Modern Tibetan Rugs

In 1959, Chinese invasion forced Tibetans to migrate by the thousands through the Himalayan mountains in search of a new home. Many settled in the Kathmandu valley where they received the support of the Swiss government to initiate a cottage industry of carpet weaving based on centuries-old tradition and technique. Initially, small rugs were produced for the growing tourist population in Nepal. In the 70s, German buyers recognized the charm and beauty of the Tibetan carpets and began to buy and distribute the designs throughout Europe. In the 80s, Tibetan carpet production rose to second standing as the nation's leading industry and it wasn't long before rugs were being designed and imported to the United States for the American market.

From the early 1900s a wider range of synthetic colors became available to Tibetan weavers, and this seems to have stimulated the production of new and more complex designs, also based loosely on traditional Chinese motifs. The period of 1900-1950 saw the production of many colorful new designs featuring dragons, phoenix, floral motifs, clouds and so on. Though the main influence was Chinese, western textile designs were also copied occasionally.

Created through traditional Tibetan looming, a centuries-old art that entails hand knotting yarns around rods, then hand trimming the loops, row by row, produce the silky-soft pile. Tibetan rug making provides valuable cash income for rural communities who weave in the winter months.

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

Dirty Rug Cleaning in Los Angeles

I am a little different! I enter every room where ever I go, looking down. Not because I am sad or shy. Not because I lose something all the times. It's because I feel the need to see what's on the floor. My friends laugh but I don't care. I appreciate beautiful rugs and almost can't bear a room with dirty and ugly looking rugs. If you have this kind of passion for clean and healthy rugs, then you should come to us for professional rug cleaning and repair.

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

Pets and Rugs

Our beloved pets, who most of the time fill our hearts with joy, sometimes make a mistake (or rather mistakes) on our rugs. Customers often ask how hard these stains are to remove; the answer is different based on a number of variables. Generally the longer any stain has had to sit on the rug the harder it is to get out. Your best best is that when these 'mistakes' happen  to quickly bring them to experts like us so that we can treat the stain as soon as possible. Pet waste and urine contain tremendous amounts of protein. Certain types of bacteria are attracted to this protein and consume it as food. The bacteria produce strong odors during the digestion process. To eliminate the smell, you must eliminate the protein. Enzyme cleaners contain live micro-organisms that work to consume the proteins. Eliminating the protein means eliminating the bacteria and, therefore, eliminating the smell.

Our deep cleaning is the best way to wash and try to manage these types of stains; many customers are often "wowed" by the results. The deep cleaning washes the entire rug, not just the top of the pile like steam cleaners do. And the enzymes used during our cleaning process help with the elimination of the protein smell. So the next time your dog or cat has a mishap on one of your handmade or area rugs make sure to bring it to an expert like us so we can help bring your rug back to great condition for you to enjoy again.

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

Securing Your Rug

Securing your rug is an important part of keeping it in it's best shape for years to come and is sometimes overlooked. Take a look at the pic above and notice how the fringes are slowly unraveling into the foundation of the rug. This unraveling is just like a cavity, where at first glance it doesn't seem too bad... until one day the cavity gets too deep, the rug's appearance get worse while the ends continue to unravel.

This next pic is of the same rug after securing has been done to prevent any further inward damage to the rug. The work is done completely by hand and each knot done provides strength to the foundation where the fringes and rug pattern meet. This rug now has the strength it needs to endure many more years of use.

If you have a rug that is slowly starting to unravel at the ends, come see us so we can help secure your rug and get that "cavity" taken care of!

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

Rugs, Carpets and Medallions

Medallions are decorative parts of many rugs and their designs. They come in all shapes and sizes and in some cases we may see a combination of several medallions and shapes in one rug. They may be square, octagon, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, polygons, rectangle, triangle, circle, lozenge, diamond or in some strange shapes for which there maybe no names.

In some rugs, medallions are quartered into four corners of the rugs. Sometimes these corners follow the same patterns and designs and in some cases these corners have no dissemblance to the medallions at all. I did a little bit of research but found no specific definitions and descriptions of rugs and carpets medallions. However I had heard from a rug researcher about 15 years ago that medallions in old Persian rug designs stand for the universe and the center of the universe which is unity and eternal God. This makes sense.

here I am posting several pictures of different types of medallions of Persian rugs. I mention the origin of each rug for those who may want to do some research and add to the very little knowledge which is available on the history, mystery and definition of "medallions".

A unique medallion in a multi-medallion Qaradjeh runner, north west Iran

A diamond shape medallion in an antique Sarab runner, north west Iran

Turtle/crab shape medallion on a Hamedan carpet from north west Iran

A colorful octagon shape medallion from Sarab carpet of north west Iran

A lozenge shape medallion of a Nahavand kallegi on Hamedan provine, north west Iran

Octagon shape medallion inside a rectangular medallion on an Ardabil rug from north west Iran

Square medallion on a Qaradjeh rug from north west Iran

Lozenge diamond shape medallion on a Roodbar runner from the province of Hameda, north west Iran

Hexagon shape medallion on a Qaradjeh carpet from north west Iran

A kind of hexagon shape medallion on a Meshkin carpet from north west Iran, province of Ardabil

Lozenge shape medallion, Sarouk carpet made by Iran Carpet Company with natural dye

A circle round medallion of a Kashan rug

Circular round medallion of an antique Hadji Jalili rug from Tabriz north west Iran

A hexagonal shape medallion of a Malayer runner from the province of Hamedan north west Iran

A geometric polygonal medallion of a Hamedan runner from north west Iran

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

Rug and Kilim Repair Los Angeles

A customer brought in two pieces of 4' x 6' kilims, pile-less rugs and wanted us to sew them together and make them a one piece of 6' x 8'. I said this would be ready in 3 days. He said then forget it. He was travelling back to Australia and had no time to wait for three days. I did not want to lose the repair job. I said how about tomorrow and he said sure. He asked if we could deliver the kilims to his hotel in Westwood, here in Los Angeles around 10 miles from our rug store and I said yes we could.

