From a sketch in Geneva
to looms across four regions.

The atelier sketch.

Every rug starts as a paper sketch in our Geneva atelier. We work from a brief — a room photograph, a Pantone reference, an architect’s elevation, a verbal description — and produce two to three concept directions in pencil.

Once a direction is chosen, the sketch is digitised into a weave plan: a knot-by-knot grid that the master weavers will read. This is the document the weaver actually follows. It is more like a musical score than a picture.

Raw wool, hand-spun, hand-dyed.

We work with New Zealand and Tibetan wool, sourced raw and hand-spun by the artisans. Hand-spinning leaves micro-variations in the yarn that hand-knotting then amplifies into the soft, alive surface of a real rug. Machine-spun yarn produces a flat, characterless pile.

Dyes are vegetable-based wherever the colour is achievable. Indigo, madder, weld, walnut, pomegranate rind, oak gall. Where a synthetic dye is necessary — for certain bright modern hues — we use Swiss-supplied low-impact reactive dyes that meet OEKO-TEX Standard 100.

Four regions. Women-led ateliers. Fair compensation.

Hand-knotting takes place at our partner ateliers across Afghanistan, Armenia, India, and Tibet. Two to four master weavers work on a single loom for the duration of a commission. A 200 by 300 cm rug at 150 KPSI takes roughly 800 hours at the loom.

We work with the atelier directly, with fair compensation paid to the women who weave. They work in daylit, ventilated workshops, knotting one rug at a time.

100 to 150 KPSI standard. Up to 400 on commission.

Knot count — knots per square inch, or KPSI — is the most-quoted and least-understood measure of a hand-knotted rug. Higher is not always better; it depends on the design.

Our standard wool rugs are woven at 100 to 150 KPSI — the historical sweet spot for hand-spun wool, where the knot density is high enough to render fine detail but the pile remains plush. Silk and fine bespoke pieces can go to 400 KPSI, which renders almost photographic detail at the cost of a flatter, harder feel.

Wash, clip, bind. Geneva quality control.

Once the rug leaves the loom, it is washed to set the dyes and open the pile, clipped to even the surface, and bound at the edges. The rug is then shipped to Geneva for final inspection.

In Geneva, every rug is laid out, checked against the original sketch and render, photographed, measured, and signed off by our atelier head. Only then does it receive a CarpetArtisan provenance certificate — serial number, weaver names, knot count, dye record, date of completion.

White-glove, in the room.

The rug is wrapped, insured for full value, and delivered to the room of your choice with packaging removed. See Shipping for the detail.