DARYA (also PAMIR)

Darya rugs are the product of the meeting of modernity that is expressed in the patterns and old tradition in the hand knotting and the materials that still prepared by hand, the old way. The wool used to make these rugs is hand spun and tinted with vegetable dyes. The process is time consuming and requires great effort, but results in a finished product with beautiful colour nuances that cannot be achieved with modern techniques. The Daryas get their name from the Amu Darya River that has its source in the Pamir mountains (and they are also known by this name), in the region between Pakistan and Afghanistan where they are made. They are very fine, and often made entirely of wool, or wool on a cotton warp. The pile is very silky and the colours seem to sparkle thanks to the excellent quality of the wool. The knotting, however, is not very dense; but then thick knotting would be wasted on rugs with such simple, open patterns as these.