Ikat traditions run from the Andes to Uzbekistan to Indonesia, and each one solves the same problem in its own way: how to put pattern into thread instead of into cloth. The result is a graphic with edges that breathe, a quality no print and no embroidery can imitate. This rug translates that thread-level event into pile.

A tufted carpet is built upside down. The cartoon is traced on the back of a stretched cotton primary, and the wool is pushed through one row at a time from below. After every motif is set, the back is locked with latex and the carpet is flipped, sheared, and finished from the front. This piece took four to five weeks on the loom with two tufters and a finisher sharing the work. The pile was sheared down by hand to bring the design into relief, with the higher tones standing two millimetres above the deeper field. The wool was carded, spun, and dyed in workshop batches before reaching the loom, and the back was finished with natural latex and a cotton scrim once the front of the rug was complete.

The composition

The motifs feather at every edge, the way an ikat always does, and the colour shifts where the dye took unevenly across the bound yarn. Read as a flat graphic the field is symmetric. Read at close range it is full of small chromatic events. The dominant tones in this piece read as brown, purple, dark.

The piece in a room

size as listed () carries a study, a moderate sitting area, or a primary bedroom anchored over the bed. The field has presence without dominance. Sits comfortably with both modern and inherited furniture.

Care

Vacuum weekly with the beater bar off; the bar pulls fibres out of any tufted construction regardless of price. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth, working from the outside in. Expect light shedding for the first six weeks of use as loose fibres work themselves out of the pile. A professional dry clean every three years keeps the surface fresh.

Reference

• Medium: hand-tufted wool, latex-bonded back, cotton scrim
• Dimensions: size as listed
• Pile: 12 mm, sheared by hand
• Hands: two tufters and a finisher, four to five weeks
• Origin: India

Shipped free across India. Cash on delivery available at checkout. 7-day exchange. Tracked dispatch with signed delivery.