Rugsville Galaxy Black Wool Silk Carpet 8' x 10'

A black ground in a hand-knotted wool and silk carpet is a deliberately difficult chromatic decision. Black absorbs more light than any other ground, which means every line of the drawing has to register against an absorbent field, and any silk highlight has to do the work of two highlights to read. Galaxy is conceived as a night-sky composition, with scattered points of silk-lifted ivory and faded indigo distributed across a deep saturated black ground in the same way stars distribute across a clear winter sky.

Three weavers worked the loom for six months. The pile combines New Zealand wool with mulberry silk, the silk reserved for the brightest points of the composition where it has to cut through the absorbent black ground. The wool was double-dyed in successive baths to reach the depth of black the cartoon required. Knots are Persian asymmetric tied row by row against the loom beam, with the foreman walking the work daily because a black-ground rug is unforgiving of any spinning or dye-batch variation.

The composition

A deep saturated black field with constellated points of silk-lifted ivory and bone, scattered through softer accents of indigo, ash, and faded ochre. There is no border and no centre. The composition reads as the night sky drawn from memory, the brightest stars carried by the silk and the surrounding sky given depth by the wool. Over the years the black will relax slightly and the silk will burnish into a deeper lustre.

ehat you are buying

Contemporary hand-knotted wool and silk carpets on black grounds at 8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) sit at $10,000 to $20,000 once gallery margin is added in the New York and London trade. This piece is woven to the same construction, the same fibre choice, and the same dye discipline, sold direct from India. A black-ground wool and silk rug holds its visual force for decades because the black does not fade the way a coloured ground fades.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) settles into a primary bedroom or a medium living area. The black ground reads as architectural depth rather than as decoration, which makes it particularly effective in rooms with strong light from one side and quieter walls behind it. Pairs with chalk and lime walls, bleached oak floors, blackened steel, and a single strong work of contemporary art with bright colour.

Conservation

Half-turn the rug twice a year so foot traffic and light age the field evenly. aacuum weekly on suction only, beater bar disengaged. Blot any spill immediately with clean cotton, never rub the silk passages. Specialist hand wash every five to seven years restores the silk lustre and removes embedded dust. The rug serves seventy to a hundred years.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool with mulberry silk highlights, cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 244 x 305 cm (8' x 10')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, 6 months
• Pile: 10 mm
• Origin: India

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