Rug Weaving in Nowruz Party at Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, South California

Rug weaving can be fun! We had a live rug weaving presentation last Sunday.

We had a great Nowruz party (Persian New Year Festival) last Sunday March 7th at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. Nowruz, meaning "new day", is the first day of Spring and Iranians celebrate this since at least 250 years ago. This year, the first day of Spring will be on March 20th, 2010. Since there will be many Iranian celebrations of new year and the beginning of Spring, the Persian Art Council of the Bowers Museum decided to have a wonderful free Nowruz celebration on March 7th 2010.

There were plenty of fun events. Probably around 2000 guests visited this wonderful festivity. We had great artists who had booths, great dancers and musicians who played. People enjoyed this one of a kind event. It started at 11:00 am and ended at 3:00 pm.

We had a live rug weaving presentation and booth at a prime location next to the stage where everybody could see us. Many people, young or old, Iranians as well as non-Iranians sat down behind our real rug loom and wove. Our master weaver taught them and showed them how to tie the knots around the warps. It was fun and educational. Many people asked if we would have a rug weaving class in the future. Here, I have posted few pictures of the event. In the past, we have had Persian rug workshops.

Thanks to Maryam Molawi of the Persian Art Council and her assistants at the Bowers Museum who made this great and enjoyable event possible. Maryam and her crew worked tirelessly and selflessly for moths to make this event a great Persian Nowruz Party.

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

Obama Rugs Carpets

I saw a picture of President Barak Obama woven on a rug. This carpet was on display in an International Women's Day exhibition held in Kabul, Afghanistan on Mrach 8, 2010.

The picture is the courtesy of www.carpetour.net

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

Indian Textile

Textile Museum Associates of Southern California had a program on June 13, 2009. The topic was “Endangered Ethnic and Tribal Textile Craft Skills in India”.

Bina Rao is a textile designer and weaver who works in Hyderabad in the central Indian state of Andrah Pradesh. She presented the dilemma of traditional Indian textiles as one of conservation versus diversification. Briefly stated the problem is that slow traditional production of hand-dyed and hand woven textiles has been competing unsuccessfully with industrial production since the 19th century. Conservation of these techniques and skills can only be preserved by a supporting sector that designs for and markets to modern tastes and needs in clothing and home furnishings.

The history of Indian textile trade is long and complex. Export of Indian textiles to the West began in the late 1700’s, but long before, evidence shows that they were being distributed across South Asia via the Silk Route as early as the 15th century. External trade was only part of the distribution of silks and other fabrics. Internal consumption, especially by royal families and temples, supported local production.

The nineteenth century brought industrial production and increased export to Europe. Interestingly the biggest stimulus to factory production of textiles came from the Indian government itself. After independence in 1947 development was the overriding goal of the new state. The techniques, knowledge and skills of traditional textile production began eroding, forgotten as people found other occupations. Creative Bee is a design studio begun by Bina Rao in an effort to revive, preserve and re-teach traditional techniques of textile production. Her organization has grown to include several workshops employing over 700 artisans in villages near Hyderabad. The textiles are 100% organic, from fiber to dying and finishing. Rather than contracting for exclusive rights to her weavers’ production, she leaves them as free agents to market their crafts to any interested buyer. Her major role, in addition to starting up workshops and re-teaching techniques, is to design fashions with traditional fabrics, colors, and motifs which will appeal to modern women as clothing and home decorations.

The creativebee in its website has photos of many of these items as recently exhibited and marketed at international shows. Although Ms. Rao studies many types of traditional Indian textiles the program for TMA focused on two types due to time limitations. Kalamkari cloth is probably the most recognized Indian textile in the West—it was called “chintz” when introduced to Europe.

The name Kalamkari comes from “kalum’ or “pen”. A photo of the pen showed a sort of pointed spoon, the bowl wrapped in a cord that presumably absorbs and hold ink for the artist to draw designs directly onto the cotton cloth. Kalamkari production usually involves several members of a family and often some neighboring crafts persons as well. The cloth is prepared to accept and retain the natural vegetable dyes by a process of milk bleaching. This is an expensive, repetitive and time consuming process that results in a buff-colored cotton. This color remains visible as the background over which the reds, blues, greens and yellows of the design will be painted.

