Hand Made Turkish Kilims and Making Cushions

A customer called me two weeks ago and had two old Turkish kilims. One of them was damaged and could be repaired. The other piece was badly damaged and was torn apart and not repairable. We agreed on making few cushions out of this damaged old kilim which belonged to this customer's father and had sentimental value for her.

The cushions came out so good with the zippers and custom made sizes of 14 x 14 and 16 x 16 inches. We had a red heavy duty fabrics from the inside to protect the kilim from falling apart. The customer was overwhelmed and so happy with our job. She and her wonderful husband were poets. Richard signed and gave me one of his books. This is what he wrote on the first page of his poems book: " To Khosrow, A poet in his own milieu. With our gratitude. Richard & Kaaren" This meant so much to me. I was so excited to see this kind of reaction and happiness on my customers' faces.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

My Sons in My Rug Gallery On La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles

This summer my Oriental carpet business was slow, but I had the great pleasure of having my two sons with me in my rug store most of the times. My younger son Kash (his real name is Khashaiar and a bit difficult for his American friends to pronounce) took a U.S. history class and passed it with A+ and came to my Oriental carpet gallery whenever he had time. Kash is entering 11th grade at Beverly Hills High School. My older son Ashkan did not take any Summer classes since he did not have that many courses to choose from. He studies Information Technology and Information Systems at the California State University Northridge here in Los Angeles. He has his own web designing and Online Marketing company called IT Chair. He helped me whenever he had time and I needed him. Ashkan has designed our company's web site. Both sons are rug lovers and rug passionate. They are both good at selling rugs and sometimes ask me not to interfere with their sales when they have a customer! They are third generation in Persian rug business and are always ready to learn more.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Persian Sarouk Carpets, American Sarouk Antique Rugs Los Angeles

Two weeks ago, a couple brought an antique American Sarouk carpet with the size of 6 x 9 foot to our rug gallery. They had bought this beautiful Sarouk rug for around $250 from an estate auction!! The rug was worth around $5,000. They had taken it to another rug dealer who had said the rug was worth $10,000 and he wanted to charge them more than $2,000 to fix the fringes and repair the selvages.

Apparently the rug was sent to a rug cleaning facility in the past and they had attached a prefabricated fringe to the rug and had glued it to the rug. Doing this of rug repair was very unprofessional. The couple gave us the job. We unraveled roughly one inch from each end and the secured the fringes which were part of the foundation of the carpet. To have a balanced design, we also unraveled one each from each side and made brand new wool selvages. Now the rug look perfect and ready to be used and enjoyed for many more decades if it is properly taken care of.

Tehran Persian Carpet Exhibition

Tehran to Host Persian Rug Exhibit

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- The 17th exhibition of hand-woven Persian rugs is to kick off Friday Aug. 22, 2008 in an area of 20,000 square meters (roughly 200,000 square feet) at Tehran Int`l Fairground.

"At least 370 suppliers as well as customers from 35 American, European and Asian countries are expected to attend this exhibition," Head of Iran National Carpet Center (INCC) Morteza Faraji was quoted by press TV as saying. On the fourth day of the exhibition, a festival will be held to display the finest hand-woven carpets presented at the exhibition.

Iran is a leading exporter of hand-woven carpets. Persian rugs are highly sought out for their intricate design and skilled craftsmanship. The country produces about five million square meters of carpets annually of which 80 percent are sold in international markets.

Currently one million people are directly involved in Iran`s carpet industry. The country earned $750 million from carpet exports in 2007. The exhibition will run until August 28.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Oriental, Persian, Area Rugs Carpets and Kilims for Sale in Los Angeles

During the past few days, many people have stopped by with rugs in the trunk of their cars for sale. These rugs have included Persian American Sarouk rugs, Hand knotted Persian Tabriz rugs, Turkish kilims, Isfahan rugs, Silk Qum rugs, Indian rugs and many more.

