What one sees first is the fuchsia red, vivid and sovereign, descending in a central column on a cream ground and structuring around it a symphony of butterfly and hook motifs, black, anise green, blue-grey, saffron yellow.
The abrash runs through this piece like a breath. These intentional variations in tone, obtained by changing dye baths mid-weave, make the colours undulate across the entire surface of these 130 x 100 cm (4'3" × 3'3"), giving each band its own life, a different pulse. It is a technique that the weavers of Esme commanded with total freedom some 65 years ago, and which transforms a kilim into something alive, in motion, impossible to reproduce.
