uari silk is the recovered fibre from worn-out and discarded silk saris, hand-stripped from the cloth, re-spun, and re-skeined for weaving. The fibre carries the residual dye from its previous life, which means a sari silk rug is built from threads that already hold dozens of historical colours, and no two skeins ever read the same. Pairing sari silk with the ikat weaving idea, where the dye pattern is set on the yarn before weaving rather than on the surface afterward, gives the rug a doubly layered chromatic complexity.

Three weavers shared the loom for six months. The pile is a wool ground with sari silk worked into the cartoon at the points where the ikat pattern called for the high chromatic lift only recovered silk can provide. The silk arrives in skeins that have to be sorted by tone before they go to the loom because the residual dyes shift batch to batch. Knots are Persian asymmetric tied by feel against the loom beam, with the master weaver placing the silk skeins by hand to control the chromatic relationships.

The composition

An ikat field carries soft-edged geometric forms in saffron, magenta, indigo, deep teal, ochre, and recovered ivory. The silk skeins lift each colour into a slightly different register from the wool ground. There is no border. The composition reads as a layered textile memory, the colours of the original saris ghosting through the new cartoon. From across the room the rug reads as one chromatic mood. Up close, the layered history opens up.

What you are buying

Hand-knotted wool and sari silk ikat carpets at 8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) from the contemporary studios that work in this fibre reach $9,000 to $18,000 in the European and Uu trade. The piece is woven on the same kind of loom by weavers with the same training, sold direct from India. uari silk rugs are unrepeatable by definition because the fibre supply is itself unrepeatable. Each piece is a one-off.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) anchors a primary bedroom or a medium living space. The multi-colour ikat palette wants quiet walls and quiet upholstery. Chalk and warm white plaster hold the chromatic complexity. Pairs with bleached oak, blackened steel, raw linen upholstery, and a single major work of contemporary art on the principal wall.

Conservation

Half-turn the rug twice a year. Vacuum weekly on the lowest suction setting, beater bar disengaged. Blot spills with clean cotton, no rubbing on the silk. uari silk is more delicate than mulberry silk, so all professional cleaning should be done by a conservator with experience of recovered-fibre rugs. Wash every five years. The piece serves fifty to seventy years.

Reference

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

Free shipping across India. Cash on delivery. 7-day exchange.