Moth Market by TMASC

Textile Museum Associates of Southern California, TMASC had a gathering and Moth Market today in the garden of one of its members in Rancho Palos Verdes in south of Los Angeles. Around fifty members and guests participated in this one of a kind event. Some members had brought antique and unique items to sell and they did pretty well. The event started at 11:00 am and finished by 3:00 pm. The items on sale were textiles and antique tribal and village rugs.

There was also a show & tell section at the end which was well received by all the attendees.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Flokati Rug Cleaning

In the 5th century, the Greeks who lived in high mountains invented Flokati rugs. For centuries, Flokati rugs and carpets have been an important part of Greek culture and tradition. Their invention of Flokati rugs was do to an easy access to sheep and goats and their wool and hair. They used Flokati rugs as clothing or bedding on the floor to keep them warm in the long and cold winters of their region. The tradition of making Flokati rugs has been continued to the present. Flokati rugs are Shag looking rugs with high and soft wool pile. Although Flokati rugs are a part of the long tradition of the Greeks, many designers today like them and buy them for their clients. The younger generations tend to appreciate Flokati rugs more, for their simplicity and use of solid colors, specially white.

With the beauty of having high pile, comes more care and maintenance with Flokati rugs. The high pile means that Flokati rugs absorb more dust and dirt and are much harder to vacuum and maintain. We get many Flokati rugs for cleaning from our customers. We specialize in cleaning Flokati rugs so all of our customers become satisfied.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Rug Cleaning: The Traditional Way

The history of rugs dates back to about 2500 years. They are woven and used everywhere. But, of curse, using it means getting it dirty. As rugs get dirty, they have to be cleaned in order to maintain their health. It has been that way for a long time, a cleaning method which is now known as traditional rug cleaning. In countries like Iran, the people started the professional rug cleaning method. They started wearing boots, lining up rugs next to each other and washing couple of rugs at the same time. They water them thoroughly and shampoo them with brushes. After the shampooing, they rinse them to make sure the shampoo is completely out. Then they get as much water out as they can with special metal shovels. The final process is to dry them naturally under the sun.

Our company covers the same process today, except goes in more detail. We shampoo the back and face of the rugs with hand. After the rugs are shampooed and rinsed, we use a special type of enzyme to remove all of the remaining food stains. Then we sanitize the rugs and follow the same final process of removing the water and drying them naturally under the sun. Read more about our rug cleaning process.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Indian Carpets Rugs and Hindu Rituals in Los Angeles

We sold two hand made Indian rugs a couple of days ago. On our way to deliver these two Indian rugs, we saw a small Hindu group on one of the streets here in Los Angels having a ritual ceremony with songs and music. Police had closed down the street, so we had to wait for a few minutes behind the traffic light. I filmed the event.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Rug and Carpet Weaving

Rug and carpet weaving is a very time consuming process. In addition to the length of time, it requires many artistic steps prior to the weaving. First the design has to be thought of. Then the design has to be sketched on a graph paper with all of the necessary colors to be used in the rug. Then the wool has to be spun and prepared. The colors have to be prepared and the wool has to be dyed with proper resources. The rug has to be woven on something. That's when the loom comes in. The loom is a rectangular object where the the foundation of the rug is put on and held usually by wood. After the loom is prepared, the weaving process starts.

When our customers show interest in handmade rugs, we provide them with all of this information. We also show them a sample design of the loom with its graphing design we have so they can make a stronger connection with these pieces of art.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Rug Moth Damage

I could not sleep well last night. I got up at 4:30 am and checked my e-mails and browsed the Internet. I stumble upon a post on moth. This is from a well known rug cleaning company in B.C. in Canada. Take a look. It is interesting.

http://ruglovermary.blogspot.com/

We get many rugs that have been damaged by moth. Moth are very small creatures who feed off of wool. The wool has proteins and nutrition which are essential for moth. For that reason, they love eating handmade rugs. They live in moist dark areas. Many people who store their rugs in plastic bags in storage places, think that their rugs are safe. They actually put their rugs at higher danger of being damaged than if they were using them at home. Wool rugs need to be able to breathe and need few hours of sunlight at least every few months. If this is not taken care of, moth will start appearing on your rug and damage it. When our customers give us their rugs for moth damage repair, we give them a page of Rug Storage Tips so after their rug is repaired, they can maintain its health.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Rug Cleaning by Washing Machine

You have a dirty hand knotted rug or a hand made kilim. It is dirty and you want to have it cleaned. You want to save money by doing it yourself. You simply put the rug or kilim in the washing machine and add detergent. You freak out when you see the result and rush to our rug store and ask for help! You can guess the rest of story. You learned it the hard way!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Antique and Tribal Rug Show San Francisco

I visited the Tribal Rug Show from Oct. 15 to 17 in San Francisco. I liked the show. It was held in a nice place called Motel Capri. A good number of dealers (40 of them) from around the world had participated in the show. I bought few old and antique Persian rugs that I loved. I sold one of them right away in a few seconds. I have a customer who has a good taste. She always buys good stuff from me. The problem is that she never pays. She is my wife who was with me on this trip.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Selling Rugs: Some Tips For Our Customers