Many dye recipes have been lost according to Ms. Rao, and the present palette includes less than a dozen from a former selection of twenty or more colors. The most skilled worker is the artist who draws the design onto the bleached fabric. Young people are now being trained in this skill to eventually replace the senior family members, male and female, now employed. As Kalamkari fabrics were very frequently used for temple hangings in the past traditional designs concentrated on epic illustration of the lives and adventures of deities such as Krishna and his companions. Modern designs are more floral, especially variations of the “tree of life” pattern.

Bina Rao herself has designed more modern looking ones which include monkeys, turtles and birds. The colors of the design are filled in by hand painters who work as a family group, taking about two months to complete and three to four yard piece. Kalamkari is now also produced by hand-blocking the outline design which is then colored in the traditional way. This obviously speeds up production and results in a repetitive design.

The second group of textiles discussed are Tal dyed fabrics. Some villages have apparently specialized in this textile for centuries. The villages are located in the tribal area of Andrah Pradesh, an area of restricted access where the Indian government conserves both the ecosystem and life-ways of the indigenous people. The textiles use three colors only, a deep red, a rust brown and white. The red color comes from the Marinda cirtifolia tree, specifically the bark off the roots. (More information on this tree can be obtained if you Google it and see the U.S. Forest Service tropical shrub list. Two references are given:Little and Wadsworth 1964 and Nelson 1996). The tree appeared to be about 20 feet high, with oval leaves about 10 x 6 inches, rather like a large ficus leaf. Interestingly one tribe cultivates the tree in the forest, carefully extracting roots on the periphery of the tree, seven to eight feet from the base of the truck. The bark of these roots is them delivered to a second village where the actual dying and weaving take place. Again the dying is a long repetitive process, this time using cow dung and sunshine to prepare the cotton and set the dye. In order to change the color from the intense bluish red the bark produces to a rust-brown shade, iron is added to the dye bath. Apparently the form of the iron is not critical-- old scraps such as nails can be used.

The threads are then woven into pieces that appeared to be about two to three yards long and perhaps a yard wide. Traditional motifs include stripes, birds and “temple domes” using a ikat weaving technique. Ms. Rao has incorporated these designs as well as adding fish and figures of children to her modern versions. Another modern use of this fabric is in the home decoration division of the workshop. Table linens, bedspreads and cushion covers are all coordinated in traditional and contemporary textiles.

Ms. Rao’s design work is now also part of government sponsored workshops that promote other Indian drafts, such as woodworking, basketry and metalwork. Her own special area of creativity now focuses on “wild” silk. Cocoons for this type of silk are gathered from the forest in contrast to a farming operation. Wild silk has different properties than cultivated silk fibers, and Ms. Rao has invented a weaving process the produces a semi-transparent cloth with a dramatic drape effect. The fabric was used in several of the fashion photos that concluded the program. These photos and much more are available on the creativebee's website. Many of the workshops’ finished pieces were available to see and examine after the lecture.

Thanks to Marjorie Franken the secretary to the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California TMASC for providing the text.

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

Lebab, Turkmen Rug Weaving of Amu Darya

"LEBAB: Weavings of the Turkmen of the Middle Amu Darya Yurt" by Peter Poullada
Independent Scholar, San Francisco

Textile Museum Associates of Southern California, TMASC had a wonderful program on Turkmen weaving of Middle Amu Darya on Saturday March 6, 2010. It was well attended and Peter Poullada delivered a very nice presentation.

There is a large body of Turkman weavings that appear to have come from a number of tribes who lived in a region that was known from the 16th to the 19th century as the Lebab Yurt. The territory of the Lebab, a local term derived from the Persian lab-e-ab, means “waterside” or “riverside,” and refers to the inhabitants of a 200-kilometer strip of land extending on both sides of the Amu Darya (Oxus River) that today marks the boundaries of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. For several years Peter Poullada and his research and collecting colleague, Erik Risman of Indianapolis, have been studying and analyzing a large sample of weaving from this region. This talk will present the current status of a multi-year project to catalogue, categorize, analyze and explain the confusing multitude of weaving currently labeled either "Ersari Turkmen" or "Beshir". Peter will summarize some of their preliminary conclusions and outline several conjectures that explore and challenge the common assumptions and labels that have been given to these weaving. His talk provided two related types of visual evidence: examples of "design archetypes" of Lebab weaving, and a series of photographic images of life in the Lebab region from the late 19th century, in some cases illustrating the usage of these weaving.

