Rugs Afghani

A yurt on the steppe, its doorway framed in wool. Afghani rugs come from the Turkmen, Baluch and Uzbek weavers of northern and western Afghanistan. Ersari main carpets with rows of guls in madder red. Kizil Ayak and Turkoman pile rugs. Kapunuk, the surrounds that framed a yurt’s entrance. Baluch kilims, camel-motif pile rugs, soumak carpets and Mushwani mixed-technique weavings, all in hand-spun wool. Afghan war rugs, woven from the 1980s, traded traditional motifs for tanks, helicopters and Kalashnikovs; tea-washed and pictorial rugs show a tradition still changing.

Deep madder, indigo and brown absorb the light and warm a room. An Ersari carpet under a dining table, a Baluch prayer rug in a study, a kapunuk over a doorway. Grounded, in every sense.