Wool & Silk Handmade Rugs

Wool and Silk — The Practical Luxury

This is the combination most people actually want, even if they arrive asking for pure silk. The field is woven in wool, so the rug can take daily use. The silk is reserved for highlights: the outlines of a medallion, the veins of a leaf, the tendrils of an arabesque. Those silk passages catch the light while the wool around them stays matte, and the design gains a depth that neither fibre achieves alone.

Reading the construction

You will see these described as wool and silk on cotton warp or wool and silk on silk warp. The warp is the foundation the knots are tied to. A silk foundation permits a much finer weave and a thinner, more flexible carpet, and it commands a significantly higher price. A cotton foundation is entirely respectable and more stable over time in a climate with humidity swings like the UAE.

Where they work best

Formal living rooms and majlis areas, where the rug will be seen under lighting from several angles. The silk highlights are lost in a dim hallway and wasted under a dining table. If the room has good natural light or well-placed lamps, this is the collection to look at first.

Isfahan, Nain and Tabriz produce the wool-and-silk work we rate most highly, and all three are represented here.