Peter Poullada is an independent rug scholar specializing in the tribal ethno-history of Central Asia with particular interest in the Turkmen and to the use of weaving to illuminate the cultural and historical traditions of the peoples of Central Asia. Peter has been collecting Central Asian weaving since the 1960's, taking advantage of three separate extended periods of living in Afghanistan and Iran in the 1960's and 1970's, and in Istanbul for six years in the 1980's. He has a BA in Near Eastern Languages and History from Princeton where he studied Arabic and Persian, and did graduate study at the University of California, Berkeley in Turkish and Central Asian history. After a twenty-year career as an international investment banker, Peter has been returning to Central Asia on a regular basis and has led a number of private tours of Central Asia and Chinese Turkestan.

This wonderful program was followed by a show & tell section.

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

Cheap Rug Cleaning and Repair in Los Angeles

Sometimes customers who want to buy rugs, or have their rugs cleaned and repaired, shop around and their only consideration is "low prices". I just found something for them:

The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory.
-- Aldo Gucci

I liked this phrase since we are not a company which does cheap jobs. We are knowledgeable and do our job properly. Good jobs should be reasonable but cannot be cheap.

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

Rug Moth Damage Repair Los Angeles

Moth Damage

Moths are quite pesky little insects. They do all sorts of damage to everything from our beloved rugs, to our clothes and investment. Moths can do a large amount of harm to Oriental carpets but it is preventable. By taking a number of different measures, it is easy to prevent insect damage to your carpet. Fortunately, any Oriental or Persian rug that has been destructed due to insects can easily be repaired by our on-site specialists.

Moths do the most deterioration while in their larvae stage; they eat right through the wool of the rug. A carpet that is made of a wool foundation may also suffer insect damage because they will eat through the foundation as well. A tell tale sign that moths are eating your floor covering is when a web-like design appears on the rug. Moths prefer to be left undisturbed so their activity will be mostly in floor coverings that are left alone and unused.

Luckily, it is easy to prevent moth contamination. These insects prefer to inhabit rugs that are left in humid, dark places and carpets that seldom receive much traffic. Rugs that are the biggest target of moth infestation are those that are left in storage and unused by its owner. Good ways to prevent losing part of your floor covering to insect damage is to vacuum it regularly and make sure it receives some foot traffic.

For rugs that are partially covered by a piece of furniture, it should be removed from under the piece of furniture and vacuumed and exposed to sunlight for part of the day. When checking for moth damage it is important to look at the back of the rug, along with the perimeter for the webbing and larvae. At this time it is good to do the vacuuming and sweeping to prevent moth activity for another few months.

When an Oriental carpet is used as a wall covering it is commonly infested with insects. It is important to disturb the floor covering every few months and to vacuum it as a preventative measure. When putting a rug in storage there are a few different options to take when attempting to prevent moth damage. When rolling the rug you can put on moth crystals or spray it with preventative sprays. Unfortunately moth crystals are very smelly and are notorious to lose their potency quickly.

If you want to avoid using the crystals and sprays it is important to wrap the rugs in very thick heavy duty acid free paper or double wrap them. The point is to avoid any way moths can access its wool. The floor coverings may also be covered in this type of paper wrap that can also prevent any contact between insects and carpet.

Another lesser known measure taken to prevent moth damage is to store your Oriental, or Persian carpets in cedar trunks or dressers. Cedar wood has natural moth repellants, but it should be known that after many years the natural repellants lose their strength. The most important thing in preventing insect damage is to vacuum the carpet regularly and every few months expose it to a small amount of sunlight and disturbances, like walking on the rug.

In the case that an area rug is damaged by moths it is easy to take it to our rug store and having it repaired. At Los Angeles Rug Cleaning, we offer many solutions for damaged carpets and also many cleaning services. We are experts in rug cleaning and offer many services for your Oriental carpets. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to give Dr. Kay our certified Rug Specialist a call at
(310) 770-9085.

