Colourful Waziri rug

Add some pizazz to your room with this handmade Afghan colourful Waziri rug.

This eye-catching Afghan rug shows off a riot of bright colours contrasting with a grey background shade. The intense pops of colour include shades of bright turquoise, navy, rust-red, purple, green, ochre, apricot and brown. 

The design is equally captivating with a theme of fifteen vibrantly coloured geometric gul motifs. This is a real statement-piece rug that will uplift any room. 

Find out some more about this colourful Waziri rug

This colourful Afghan rug was handmade in Afghanistan. 

The enthralling pattern of this handmade Afghan rug is a modernised Afghan tribal theme. It shows an arrangement of fifteen gul motifs. "Gul" is a name for flower and traditionally Afghan and Turkmen carpets were woven with gul motifs laid out in rows or columns. 

You will find that this is an interesting rug to look at because the colour configuration of each gul emblem is different.

This handmade rug takes it's name from an ancient Afghan tribe, the Waziri. 

Learn what this modern Afghan rug is made from

Like many Afghan rugs, this handmade rug is made only from wool and cotton. Both materials play an important part in the rug.

We naturally notice the woollen pile. It is, after all, what we see (and enjoy looking at) when viewing the rug and what we feel under our feet as we stroll across it. 

For the underlying threads, cotton has been used. These are the warp threads, which are integral to every handmade rug. The warps threads are the first yarns the weavers will secure onto the loom and these threads form the underlying foundations of the rug. They are secured from the top of the loom to the bottom - running the entire length of the rug. You might be interested to know that you can see the warp threads on this rug, as they emerge each end of the rug as it's fringes. 

How this Waziri rug was handmade

The Afghan carpet weaving heritage is continued in how this rug was made. This Afghan rug was made in a traditional way as Afghan carpets have been woven for many generations before this. 

It was handmade by hand-knotting the wool pile. For making a rug of good quality, this ancient method is yet to be surpassed. 

The pile on this rug is made by the weavers (there would have been two on a rug this size) attaching coloured woollen yarn onto pairs of warp threads. Every tuft of pile made is created from a knot. As you can imagine, this is a lengthy process. The knots are tied across-ways in rows, followed by series of weft threads. The wefts are beaten against the knots and then the next row of knots can be tied. The knots combine to create the colours and pattern of the rug.

In a rug of this size, there will be something like between half-a-million knots and three-quarters of a million knots contained within it!

Ideas for where you can position this handmade rug

The 8'x5'9 size of this rug is a useful size to use in a sitting room between sofas. This is one of those rugs which has bright, uplifting colours without being too dark and this is combined with an intriguing tribal pattern. 

It will prove to be hard-wearing too, due to the fact that it is made only from natural fibres that are known for their durability. 

Key details:

• Country of origin: Afghanistan
• Size: 2.45×1.76m / 8’0″x5’9″
• Thickness: 7mm
• Pile: Wool, hand-knotted
• Warp: Cotton
• Age: New