Mink Abstract Loom-Woven Tencel Rug, Zima Series

Tencel®, the branded lyocell Halıcızade works with, makes the entire face of this rug: a mink ground, soft gray shadow laid across it, copper and colored glints surfacing where the light lands, all of it carried on a cotton foundation. The main size is 200 × 300 cm — 6'7" by 9'10" — and six further sizes are woven, down to a 90 × 190 cm mat and out to a runner nearly six meters long. Mink is a warm gray-brown that sits close to earth, and the abstract shading laid over it behaves like light coming through a door left ajar — bright along one edge, dissolving into the ground on the other.

01The Wool on the surface

Halıcızade's designers drew the Zima compositions after a couplet of Rumi's about flowing on rather than freezing in place, and this one gives that idea a physical form: the same rug at eight in the morning and at eight in the evening is two different pieces, because the angle of the light decides how much of the copper is visible. There is no wool anywhere in it. Tencel® and cotton together give a face that is bright from one direction and matt from another, and a hand soft enough that walking on it barefoot is the reason people buy the series.

02Knot by knot, by hand

The looms are at Kütahya and Oushak and the work is largely women's; hand labor and machine knotting go into the same piece. A weave number is added to every rug, which is what separates one Zima from the next even inside the same colorway. Loom-woven at Kütahya and Oushak, largely by women weavers. Tencel® over a cotton foundation; contains no wool. A mink ground with gray shading and copper glints that come and go with the light. Soft enough underfoot to be walked on barefoot without a thought. Every piece carries a weave number and the Halıcızade tree of life. Seven sizes: 90 × 190, 90 × 390, 90 × 590, 130 × 190, 170 × 240, 200 × 300 and 240 × 340 cm. Professional washing. Mink is what people choose when beige is too yellow and gray is too cold, and there is very little else standing in that gap.