Terracotta Abstract Tencel® Prayer Rug, Baş Başa Series

Terracotta moves between earth and sunlight, and the whole surface of this prayer rug is that movement — warm horizontal passages of color, no motif anywhere, and one mark at the point where the forehead comes to rest.

01Knot by knot, by hand

Tencel® yarn, loom-woven in Anatolia at 80 × 130 cm (2'7" × 4'3"). Dense pattern gives the mind somewhere to wander, which is the last thing wanted here, so the design refuses it. The color flows in soft horizontal currents that carry the eye across and let it go.

02The feel of the surface

What remains is a single point of focus and a color that feels like a warm floor in late afternoon. The yarn is natural with Tencel® in it, soft enough that kneeling on it for a long prayer is a comfort rather than an endurance, and gentle against the hands.

03Coming off the loom

The looms are Anatolian and the technique carries the warmth of hand-woven work into an evenly finished piece. It is the kind of object that gets given at the start of Ramadan and is still in use twenty years later, provided it is washed by someone who knows what they are doing. Loom-woven in Anatolia, with the character of a hand-woven piece. Tencel®-containing natural yarn, soft under the hands and knees. Terracotta in horizontal color flow, with no motif and no border. A single mark at the point of prostration, and nothing else on the surface. 80 × 130 cm. Designed in house for a flat, undistracting field of view. Professional washing and careful handling keep it in service for decades. Terracotta is the color of the ground people have prayed on for a very long time, which may be why it is the one that sells first.