Right after he left, I assigned one of our on-site repairmen to start working on these two kilims. It took us five hours to finish the job. I called the customer and told him that his kilim which he called tapestries was ready. He was so happy that we finished the job in one day so he should not wait to get it back until the last minutes of his travel. One of our employees delivered the kilim to the hotel where this client was staying at.

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

Rug Repair Carpet Restoration Los Angeles

Rug repair and tapestry/kilim restoration is part of the services we offer to our customers. To do the repair we have to have a wide range and variety of wool and yarn. We have a good stock of yarn in different qualities and color shades to match the original color of the rugs we repair.

For stocking and also decoration purposes, we have allocated a part of our rug store to these yarns and call it Yarn Corner. We are always on the hunt for good yarns and supplies.

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

Persian Runners on Our Wall: A Little Re-decoration

For the past few weeks we had some tapestries on one of our walls in our rug gallery here in Los Angeles. Today, we decided to re-decorate that wall so we replaced the tapestries with 14 unique hand knotted Persian runner rugs. These are all rural, tribal antique one of a kind pieces from Iran and regions such as Sarab, Qaradjeh, Meshkin, Hamedan, Malayer, and Nahavand. Several of them are around 100 years old and they still look pretty and decorate any part of the home they are used in.

I tried to use different designs and different color palettes on the wall so two or more red background runners are not displayed side by side. Since many of these runners are rural and tribal pieces, they have geometrical designs with broken-line motifs.

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

Who Is the Real Artist?

Who is the real artist. Pablo or Neda? Pablo painted and Neda weaves. Pablo used brushes and canvases. Neda uses yarn, knots and looms.

This painting was sold in Christie's of New York in May 2010 for $106 million. Would it sell even a $million if the painter was not Pablo Picasso? Then if we consider good rugs as art which they really are, why rugs aren't that expensive at all?

A 91-year old signed Persian Tabriz carpet 12' x 16' 4"

A hand knotted Persian Mashad Saber carpet 9' x 12' with 9,000,000 knots. The foundation is natural silk and the pile is combination of pure natural silk and baby lamb's wool. It took 2 weavers 4 years to make this masterpiece.

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

Finding Great Grand Father's Rug After 100 Years

Few months ago, we picked up a big 12' x 16' 4" hand knotted Persian Tabriz carpet from house of a client in Long Beach, 35 miles south of Los Angeles. Although this rug looked very old to me, it was almost in perfect condition. It needed a good hand wash and securing the ends to make sure knots at the ends do not come off. The owner of the rug had no idea of the rug, its origin, age or the value. This rug had a signature in Farsi which read" Fabric Seyed Eskandani". I knew that there was another Seyed Eskandani rug, a small piece around 4' x 6' which was sold in Sotheby's auction in 2009 for almost $,8000. This rug had come from the same workshop in Tabriz north west Iran. This rug must be something extraordinary. Why? Because of its age, huge size, signature, great condition, and amazing non-repetitive asymmetrical animal combat design which dated back to the paintings of Agha Mirak, a master artist and painter in the Safavid Dynasty courts of the early 1500s.

We took the rug to our rug gallery and did the cleaning and restoration. This magnificent carpet was then delivered to its owner. I did an extensive research about all aspects of this rug, and guess what? I found the third and fourth generation of the producer. The family lives here in Los Angeles. I made the arrangements with the owner of the rug and the family of the producer of this rug. The owner brought the rug to out store yesterday Saturday around 12:00 p.m. The Seyed Eskandani family came in around 1:00 pm,with the father named Mustafa, the grand son of the producer. Mustafa is around 70 years old and his father Mir Ali was the master weaver of this rug in Tabriz. The design of this rug called cartoon was drawn by Mustafa's uncle.

When Mustafa, his son, and his daughter came into our rug store and saw the rug with the signature of Mustafa's grand father, it was a scene of tears, and joy. Mustafa asked the owner if he could kiss the rug which was woven 100 years ago by his father in his grand father's workshop in Tabriz. Permission was granted and Mustafa now in tears kissed the signature and another part of the rug. It was very touchy moments and scene captured by our photo and movie cameras. Mustafa inspected the rug inch by inch and his son and daughter were amazed at what their great grand father had produced some 100 years ago. The owner of the rug left our store and told me he wanted Mustafa and his family be left alone with the rug. They stayed for another hour taking pictures and videos themselves from the rug. They were overwhelmed and we were touched.

Owner of the rug second from left, Mustafa second from right

Mustafa, the grand son of the producer is kissing the rug. He said it smelled his grand father.

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