Saffron Gold and Plum Banded Kilim, Hand-Woven Wool

Material: 100 percent hand-spun wool, flat-woven with soumak embroidered banding. No pile.

Care instructions

• Always use a rug pad underneath — a flatweave slips easily without one.
• Vacuum gently with the beater bar off, working along the bands rather than across them.
• Turn the kilim over every year — it is reversible and wears evenly if used both sides.
• Blot spills immediately, working from the outside in.
• Have the kilim professionally cleaned when needed — never machine wash.

Saffron is the colour that lifts this one. Most Afghan flatweaves keep to madder red and indigo, with gold used sparingly in a stripe or two; here a broad saffron border runs the full way round and carries the lozenge motifs that give the rug its rhythm. Everything else follows the traditional plan — striped centre panel, frame within frame of soumak embroidery, wide banded ends — but the warmth of that gold changes how the whole piece sits in a room, closer to a woven textile hung on a wall than to a floor covering. There is a great deal to look at here and none of it repeats exactly: each ring of banding carries its own motif, worked freehand as the weaving grew.