1655 South La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90035 Tel. 310-770-9085 Fax 310-860-0462
info@RugIdea.com www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com

Ghotogh Persian Rugs: A fine Piece for Sales

Gholtogh Rugs

Gholtogh is a very small town in the province of Zandjan in north west Iran. The province of Zangjan is surrounded with seven states of West Azarbayjan, East Azarbayjan, Ardabil, Guilan, Qazvin, Hamedan, and Kurdistan. All of these provinces except Guilan have excellent rug weaving traditions. There was a good tradition of rug weaving in this little town by Kurdish nomads and semi-nomads which were settled.
The rugs which are made in Gholtogh are in small sizes and have geometric patterns. In many cases, there is a diamond shape medallion in the center. The colors are strong and the weavers love to use orange, red, mustard yellow and deep blue colors. The foundation of Gholtogh carpets is cotton and the pile is made of sheep wool. These rugs are firm and dense and look like Bidjar rugs. This is due to the fact that each row of a Gholtogh rug is densely pounded by a metal comb and this makes the rug to become tightly woven. These rugs are double-wefted with symmetrical knots which are tightly knotted around two warps.

The piece shown here belongs to a private customer who wants to sell it. We do not ask for commission or any fee. It is a very nice piece and a collectible carpet. Those who maybe interested can directly contact the owner:

Amy Graves
P.O. Box 252054
Los Angeles, CA 90025
310-592-4175 Cell
310-967-4725 VM
www.amygravesphoto.com
amygraves@earthlink.net


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

Nowruz Persian New Year in Santa Ana Bowers Museum

Bowers Museum Presents Persian Family
Festival of Nwruz on March 7, 2010

Event expands the knowledge of history, tradition, and customs of Persian New Year from Ancient Persia to modern Iran .

SANTA ANA, Calif. – Bowers Museum will host the Iranian-Persian New Year in its courtyard with authentic Persian music, dance, art, literature, videos, and children’s activities focusing on Norouz traditions on Sunday, March 7, 2010, from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Norouz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in Iranian calendar.

The program is co-sponsored by the Persian Cultural Arts Council (Affiliate of Bowers Museum). Admission is free.
Here is the list of the activities and entertainment:

• Noted choreographer Anna Djanbazian and artistic director of Anna Djanbazian Dance Company will perform Persian traditional dances with beautiful traditional costumes.
• Persian performances include Persian music masters of Yarsan ensemble, Kourosh Moradi, Afshin Mehrasa, Kourosh Basiri, Faramarz Amiri; Persian dancer Ladan Homayoun; and Persian Pop Dancer Bahar (with music by D J Amir.)
• A glamorous Haft Seen ceremonial table designed by Samira Weddings will be featured. Haft Seen includes seven specific items representing health, wealth, longevity, fertility and more.
• Uncle Norouz (similar to Santa Claus) will be wishing everyone a happy Persian New Year.
• A traditional Persian Tea House will serve complimentary Persian tea and Persian sweets throughout the festival. Eating sweets on Norouz brings sweetness to life in the coming year.
• A documentary, “In the Foot Steps of Cyrus The Great” by Cyrus Kar, will be featured in the Norma Kershaw Auditorium. The film is on the life of King Cyrus, the first Achaemenian king of ancient Persia .
• The cartoon, Babak and Friends, will be featured. Directed by Dustin J. Ellis, the cartoon is the story of little Babak, who is not familiar with the traditions of the Persian New Year. When his cousins visit, little Bobby realizes that he is missing out on the Best Day of the Year. With the help of friends and a trip to the ancient capital of the Persian Empire, Persepolis, Babak learns about Norouz and rejoices in the rich culture of Iran.
• Prominent artist Reza Sepahdari will demonstrate Plaster relief techniques as seen in the Ancient palace of Persepolis .
• Prominant artists Jila and Touraj Hakimi from OC Fine Arts will display their glass art creations. The husband-and-wife artists will also offer an opportunity to participate in arts and crafts.
• Dr. Khosrow Sobhe, Certified Rug Specialist of SOBCO International, will be exhibiting beautiful Persian rugs, and an artisan will be demonstrating Persian carpet weaving on an actual loom and showing techniques of this magnificent ancient Persian art form.
• Davoud Sesar and Ghazal will offer Persian calligraphy and Manijeh will demonstrate her art of painting on silk scarves.
• Jamie Douraghy will exhibit Rostam Comic Books for children. Rostam is the mythical Iranian hero in Shahnameh. The Epic of Kings is one of the definitive literature classics of the world and was written by the famous Iranian poet, Ferdowsi.
• Dr. A. Kamron Jabbari, president of Mazda Publishers, Inc., will exhibit a collection of Persian books of academic value and quality.
• Bardi Borghei will exhibit her book Persian Miniature paintings, paintings and hand painted cards.
• Mohamad Amini Sam from Jamshid Foundation will exhibit his book, “The pictorial History of Iran” and posters on history of Iran .
• CSU Fullerton students will have an information table on the school’s Persian Studies program.
• Students from California Zoroastrian Center , Khayam Persian School Foundation, and Mrs. Sorour Nayeri Persian Language School will sing and perform Persian Music and dances.
• Children’s activities feature arts and crafts, traditional Persian New Year custom of coloring eggs, growing Sabzeh (wheat grass, lintel grass, and mung beans grass), making Norouz greeting cards, learning about Haft seen items, face painting, costumes, Norouz crafts, and dancing.
• There will also be Poetry Reading and Bibliomancy from world-renowned Iranian Poets, Hafez and Rumi, by Shokoufeh.

