Beni Berber | 200 x 150 cm | Nr. Z-4571

Mottled Beni Berber, silver grey

Origin	India
Dimensions	200 cm x 150 cm (= 3.00 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft: wool Warp: cotton
knots per m²2	90.000
Pile height	7mm
Year of manufacture	2026
Colour	Silver grey, light grey
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

Berber rugs were traditionally knotted for use in the home. The weavers, predominantly women, played freely and spontaneously with shapes and colours – without any pattern templates – following their own ideas and their individual intuition. That is why the traditional pattern of Moroccan Berber rugs typically consists of geometric, sometimes colourful, abstract shapes and lines on monochrome backgrounds. Our Beni Berber rugs are inspired by these traditional patterns.

Architects and designers such as Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer and Arne Jacobsen loved the naive, clear design of these high-pile Moroccan nomad rugs. Their powerful artistic expression gives them an extraordinary presence and makes Berber rugs quite incomparable – even setting aside how soft they feel underfoot.

Pattern

Individual areas of the pattern have a higher pile than the rest of this rug. The patterns of modern rugs are tending to become plainer and more abstract. Playing with different pile heights is a new approach, and it has replaced more elaborate, more insistent patterns. Because parts of the pattern have been brought out in two dimensions, though, the rug never looks dull. The accentuation is out of the ordinary and has a truly distinctive effect.

The surface of this Beni Berber has a mottled look. The shifts in tone and the light-and-dark shading of the pile yarn make the colours shimmer and keep the rug forgiving of dirt. These so-called colour jumps, known as abrash, give the rug a livelier feel. The mottling comes about because the wool of this Beni Berber was hand-spun. During dyeing, the natural dyes are taken up unevenly.

The overall impression is dominated by silver grey and light grey.

Material

This hand-knotted Berber rug has a dense, relatively high pile. That makes it wonderfully cosy and hard-wearing. Traditionally, Berber rugs – like Lori or Gabbeh rugs – were used for sleeping on. They invite you to sit and lounge about in the living room, but they are also excellent for hallways and dining areas. The warp and weft yarns of this Berber rug are made of cotton, the pile of wool that is dyed with natural colours and hand-spun. The hand-spun wool is what gives the Loris their soft surface. The weft threads of this Beni Berber are made of wool. The warp threads are made of cotton .