Modern hand-tufted design is a younger tradition than knotting and answers different questions. The neoteric drawing here is built around the questions a contemporary room asks: how to ground the floor without dominating it, how to add colour without crowding the eye, how to look modern without dating quickly.

5 weeks of work for a team of two tufters and a finisher in an Indian workshop. Yarns of wool were tufted through a cotton primary, latex applied at the reverse to lock the pile, then a cotton scrim glued over the latex to finish the back. The pile was then sheared by hand, with the relief between motif and ground cut by a few millimetres so the pattern reads at standing distance. The finished rug carries the depth of a knotted piece at a fraction of the loom-time.

The composition

The palette is ivory and washed sky blue. A modern composition with the discipline of contemporary studio work: shapes proportioned to one another, no element competing for focus, the geometry sitting on the ground rather than pushing forward from it. The cut pile holds the colour and softens the edges of every shape so the rug feels considered rather than printed. With wear the pile compacts evenly and the colour pulls together, which is the patina the design is built to acquire.

The piece in a room

5' x 8' (152 x 244 cm) sits under a four-seater sofa with the front legs of the seating just on the rug, anchors a primary bedroom under the front two-thirds of a queen bed, or grounds a dining alcove. The palette reads warmly under tungsten lamp light and holds its saturation in daylight. At this scale the rug is large enough to define a seating arrangement and small enough to leave a generous border of floor visible at the edges. The rug expects to be looked at, not just walked on.

Care

Suction-only vacuuming, weekly. For spills, blot with a clean dry cloth, then mild detergent on a damp cloth if the stain resists. Professional dry clean every two years. The pile will shed for the first month or so as the cut fibres settle into the latex backing; this is normal and stops.

Reference

• Medium: hand-tufted wool, latex bonded, cotton scrim
• Dimensions: 5' x 8' (152 x 244 cm)
• Hands: 2 tufters and 1 finisher, ~5 weeks
• Pile: cut wool, hand-sheared finish
• Origin: India

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