Today, we had a customer who wanted to sell two large Chinese rugs which no longer fit in his new home. When we told him his rugs are worth around $10,000 each, he couldn't believe it. We told him that we would help him sell the rugs. However, we mentioned that in order for him to get paid the full value of the rugs, he has to clean his rugs and repair them. This way his rugs will be in great shape again and he can find customers a lot easier. We also mentioned that he has to try to look for end users, rather than try to sell them to a rug dealer. Rug dealers who have 100s of rugs already are not willing to pay as much as an end user who is in love with the rugs.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Rug Cleaning: New Type of Scam

Once or twice a week, I receive e-mails which are surely scams. I just ignore them. I received this one few minutes ago:

"Hello,

I would like to know if you do carpet or rug cleaning services .. have some rugs to get cleaned ...if you accept cashier check please let me know,actually am relocating from my old house to my new house and i would like to know how much will 9x12 oriental rug cost for cleaning and actually i have 12 rugs of that, can you do the total calculation for the cleaning for the 12 rugs , rug type is oriental wool rug and not heavy or pet stain on it,is just kind of dusty,.. please get back to me as soon as possible ..

Regards"

The wordings, total number of rugs, sizes and everything else is always identical. I guess these people copy each other or these e-mails all come from a center or a headquarter. If you say yes, we do rug cleaning and we accept cashiers check or even credit cards, the guy gets back to you and says I will pay you more, so you pay the difference in cash to the transporter who picks up the rugs or something like that!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Antique Rug and Textile Show San Francisco

The 2nd annual Antique Rug and Textile Show began today Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010 in San Francisco. It will last until Oct. 17, 2010. The venue will be the Motel Capri, 2015 Greenwich St. More than 40 internationally renowned rug and textile dealers will show their beautiful tribal and antique rugs and textiles to the visitors.

Admission is free and more information can be obtained from artaa.org. I am planning to go to San Francisco this Friday morning to visit the show. I will drive. I do not like the hassle of going through the airport.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Thonet Chair: An Original Piece

Michael Thonet was a German carpenter born in 1796 in Boppard Germany. He died in 1871 in Vienna, Austria. He invented several light but very strong cafe type chairs and won a bronze medal for his Viennese bentwood chair from the World's Fair in London in 1851. His chairs have sold in millions.

We recently acquired one of his authentic chairs from an Austrian family. This chair was made in Michael Thonet's workshop in Austria probably around 1850. We did the upholstery with a handmade kilim. It is a beauty. We sell this signed (there are two signatures) antique original chair for $1,000.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Rug gallery as a Polling Place

We will have election on November 2, 2010 in Clifornia. We will have our rug gallery as a polling place. We have to come to work at 6:00 am and stay up until 10:00 pm. we did the same thing on June 8, 2010 for the first round of election. This is one way we can give back to the city in which we live and work.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Rug Appraisers Rug Appraisal

The day before yesterday I went to Venice Beach here in Los Angeles for an in house appraisal of four hand knotted Persian rugs. I got there more than half an hour early. I did not want to bother the customer early in the morning around 8:30. I went to a restaurant for breakfast and had an omelette and coffee. This place was across from the ocean so I took a five minutes walk before I visit the customer for her rug appraisal for insurance purposes. There were so many surf riders in the water at that time. Beautiful scene. I wish I had no work to do and no bills to pay so I could spend few hour there! It is only 30 minutes drive from our rug gallery.

Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com

310-770-9085

Persian Rug Embargo Sanction

An anonymous reader has left this comment on my earlier post "Common Cents: Persian Rug Embargo Sanction":

No brains! just making fun of themselves. It is like the ban on Havana cigars, it is a joke. What will they get out of this if they put sanctions on pistachio, rug, and Iranian foods? What else was coming from Iran to the US? The Iranian government sells oil and doesn't care about carpet. It only hurts individuals and pistachio/carpet lovers like me!

I cannot agree more with this reader.

Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com

310-770-9085

The Rug Industry Will Never Die

Because of the present word economic situation, some rug dealers or those who are somehow involved in one of the many aspects of rug industry might think that this is the end of the rug industry. Rugs of different types have been in existence for millenniums. Mankind needs a kind of floor covering regardless of its name, construction, country of origin and other aspects which may come and go.

There have been many changes in the recent decades in the rug industry and its channels of distribution, Chain and department stores, catalog sales, Internet retailers and virtual auction houses, interior designers, television and satellite sellers were never part of the game. The construction of rugs has gone under different changes as well as the designs. Rugs which were considered luxury items and investment are now a consumer product.

Regardless of all these changes, which have come into play, people are still using rugs. The players and rules have changed, but the market is still there and will stay there. Whatever role we play in this game, we should never lose hope. We should master the rules of the game and try to learn more about what we do. If we love what we do and if we do what we love, and if rugs is our love and passion, then we will enjoy the game and we will play it right. The rug market will never die.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085