Food from the Museum’s restaurant, Tangata is available for purchase.

Bowers Museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is located at 2002 North Main Street in Santa Ana . For additional information, call (714) 278-4854 or (714) 567-3679 or visit www.bowers.org


Norouz Family Festival, Persian New Year
Event expands the knowledge of history, tradition, and customs of Persian New Year from Ancient Persia to modern Iran

SUNDAY MARCH 7, 2010 11:00- 3:30PM

Norouz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in Persian-Iranian calendar. Norouz is a time of visiting family and friends and celebrating life, and it is believed that whatever a person does on Norouz will affect the rest of the year. So make sure you start the year off right and join in traditional Persian dance, music, literature, poetry reading, see our beautiful ceremonial Haft-seen table, meet Uncle Norouz, and enjoy complementary tea and sweets from the Persian Tea House. Wear new clothes or Persian folk outfits and be ready for a fun, exciting, and memorable time. Children’s activities feature arts and crafts, videos, traditional Persian New Year custom of coloring eggs, growing Sabzeh, (wheat grass), making Norouz greeting cards, learning about Haft seen items,
face painting, costumes, Norouz crafts, and dancing.

Co-sponsored by Persian Cultural Arts Council at Bowers Museum
(949-929-8492)

TARGET FREE FIRST SUNDAY

Free Admission to Festival and Galleries

Carpooling Recommended
http://www.bowers.org/index.php/visit/directions

BOWERS MUSEUM 2002 N.MAIN STREET
SANTA ANA , CA 92706 714-567-3600

Rug Buying Secrets and Tips

Rug Buying Secrets & Tips


1- If you do not know much about Oriental rugs, try to get to know your Oriental rug dealer. The dealer should be knowledgeable and should not be overly persistent in trying to sell you a rug. You as a customer should not feel that you are under pressure to buy a rug. The rug dealer should provide you with the right information, based on which you can make a sound and informative decision. Choosing the right store and the right dealer is the most important job in your rug buying adventure.

2- When you buy a Persian, Oriental or area rug, ask the dealer to write a thorough description of whatever he claims the rug to be on the invoice. For example "Hand knotted Persian rug with vegetable dye and handspun wool". Ask him to give you a copy of his printed return policy. This should be simple and clear and not with many preconditions.

3- Never trust "Going out of Business" rug stores or traveling auctions. In many cases, "Retirement Sales", TV and the Internet auctions by unknown sellers are not trustworthy.

4- Do not trust those who claim to give you 80% off. Think for a moment. How is it possible to buy a hand knotted rug and pay only 20% of what it is worth? Why should somebody do this big favor to you?

5- Material of the rug you would like to buy is very important. Wool is the best material for pile. Silk pile is luxurious, but is not good for high traffic areas of your home. The warp (foundation of the rug) can be cotton, wool or silk. Usually, tribal rugs are made of wool warp. Machine made and area rugs may look beautiful, but there may be some health issues and concerns with them. Especially when compared with hand knotted rugs which use natural fibers such as cotton, wool and silk.

6- To make sure a silk rug is real, take a little piece of the fringe (warp) and burn it. If it leaves a little stem and smells like burning hair, it is silk. If it disintegrates and smells like burning paper, it is not real and is probably rayon, mercerized cotton, viscose or other synthetics. Some dealers refer to rayon/viscose in the rug industry as "artificial silk", or worse "art silk". In either case, it is not real and natural silk. A lot of silk rugs that come from India, and China, are not made from real silk, so make sure you know what you are buying. A reputable rug dealer would always clearly tell you what material a rug is made with.

