Brown carrying a contemporary composition. This is the kind of piece that came out of mid-century design studios looking for a denser, more painterly alternative to flatweave. The form has been used in tufted wool since the first wave of post-war American carpet design, and continued to evolve in Indian workshops that took up the technique in the 1980s and refined it through the next forty years of production.

About 5 weeks of work for two tufters and a finisher. Wool was pushed through a stretched cotton canvas with a hand-held gun, then sealed at the back with natural latex and a cotton scrim. The finishing pass was done with hand shears, cutting the pile down millimetre by millimetre to bring the design forward in relief and leave the secondary field reading as a quiet ground.

The composition

The single brown field carries the contemporary composition through subtle pile relief rather than colour change, the way a Jacquard weave handles a tone-on-tone pattern. The pile catches and releases light differently with each step across the rug, which is the optical property a tufted wool surface has that a printed alternative never reaches.

The piece in a room

The rug works under a sofa with the front legs resting on it, or floats below a glass coffee table where the pile relief becomes part of the composition. Pairs well with mid-toned wood, leather, brass, and woven natural fibre. Strong colour walls hold it forward; off-white walls let it breathe. Avoid placing it against strongly patterned upholstery; the rug is the graphic event in the composition and asks for a quiet ground around it. Light coming in from the side rather than directly above brings out the pile relief best.

Care

Vacuum weekly with the beater bar disengaged. A beater bar will pull tufts loose from any tufted rug regardless of price. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth from the outside of the spill in, and dab dry rather than rubbing. Expect a small amount of shedding for the first month or two as loose fibre works out of the pile, which stops on its own. A professional dry clean every two to three years keeps the colour fresh and lifts dust from the foundation.

Reference

• Medium: hand-tufted wool, latex bonded, cotton scrim
• Dimensions: size as listed
• Pile: 12 mm
• Hands: 2 tufters and 1 finisher, ~3 weeks
• Origin: India

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