A few months ago, I wrote about an exhibit of carpets exhibited at Milan by Swiss carpet manufacturer Edition Ruckstuhl. As a follow-up to that piece, I'd like to concentrate on one of the original nine carpet designs: Hypnos. Part of my attraction to this area rug is involuntary, since the form itself mesmerizes viewers. Like a pendulous watch moving back and forth in metronomic sway, Hypnos makes one spellbound.

Hypnos. Designed by Edition Ruckstuhl.

Edition Ruckstuhl compares the carpet's effect by way of a religious comparison: "Within the circular, ever narrower wavy lines that characterize the carpet's striking pattern, the installation's motif of rotating, ornamentally perforated textile umbrellas that instinctively evoked an association with the robes of whirling dervishes has been frozen in place." In case you've forgotten, the whirling dervishes, besides being visually captivating, are Sufi mystics who dance in impossibly fast twirls as a form of prayer-making the Hypnos carpet its own homage to the Persian spiritual tradition.

Made from pure new wool, Hypnos catapults the circular area rug into a different realm: by making the edges of the arc undulate, the round rug becomes an emblem of motion. At 190 cm round (diameter of about 74 inches), Hypnos is neither too large nor too small-like the famed objects in the Goldilocks fairy tale, it is just right. Designed by Atelier Oï, Hypnos doesn't complicate its subversively complex pattern with unneeded color. Simple and subtle gradations in tone and texture animate the entrancing carpet. Like waves in the sand or layers in sedimentary rock, the organic lines in Hypnos are perfectly imperfect. This is an area rug you won't be able to stop looking at. You will not possess Hypnos-it will possess you.

Via Interior Design.