7- Choosing the right size is very important. Make sure to measure your room correctly before referring to any rug store. Get the maximum and minimum sizes you may want to cover to have a better choice by considering several rugs of different sizes.

8- Color is another important factor in selecting a rug. Many buyers would like the color of the rug to match with the wall, furniture, draperies, and other items surrounding it. Light colors make the room look bigger. Darker colors do not show spills and dirt.

9- Choosing a design of a rug is a matter of taste. Some people like busier designs while others may prefer less crowded designs with a more open field. In classical and traditional rugs, there is a medallion in the center with a corner medallion (1/4 of a medallion) in each corner. Another design group is overall or floral with no center medallion while there are repeating flowers and motives. This design is more popular than the classical design with medallions. Persian rugs have a vast collection of designs which can satisfy many different types of customers.

10- Price is also an important factor which you should consider. There is no set formula rug pricing is based upon. Determining the price of a hand knotted rug depends on many variables such as size, origin, quality of the wool and dye, density of the knots (Knot Per Square Inch, KPSI), material and age. As mentioned earlier, if you find a reputable dealer who is an active member of several professional societies and associations and has knowledge of the rug, you are probably in much safer hands.

11- We at RugIdea.com will be happy to give you free advice on your rug buying journey. We, as third generation rug enthusiasts and Certified Rug Specialist (CRS), practice what we preach. Please give us a call at 310-770-9085 if we can be of assistance to you.

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

Persian carpet designs

Persian Carpet Designs

In a book called Persian Carpet Designs, by Mehry Reid, a reader can catch an insight at the hundreds of designs a Persian Carpet could possess. Reid was born in Iran and studied all over the world. She studied the many designs and arts of ceramic flower crafts and flower arrangements, along with many other fine arts.

In the beginning of the book, Reid gives a brief introduction to the Persian Carpet. She defines the many different terms, like Oriental and hand-knotted rugs. Reid also gives a short history to the Persian rug, dating these historic rugs to a beginning at least 3000 years ago. She tells readers where the first rugs were thought to have been created and about their detailed designs.

Reid also describes the making of an Oriental carpet in the introduction. She introduces the different types of fabric used and the different techniques of weaving. The introduction that is written is very informative and contains a very good chunk of quick information.

After the introduction, Reid has pages upon pages of examples of designs. Primarily the designs in this book are of floral prints, but the designs are not limited to that. There are many examples of central designs and more geometric patterns.

Reid describes that the designs presented in her book are not necessarily basic patterns, since over the years many weavers modified these patterns and changed them to their personal preferences. Reid also states that in this book it would not be a surprise if a reader found more than one design that was featured in one rug. Many designs were meshed together to create one overall pattern.

Overall, the book takes a dip into the history of the Persian Carpet, with information that is small in quantity, but full with knowledge. There are many designs that are common to carpets found today and those from many years ago. The book is full of wonderful examples, and can show any reader how unique and varied Persian Rugs can be.

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

The Legend of the Persian Carpet at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

The Legend of the Persian Carpet

On January 18, 2010 I went to Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to say good buy to the famous Ardabil and Coronation carpets which had been on display from November 14, 2009. I then went to the museum's bookstore and bought two interesting books. Here, I am writing a review on one of them.

In The Legend of the Persian Carpet, by Tomie DePaola, readers are intrigued with pages full of colorful illustrations that describe how the Persian Carpet came to be. The book is a children’s book that is brightly illustrated, by Claire Ewart, from start to finish with pages that are so full of color a reader may feel like they are right there with the narrator telling the story.

The story is about a great King that lived in a land once called Persia. This king was very kind and generous to his people, he had a great diamond that he let everyone in the town come and see when the sun set at night. The book describes that at night, when the sun was setting, the diamond would be hit with light and send rays of color all through the great room that the king kept the diamond in. The king was very proud of his diamond and trusted his people.

DePaola then describes that one night a thief came into the room while the sun was setting and after it had set, the thief stole the diamond and ran off on his horse with the precious jewel. While the thief was riding away, the diamond caught a ray of light and temporarily blinded the thief with its brightness. The thief dropped the diamond and it shattered on the desert floor.
The king became very depressed, but then a little boy found the diamond out in the desert and took his king to the spot where it laid shattered. The king could not bring himself to leave this place, he couldn’t go back to the darkness that his palace now was. The little boy was very worried because without a king ruling, their land could be attacked.