I always tell them this is not the right way of selling a rug and rug dealers should not be your first choice in this journey. Before your start selling your rug, try to know your rug and if you're not sure about the details of your Oriental carpet or area rug try to get an appraisal. If you do not exactly know what you have, how could you sell it? After you get some information on your rug, try to find an end user and a private customer. Selling on the Internet maybe a better option than putting the rug in the trunk of your car and driving around the town to find a potential customer, a dealer who has tens of unsold rugs himself!!

I will write more on this in the near future.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

CIE Coalition of Iranian Enterpreneurs in the Greater Los Angeles

Coalition of Iranian Entrepreneurs (CIE) in Los Angeles has regular meetings in a Persian cuisine restaurant in Beverly Hills called the Camden House, every Monday evening from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The coalition was established more than 20 years ago and was inactive for the past few years. The new board took over a year ago and made the organization active. We had a new election two months ago and I was elected as a board member. CIE acts like the Iranian Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles. In our weekly meetings, we have a one-hour networking session starting at 6:00 pm accompanied by hot tea, and Persian h’ordeauve. Guests talk to each other and exchange business cards and their contact information.

Persian dinner is usually served at 7:00 pm. Around 7:30 pm, the president of the society, Dr. Shay Maghameh welcomes everybody and announces the program. Then I as a board member introduce the new guests who participate in our event for the first time to the audience. Then we have an economic news section for 5-10 minutes and afterwards, we have a keynote speaker for a lecture of about 1/2 hour followed by a 10-minute question-answer section. Roughly, around 50-60 members and guets attend our regular Monday evening meetings. The number of the participants depends on the topic of the speech we have on each Monday.

Last night, we had a panel of three who talked about real estate and its present condition in Southern California. I forgot to mention that the annual membership fee is $100 and each member pays only $20 to attend each meeting. This covers the h’ordeauve and the wonderful Persian food provided by the Camden House Flame Restaurant, and of course enjoying the fun informative and educational lectures and presentations which are delivered in Farsi, the Persian language. In some occasions, we have had non-Iranian guest speakers such as Sheriff Lee Baca of the Los Angeles County.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Hand Knotted Persian Carpet Designs

Some rugs have a central medallion in the center with 1/4 of that medallion on each corner. Some of our customers like this kind of design. Other rugs may have an overall design in which flowers and motives are repeated all over the carpet. It is a matter of taste and there is no technical or professional advantages attached to one of these designs over the other one. Here you can see some samples of the designs. These rugs are all hand knotted Persian carpets with cotton foundation and lamb's wool pile.

Oriental Carpets and Rugs and Cleaning in Los Angeles

Persian Oriental and area rugs market has been slow lately in Los Angeles. Instead, we have been busy with Oriental carpet cleaning, repair, stain removal and appraisal. This brings income and traffic and some of the customers who give us the job for Oriental carpet cleaning, repair, and appraisal, buy rugs from us.

Few days ago, a customer stopped by with three rugs he had bought in Afghanistan while he was there on a mission as a surgeon. Two of his rugs were Afghan rugs made of wool pile on wool foundation. One of his rugs was made in Pakistan on cotton foundation with New Zealand wool.

We also received several rugs from a customer who lives in a city 120 miles north of Los Angeles. He brought in several rugs for cleaning and one fine Persian hand knotted Tabriz carpet for water damage restoration. There was color bleeding all over the rug. They had a water pipe brokage at night at their dining room while they were asleep in the bedroom. It was the next morning when they got up and saw their beautiful Tabriz rug floating over the water in the dining room. We took care of the bleeding.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Abbas Sayahi A Master Dyer of Natural Colors and Dyes

Abbas Sayahi is a great master dyer who lives in Shiraz, Iran. He has a big dyeing plant and workshop in the suburb of Shiraz (Sultanabad) where he uses different local herbs and plants to dye the yarns for different customers who deal with hand spun wool to make Persian hand knotted carpets. The good thing about Abbas is that he likes to share his secrets with those who are ready to learn. This comes from his teaching background. He was a teacher in tribal and rural areas of of Fars province for many years. He never tries to make a big deal out of vegetable dye process. In one of his recordings, he registered 400 different shades of natural dyes including black. We have been working with Abbas Sayahi for the past 30 years and he has done great dye jobs for us.

