Oxiana | 239 x 82 cm | Nr. Z-2919

Mottled Oxiana runner, light grey

Origin	Pakistan
Dimensions	239 cm x 82 cm (= 1.9598 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: cotton
knots per m²2	160.000
Pile height	5mm
Year of manufacture	2023
Colour	Light grey, lilac
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

The pattern of this hand-knotted Oxiana rug draws on traditional Uzbek patterns. Originally it was above all the region around Samarkand and Oxiana that knotted rugs with a similar pattern. Our Oxiana rugs are tuned to contemporary taste: harmonious colour compositions in natural dyes flatter the traditional pattern. The Oxiana rugs are graced by colourful cross stripes that alternate with imaginatively patterned areas. The patterned sections show geometric compositions reminiscent of a Kazak pattern. Another characteristic is that the fringes were gathered into small bundles and wrapped with threads in different colours.

Pattern

The surface of this Oxiana looks mottled. The changes 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 shifts, abrash, give the rug a livelier look. The mottling comes about because the wool of this Oxiana was hand-spun. During dyeing, the natural dyes are absorbed to differing degrees.

The edge of this rug is adorned with a suggested border.

The background of this Oxiana is light grey. The edge is worked in light grey, lilac and blue-grey.

Material

The technique used to make the materials for the pile of this Oxiana is over 200 years old. The wool was dyed with natural dyes and spun by hand. Dyeing with natural or plant-based dyes is more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming than dyeing with chemical colours. For a luminous red, for example, you need around one kilo of ground madder root as dyestuff per kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that isn't too pale, you even need two kilograms of the dye weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is just as time-consuming and labour-intensive. And fewer and fewer people still master spinning wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural colours lets the high-quality wool keep its natural lanolin content. The wool dyed with natural dyes and spun by hand creates fascinating, shifting patterns. The charm of hand-spun wool, with its slight irregularities and natural shades, unfolds as a contrast in modern interiors, but just as happily in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country style. The weft and warp threads of this Oxiana are made of cotton. This versatile material is tear-resistant and stretchy, which makes it especially suited to a hard-wearing foundation.