The stripe is the most economical mark a loom can make. Every weaving culture in the world begins with a stripe and most return to it. The Pueblo, the Tuareg, the Welsh, the Bauhaus, all settled on the simple horizontal band as the truest expression of what a loom does.

The work occupied One weaver and a finisher across around four weeks. The pile was tufted face-down on a stretched frame, with each loop pulled through the canvas one at a time. After the tufting was complete the back was sealed with natural latex and reinforced with a cotton scrim; the surface was then sheared by hand and washed to bring the dye to its final saturation.

The composition

The composition is anchored in beige and green. The pattern is allowed enough silence around it that the rug reads as ground rather than as figure, which is the harder achievement in rug design. The tonal range is narrow by design and the colour relationships will tighten as the wool settles in over the first months of use. The piece is meant to recede into the architecture of the room and let the furniture, the art, and the light do the speaking. Up close the small variations across the field are visible as the trace of a hand-dyed wool batched in small lots.

The piece in a room

3' x 5' fits the foot of a smaller bed, the side of a sofa, or a quiet doorway. The rug is meant to be encountered slowly at this size, with the foot tracing the geometry of the field as the body moves across it. The wool carries enough body underfoot that the piece reads as warmth as much as colour.

Care

Weekly vacuuming on the lowest suction setting. Beater bars are off-limits for tufted wool; use a hardwood-floor attachment if your machine has one. Spills are handled with a dry cloth first to lift the liquid, then a damp one to lift any residue. A professional clean every two to three years keeps the latex back and the wool surface in working condition.

Reference

• Medium: hand-tufted wool, latex bonded with cotton scrim
• Dimensions: 3' x 5' (91 x 152 cm)
• Construction: hand-tufted through stretched canvas, sheared finish
• Hands: 1 tufter and a finisher, around four weeks
• Pile: 12 mm, hand-spun wool
• Origin: India

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