Tiger Rugs - China and Tibet

The cat rugs of Paotao were woven in the early 20th century. Paotao is close to Mongolia, a cold, rugged and dusty land, and the rugs were used for sitting or sleeping on. But tigers and leopards have been portrayed in Tibetan rugs for over 100 years. They were originally woven for the high lama to sit on, but as the animals became scarcer, rugs woven with tiger and leopard images, abstract stripes, full skin, three-dimensional body and head designs, paw prints and spots appear.

The term 'tiger rug' usually refers to rugs woven in Tibet, although such carpets are woven in the same regions as carpets with dragon designs, too. The designs are usually based on tiger skins rather than on the live animal, but occasionally it may be highly abstract with perhaps a small square of stripes surrounded by a wide border.           .                        

                                                

Some rugs provide realistic, almost cartoon-like representations of tigers, but they are not always classed as tiger rugs in the trade. Tigers are the lords of the mountains and woods, joint controllers of winds and water, the traditional enemy of the dragon, and associated with strength, virility, and the West.  Symbolically, stylized tiger rugs may represent aspects of Tantric meditation. Excellent copies of old tiger rugs are produced in large numbers today in Tibetan/Nepalese workshops.

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

Custom Repair - Nepalese Rug

We had a custom repair request come in last week involving a beautiful Nepalese rug. The owner had purchased the rug in New York and had it for many years but one thing bothered her enough over time to find out her options of customizing the rug. The problem was the fringes; they were always getting caught in her vacuum. The fringes had become battered because of this and the owner was just tired of dealing with them. Take a look below:

She explained her problem to us at our showroom and we told her we could definitely get rid of the fringe and secure the ends with binding just like on the sides of the rug. She was ecstatic with this idea and immediately said yes to the idea; after our deep cleaning of course(we always recommend cleaning your rug before doing repairs so that you get a fresh, clean, repaired rug back). All the binding was done by hand by one of our master weavers; take a look at the results below:

Needless to say our customer was extremely happy with how everything turned out. She no longer has to deal with the fringes and she was very happy with her new custom rug. It is vibrant from the deep cleaning and is not going to cause her the headaches from trying to prevent the fringes from being sucked in by her vacuum. Here's to another successful custom rug job at Rug Ideas!

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