Tibetan weaving uses a knot found nowhere else, looped around a metal rod and cut in a single pass so the pile rises in even ribs across the loom. The technique gives the weaver freedom to mix wool and silk in the same row, raising the silk a fraction above the wool so that the design appears in two planes of reflectivity. Monastic workshops in the Himalayan belt refined this method over centuries, and the lineage was carried into India by weavers trained in the same school.

Three weavers shared the loom for about six months. The wool is hand-carded and lanolin-rich, sourced from highland sheep, and the silk is reeled from cocoons and twisted as a contrast yarn. Around two and a half million Tibetan loop-knots in total, every pass cut by hand against the rod.

The composition

A field of warm beige with a soft tonal drift across the surface where wool and silk meet. The pattern is restrained, an open central reserve framed by a wide unbroken border that lets the silk highlights catch raking light. From one end of the room the rug reads as a single warm ivory; from the other it reads as a bone field with a luminous border. The two-plane effect is the point of a wool and silk Tibetan and is impossible in a single-fibre piece.

What you are buying

Comparable Tibetan wool and silk pieces from the studios that supply the West sit between forty and ninety thousand US dollars at retail. This is the same construction, the same fibre quality, the same loom discipline, made in India and priced for the Indian collector. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, and the silk catches more light as the wool wears slightly to expose it.

The piece in a room

9' x 12' (274 x 366 cm) carries a primary living arrangement with all furniture floating on the rug. The neutral palette suits oak, walnut, blackened steel, and limestone equally. Diffuse natural light brings the silk forward; downlights at night render the field as a quiet warm ground for whatever the room is built around.

Conservation

Rotate one hundred and eighty degrees each spring and autumn. Vacuum suction only with the beater bar off, twice a week in primary traffic. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth, never rub a silk-blended pile. Hand wash by a wool and silk trained conservator every five years. With this care the rug runs seventy years and longer.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool and silk on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 274 x 366 cm (9' x 12')
• Construction: Tibetan loop knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, ~6 months
• Pile: 10 mm wool with silk highlights
• Colour: beige ground with tonal silk relief
• Origin: India

Free shipping anywhere in India. Cash on delivery available. Seven-day exchange. Arrives crated and insured.