Beni Berber | 310 x 250 cm | Nr. Z-1627

Modern Beni Berber, light grey

Origin	India
Dimensions	310 cm x 250 cm (= 7.75 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: cotton
knots per m²2	60.000
Pile height	10mm
Year of manufacture	2022
Colour	Light grey, dark 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 admired the naive, clear design of high-pile Moroccan nomad rugs. That powerful, artistic expression gives them an extraordinary presence and makes Berber rugs one of a kind – quite apart from how soft they feel underfoot.

 

Pattern

The clear, abstract design of this contemporary rug speaks especially to people who love simple, modern interiors and architecture. The design idea for this rug comes from Europe. Free from the rules of traditional rug patterns, it was developed for Western art and interior styles. That is not an entirely new development, though. The roots of European rug design go back to Art Deco rugs, which were made to Western specifications between the late twenties and the fifties.

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.

Light grey and dark grey dominate the overall impression.

 

Material

This hand-knotted Berber rug has a dense, fairly high pile. That makes it very cosy and hard-wearing. Traditionally, Berber rugs – like Lori or Gabbeh rugs – were used for sleeping on. They invite you to sit and sprawl in the living room, but they are also excellent for hallways and dining areas. The warp and weft yarns of this Berber rug are cotton; the pile is wool that is dyed with natural dyes and hand-spun. The hand-spun wool is what gives the Loris their soft surface. The weft and warp threads of this Beni Berber are cotton. This versatile material is tear-resistant and elastic and therefore particularly well suited to a hard-wearing foundation.