The little boy set out with an idea to bring the king back to his palace. The little boy went to all of the weavers in Persia and convinced them to weave a massive rug that was filled with all of the colors of the rainbow. Something so bright and majestic, it would bring the king back to his ruling place, and make him happy. The little boy convinced the king to come back to the palace for a year and one day for them to complete the rug. If they did not complete it in that time, the king could leave.

The book efficiently illustrates all of the color and beauty of the diamond and the Persian rug that was brought to the king. All of the pages in this book are filled with color and joy; it is hard to not enjoy this easy read. The colorful pages are delightful and will lift the spirits of any reader. DePaola is a wonderful author, who gave the legend of the Persian carpet a wonderful story for readers to understand its beginnings. The illustrations by Ewart brought the story to life with beautiful drawings and colorful creations.

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

Oriental Rugs Today

Oriental Rugs Today

When someone thinks of an Oriental rugs, many people automatically think of an aged carpet that is considered an antique and very expensive. What may surprise people is that many area rugs that are being woven in present times are quite possibly higher quality than their predecessors. There is very little text about Persian Rugs of today, but in the book Oriental Rugs Today by Emmett Eiland, readers can learn about Persian hand knotted rugs that are being woven today, and their new found techniques that make them a higher quality carpet.

Oriental Rugs Today is a great read and is also very easy to follow along with. The writing style is very pleasant; it is as if you are having a conversation with the author. This piece of literature includes many stories of the author’s voyages. These stories make the book more enjoyable and easier to understand. Eiland also includes many pictures of area rugs and the weavers. With the pictures he includes small, but very informative captions. All of these components add up to a wonderful and informative book.

In the text readers learn about, what Eiland calls it, a “Renaissance” of Oriental rug weaving. Eiland teaches us how many weavers are re-mastering the art of hand spinning the wools and using natural dyes for the wool. When wool is hand spun, Eiland explains how the color is not fully absorbed, leaving some areas lighter or darker than the rest of the wool of that same color. With machine spun wool, color is absorbed evenly and the colors are consistent throughout the rug. Some area rugs made with synthetic dyes are being made in a fashion where it appears the colors are inconsistent, giving it the look of hand spun wool. As Eiland puts it, “this illusion is good, but it lacks depth and liveliness.”

Eiland states that many people believe that Persian rugs woven today are no longer handmade and all use synthetic dyes. With the belief that Oriental carpets woven today are all machine made and made with synthetic dyes, it can lead to people losing interest in them and downplaying their quality. Some people make the mistake of believe that area rugs being created in present times are not as genuine or authentic as the carpets that were woven in the past.

Eiland proves this belief wrong in his book, while he discusses his journeys across the world and his findings of people reverting back to the old ways of making oriental area rugs. Many weavers are once again using the hand spun wool and naturally dying it, with more advanced techniques than the way it was done in the past. These current weavers are also using the advanced techniques to weave the carpets at a higher quality.

It was hard to lose interest while reading this book about Oriental rugs; Eiland keeps the reader intrigued with his stories and plethora of pictures. The author also uses different forms of text, like question and answer sessions that keep the reader interested and gives the information a new spin by challenging certain misconceptions that may arise while reading on this subject. The book overall is a great find and is full of useful information that can give readers more understanding and respect for the high quality Persian rugs that are being created today.

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

Turkish Silk Rugs and American Tourists!

Emmett Eiland in his book Oriental Rugs Today writes:

American tourists often return from Turkey with Kaiseri rugs made in central Anatolia. Local rug merchants represent them as silk rugs. In fact, they are made with mercerized cotton, a poor imitation. I have examined pile fibers from many Kaiseris in microscope without finding one that is really silk. Those who have purchased "silk" Kaiseris in Turkey, still in denial after hearing the bad news, sometimes produce receipts from Turkey that read,"Made from 100% pure art silk." Art turns out to be an abbreviation for "artificial"

Picture of the rug courtesy of rugs on sale.

