Blue Oushak-Pattern Loom-Woven Wool Round Rug, Tempus Series

Weaving on the Aegean side of Türkiye goes back centuries, and this rug comes off a loom there: a round Tempus Series piece in all wool, 160 or 200 cm across (5'3" or 6'7"), carrying Oushak drawing and small flower figures in gray and blue. Oushak patterns were drawn for rectangles, so putting one in a circle means cutting it. The medallion holds the center and the border curves around it, but the corner pieces a rectangle would carry have nowhere to go and are simply left out.

01Up close to the pattern

What remains is a ring of pattern around an open middle. Blue takes the medallion and the border, gray fills the ground between them, and the two stay close enough in value that the rug reads calm rather than graphic. Wool all the way through, at a medium pile and a close weave, which is the density that gives a loom-woven rug the hand of a knotted one.

02At the loom in in Türkiye

Every piece has the Halıcızade tree-of-life woven into it, which is how the series is told apart from anything similar. The construction is not hand-knotting and is not described as such: the ground is machine-set and the finish is done by hand. Made on a loom in the Aegean, in western Türkiye. All wool, medium pile, closely woven. Round, either 160 cm or 200 cm in diameter. An Oushak medallion and border with flower figures, in gray and blue. Marked with the Halıcızade tree-of-life. Sits well with white, cream and beige, and equally with anthracite and navy. Professional washing. A circle makes a room look considered and an Oushak pattern makes it look inherited, and doing both at once is a narrow trick to pull off.