Umai Rug by Marina Begman is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Silver A' Design Award in Furniture Design Competition Category.
SilverFurniture· 2020
Umai Rug
Client: Marina Begman
Silver A' Design Award Winner in Furniture Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #102374The Design
About Umai Rug
Made in ancient nomadic technique, protected by UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safekeeping, this rug is bringing the best out of wool due to gradient wool shades and fine hand stitching that creates volumetric texture. 100 percent hand made, this rug is made using natural shades of wool plus yellowish tone dyed with onion shell. A golden thread that goes through the rug makes a statement and reminds of the hair freely flowing in the wind - hair of nomadic goddess Umay - protector of women and children.
The Recognition
About the Silver A' Design Award
Umai Rug is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. Umai Rug is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Umai Rug is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.
Where to Get It
Custom Heritage Rugs and Interior Design
We create bespoke hand-felted wool rugs and textiles using UNESCO-protected traditional techniques from Central Asia. Our award-winning designs blend ancient craftsmanship with contemporary aesthetics, bringing cultural narratives into modern spaces through sustainable, artisan-made pieces.
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Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
Creating Umai's Hair Rug is a complex endeavor, following ancient techniques of shyrdak making. Wool, the primary material, is sheared from sheep in the spring. It is then washed, dried, colored, and pressed into sheets. The sheets are cut into beautiful patterns and stitched together, representing spiritual values and harmony between people and the natural world. These patterns are quilted onto a large piece of plain wool base, creating a soft, thick, high-quality carpet that can last for decades.The shyrdak, a distinctively designed wool rug, is an integral part of the traditional nomadic lifestyle of Central Asia. The technique used to make shyrdaks has been perfected over centuries and passed down from generation to generation. Central Asian nomads use shyrdaks to insulate and decorate their yurts, keeping these moveable homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer. A shyrdak is a highly valuable possession for nomadic people; it’s included in dowries for young brides, and presented as a gift for important life events and celebrations.
Design was inspired by a legend of Turkic and Mongolian people, about ancient goddess Umai - a benevolent spirit, the patroness of children and women. The mother goddess was depicted with golden hair, with a comb-shaped hairstyle. The rug drawing is depicting her loose hair in the wind
How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
All design research and sketches took around 3 months
Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
I have always been fascinated by significant role of women in nomadic mythology, where women were treated with great respect and reverence.
Unfortunately, in our time, the women are not treated the same in Central Asia. Through this design concept I wanted to remind how important women were for nomadic people
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- One hundred percent natural sheep wool hand-felted and hand-stitched, dyed with herbs. Wool texture comes out beautifully through natural color combination and detailed stitching. Using an ancient and rare nomadic technique of rug making, included in UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safekeeping, the best of natural material is brought out, making it state of the art rug or wall decoration for modern home
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 3000 mm x 2000 mm x 15 mm
- Tags
- felt, wool, handmade rug, shyrdak
- Production Technology
- Creating Hair of Umay is a complex endeavour, following ancient techniques of shyrdak making and research of central asian legends included interviewing the elder women artisans in Naryn. Wool, the primary material, is sheared from sheep in the spring. It is then washed, dried, coloured, and pressed into sheets. The sheets are cut into beautiful patterns and hand stitched together. These patterns are quilted onto a large piece of plain wool base, creating a soft, thick, high-quality carpet.
- Design Challenge
- The rug is fully hand-stitched, cannot be imitated by a sewing machine. It takes one experienced woman-artisan 3 days to stitch one m2. It takes 6 sheep to make one rug of 3m by 2m size. The whole process is hand-made and very labor intensive.
- Research
- First, the technique itself was researched. Secondly, the ancient legends of central asian nomads were learned.The technique research included academic research about shyrdak making, traveling to Kyrgyzstan to remote mountainous region Naryn, where this technique is still kept by elder women, interviewing them, as well as participating in shyrdak making to experience and understanding the technique firsthand.
The research of nomadic legends included reading central asian literature and interviewing a university professor on Kyrgyz literature and history. - Inspiration
- Inspired by a legend of Turkic and Mongolian people, about ancient goddess Umai - a benevolent spirit, the patroness of children and women. The mother goddess was depicted with golden hair, with a comb-shaped hairstyle. The rug drawing is depicting her loose hair in the wind
- Project Duration
- A custom rug takes two months to make including delivery. Workshop is located in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
- Operation Flow
- It is a piece of art that could decorate your floor or wall.
Also helps with acoustics to limit noise pollution. It retains warmth when it is cold, and keeps a space cool when it is hot. It's antibacterial, and doesn't absorb odours. - Team Members
- Aliya Rakhman
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Dias Nurmagambetov, Variations, 2020
Image #2: Photographer Dias Nurmagambetov, Variations, 2020
Image #3: Photographer Dias Nurmagambetov, Variations, 2020
Image #4: Photographer Dias Nurmagambetov, Variations, 2020
Image #5: Photographer Dias Nurmagambetov, Variations, 2020
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