading the motif

The blues are pastel rather than saturated, so the outer band reads as a ring of pale flowers rather than as a border, and the relief does the work that color would otherwise have to do — under a ceiling light the cut edges throw a shadow a millimeter or two deep and the motifs lift away from the field.

03What Wool does

Seen from directly above, which is how a round rug in an entrance is actually seen, that shadow is the pattern. Cotton runs through the foundation, wool makes the surface, and the motifs alone are picked out in bamboo viscose, a cellulose yarn spun to take light the way silk does; it is why the drawing looks wet against a matt ground.

04At the loom in in India

Knot density is high enough that the carver can follow a curve without stepping it. Carving is a second pass and a slow one, carried out by hand with shears once the rug is off the loom. Being round, it has no straight edge to set against a wall, so it needs floor it can sit in the middle of. Cleaning belongs to a rug workshop. Handwoven in India, in a workshop that supplies this house. Wool surface on a cotton foundation, with bamboo viscose in the motifs. Oushak motifs redrawn at pastel scale, in blues. Every motif is cut back by hand with shears after weaving. Dense knotting holds the curves of the drawing without stepping them. Round format — an entrance hall, a bedroom, or beneath a round table. Professional washing. One piece; carving is never repeated in exactly the same way. What does it mean that the rug is carved? Carving is a hand operation performed after weaving.

05The origin of the pattern

A worker follows the outline of each motif with shears and cuts the surrounding pile shorter, so the pattern sits in relief above the field and throws a small shadow across the pile beside it. Why does a carved rug need a dense weave? Shears open a loose pile.

06The mark of slow weaving

The knot count has to be high enough that the cut edge stays sharp and does not fray, which is why carving is only done on rugs tied densely enough to hold the line. In a hallway it will be the first thing anyone stands on and the last thing they look at, which is the correct order for a rug.