Traditional weaving revival by Basny Rugs

With everything undertaken by hand, This KYIV-based brand is ensuring traditional Ukrainian rug making stays relevant

Volodymyr Benedychuk vividly recalls finding an old rug in the root cellar where his family stored vegetables and preparations for winter. Made in the late 19th century by his great-grandmother, the tattered piece struck him as a relic from another time: when rug weavers still existed in northern Ukraine.

Like many Ukranians, Benedychuk grew up with limited access to his cultural past. ‘A lot of stereotypes from Soviet times said that we have no culture or it’s all minor,’ says Benedychuk, who moved to the mountainous region of western Ukraine in 2015 to immerse himself in local craft-making traditions. In 2023, with his friend Nadiia Puchkina, he decided to grow his personal rug-making into a Kyiv-based brand, Basny Rugs, which blends traditional weaving techniques with local artists’ contemporary designs.

Mariia Havrysh’s grey-and-electric pink Eckie rug, part of the Second Surface collection, evokes mould blossoming on fruit; artist Path Mode’s Ystra captures abstract shapes on the trails of the Gorgony mountains. All weaving is done by hand in Yavoriv, a village near the Carpathian mountains. ‘Their mothers did it, their grandmothers did,’ Benedychuk says of the artisans. ‘It’s an important part of why we’re doing it: to preserve this tradition.’

Making the rugs involves harvesting sheep’s wool; rolling the combed material into a sliver; weaving yarn on a wooden spindle to release fibres; weaving on a traditional horizontal loom; and treating the rug with cold mountain water. Everything is done by hand, and all the tools are handmade by artisans. Customers are delighted to find small leaves or twigs in a piece. ‘Especially when your history is erased,’ says Benedychuk, ‘you need to find these small treasures from somewhere and restore all this culture, this history, from your family and your nation.’

Jill Krasny