Multicolor Patchwork Loom-Woven Wool Rug, Heritage Series

No two squares on this rug are the same. Multicolor Patchwork Loom-Woven Wool Rug, Heritage Series, 170 × 240 cm (5'7" × 7'10") — a grid of patches running from pink through peach into lilac and gold, loom-woven around Uşak in western Türkiye from New Zealand wool, cotton and bamboo viscose. Patchwork usually means old rugs cut down and stitched together.

01The origin of the pattern

This is the woven version of the idea: the squares are drawn and woven as one surface, each carrying its own motif and its own color, and the joins are pattern rather than seams. Traditional figures sit inside modern blocks, so the whole thing can be read two ways — as a grid from standing height, and as a dozen small rugs if you get down to it.

02The mark of slow weaving

The palette stays in the warm half of the wheel, which is what keeps an active design from turning into noise. The knots are laid down by machine at close density, and every step after the loom is hand work done by women in the villages nearby, which is why a loom-woven piece from here has a hand feel that a fully machine-made rug does not.

03How it feels underfoot

New Zealand fleece makes the pile, cotton the base, and bamboo viscose the brighter motifs. The pile is low, which suits a pattern this active — a deep pile would blur the block edges. Every rug in the series comes out slightly different from the last.

04From the hand of the weaver

Professional washing when it needs it, and a vacuum in between. Loom-woven around Uşak in western Türkiye, then hand-finished. New Zealand fleece and bamboo viscose above a cotton base. A woven patchwork: squares in pink, peach, lilac and gold, each with its own motif. Not cut and stitched — the patches are drawn and woven as one surface. Low pile, which keeps the block edges sharp. 170 × 240 cm (5'7" × 7'10"), a mid-sized living-room or bedroom rug. Every piece in the series differs from the one before it. Professional washing. It is a lot of color for one floor, and the rooms it works in are usually the ones that have been careful about color for years.