Adam Lowe, who makes my tapestries, said, 'I've got this lovely carpet-maker that you can work with'. I immediately had the idea for this rug, but I was cautious - I had real qualms about it, so it took me six months to start it. It's quite a tasteless thing: a carpet with a homeless person on it.

His dreadlocks give him a kind of halo around his head. His dog is lying next to him, with a bandanna, which is sort of traditional. It's almost a Chirst-like image, with a cardboard cross, and the detritus of addiction and homelessness all around. It's done in the style of an Afghan rug. Around the edge, forming a perimeter, are different kinds of domestic architecture, sort of taunting him. There are pigeons, bottles, beer, chip trays and fag packets, a few syringes and crack pipes and lots of fag butts and pills. It was made by hand in Granada, Spain. It's come out exactly like I imagined it, which is quite rare.

The title is about not looking down your nose at people, but also about there being a 'glass floor'. The drop nowadays from, say, the top 20 per cent in society down to everyone else has become much more vertiginous. People living in metropolitan areas, with expensive houses and high-tech gadgets, education, jobs - they're shooting away from the rest of society. I wanted there to be a clash between the seductive, bright colours, the nice texture and the uncomfortable images. I'm fascinated to know who would dare to have this on the floor of their home.

Grayson Perry