To read more about Abbas Sayahi and his son Parham, visit this link:

http://www.persiancarpetguide.com/sw-asia/Rugs/Dyes/Dye997.htm

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Moth Damaged Hand Knotted Oriental Carpets and Rugs in Los Angeles

More than any other types of damages, we receive rugs which are damaged by moths. Many people store the rugs in dark and humid places without vacuuming or cleaning them for a long time. There are so much protein and food stuff in rugs and this provides the condition for the eggs and larvae of the moth to grow. Moth damages and bytes the knots and the rug starts loosing the knots and pile. We send these rugs to rug facility to be washed with ample water and soap and dry under sun. After that, we have to make the foundation by providing the warps (vertical threads) and wefts (horizontal threads).

In this post, you may find several pictures of 77 moth damaged rugs a customer gave us for cleaning and repair last week. Some of these hand knotted rugs were totally destroyed so we consulted the customer and threw them in the trash can. They were not worth repairing!!

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Repairing a Severely Moth Damaged Rug From Hollywood, Los Angeles

We received a severely moth damaged hand knotted Pakistani rug for repair. This rug was not vacuumed and was not cleaned for many years. It was left in a dark room upstairs in this customer's house in Hollywood in Los Angeles. The moths had damaged the pile and the foundation on the damaged areas was falling apart. We cleaned the rug first with water and soap and let it dry under sun for a couple of days. Then we made the foundation by making the warps and weft on which we could tie the knots and weave the pile. It took us roughly two weeks to finish the job. The customer was so happy with the result that he gave us a $50 tip when we delivered his carpet. I was so happy to see my customer who was satisfied with our job.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Kilims, Kelims, Gilims Cleaning, Repair and Stain Removal in Los Angeles

We have received many Kilims (also spelled kelims or in Persian gelims) for cleaning, repair and color bleeding problems in the past few days.

Kilims are very decorative and can be used as floor covering, wall hanging, table or sofa covering and etc. Kilims are flat weaves and can be considered as rugs without pile. The designs of kilims are mostly geometrical compared with curvilinear designs of the rugs and carpets. Since kilims were originally used for domestic and household purposes, their designs have gone through less changes compared with the designs of Oriental rugs and carpets. The designs of kilims have gone under lesser changes since they were not made for market and commercial use.

I have noticed that those customers who have had kilims appreciate art and have been musicians, artists, designers or as such. Kilims are mostly produced in Iran and in Turkey on wool foundation. There are less expensive kilims made on cotton foundation as well. Afshars who reside in Kerman and Khorassan provinces in Iran make the most beautiful kilims in the world.

Historically, the Afshars were Turkoman tribe which became separated from other Turkoman groups. The Afshar tribes were first moved to the south of Kerman region in the sixteenth century by Shah Tahmasp, the second monarch of the Safavid dynasty (1502-1736).

Some Afshars can be found near Mashad (north east of Iran), as well as in the region near Bidjar (north west of Iran) and in other areas. Traditional Turkic dialects still spoken by some Afshars. In providing the above mentioned text, we consulted the following: Opie, James Tribal Rugs The Tolstoy Press, Portland, Oregon 1992.

We have utilized the fine weaving tradition of the region to program and supply the finest type of flat weaves which have received a very warm welcome from both the industry and the end users. Some experts refer to this kind of weave as Soumak.The patient Afshar ladies are the creators of these fine pieces of arts. Theseno-pile flat weaves are very decorative and match many kinds of interior designs these days.

Afshar flat weaves are made on both vertical and horizontal looms. Vertical looms are more sanitary and better ergonomically for the weavers.

We have many Afshar kilims in our Los Angeles rug gallery.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Pesrain Silk Rug Pet Urine Stain Removal Los Angeles

Few days ago a customer called us and wanted us to do a dog urine stain removal on her hand knotted Persian silk Qum rug. This is how it was and how it became.