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

Oriental Rugs Today: Buying Rugs in Turkey

This morning, I was reading Oriental Rugs Today written by Emmett Eiland, a very informative book. One topic seemed interesting and since sometimes my customers ask me if they should buy rugs when they are on a trip to Turkey, I cite this part of the book here.

Of all the rug-weaving countries in the world, Turkey may be the most fun for travelers looking to buy...Turkish rug merchants are engaging people who can make the whole process of buying a rug fun, and they are perfectly capable of shipping rugs internationally.

Given these attractions, travelers often buy rugs abroad that they wouldn't have bought had they had an opportunity to try at home on an approval basis. travelers get caught up in the local aesthetic and admire rugs in Turkey, for instance, that don't look so good to them at home. Of course,that is not the fault of Turkish merchants.

But there is a more sinister side to the story. Nearly all the folks who show us rugs they have brought back from Turkey have been lied to by Turkish merchants in some respect. Most have been given an exaggerated notion of a rug's age. Very often they have been told that a rug was woven with natural dyes when, in fact, it was not. Lately we have seen a number of cases in which Turkish rug dealers have sold tourists cheap rugs from other countries and passed them off as Turkish.

Worst of all, sometimes people are sold rugs in Turkey for far more than they are worth. Sometimes thousands of dollars more-and usually a buyer in that case has little recourse.

...Our advice? Buy rugs in Turkey and elsewhere abroad just as you would gamble. That is, have fun-but don't bet more that you can afford to lose.

I thought this is what many who travel and buy rugs should know. The picture of the rug I used here is the courtesy of PersianCarpetGuide.com

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

Persian Hand Knotted Varamin/Veramin Rugs

Varamin Carpets: Old Traditions, New Ideas

We produced Gabbehs rugs for many years in the province of Fars in Iran. The city of Shiraz was our center and headquarters in Gabbeh production. In 1995, we were looking for another place with rug production traditions closer to Tehran where we lived, worked and had our offices and warehouses. We considered several cities such as Qazvin, Kashan, Arak and few other places with rug making history. We found the right weavers in Varamin (Veramin), an old town with excellent carpet weaving traditions and culture 25 miles south east of Tehran.

A Brief History of Varamin

Tehran became the capital of Iran in 1795. Many head of the tribes moved to Tehran either by their will or by the Shah who wanted to disperse them in order to diminish their power so they could not question and fight the central government. Tehran did not have the facilities and the infrastructure to place all these tribes and their horses, sheep, and goats. The neighboring Varamin which was the backyard of Tehran was an ideal place for their residence. Several Arab, Azari, Lor, and Kurdish tribes migrated to Varamin and its suburbs. Animal husbandry and farming was their way of living. Tehran became a huge consumption market and provided a good venue for the farm products. The means of transportation were horses, donkeys and camels. Many of these tribal people knew how to make rugs as it was in their culture and a part of their family traditions. We exploited this craftsmanship in Varamin weavers.

We started with 5 looms and in 2000, and we reached at our record of having 120 looms scattered in several small villages around the city of Varamin. We found few old Varamin carpet designs but those had to be modified. We gave the old designs to a master designer called "Master Moussavi" in Tehran carpet bazaar to modify. The sizes for the new carpets were also to be modified to fit the American rug sizes such as 4' x 6', 5' x 8', 6' x 9', 9' x 12' and 10' x 14'.

Weavers of Varamin Rugs

Having a centralized carpet workshop in rural places in Iran is next to impossible and that is due to legal procedures (tough workman's compensation laws and insurances), cultural and traditional barriers, and so many other variables. Therefore we had to set up our looms in different homes and this made our supervision very difficult and time consuming.

The majority of our weavers in Varamin were adult women but in some cases we had men weaving rugs. It is not part of the culture to have kids work on looms to weave rugs. On the other hand, there is a very strict law prohibiting kids under 14 to work in carpet workshops or homes. All the kids of the weavers attended school while their mothers or in rare cases fathers wove rugs. When I went to Varamin to see the progress of the jobs, mostly on weekends, I took a big bag full of pens, color pencils, crayons, note books, books and candies to distribute among the kids whose grades were B or higher. To my surprise, many of the kids had A grades! Why? Because working hard is part of their family culture and traditions. These rural kids are not spoiled like urban and city kids who have everything they want, but are always bored.

If the weavers worked constantly and full time meaning 8 hours per day on a rug, they could weave 2 feet on the length of the rug per month on a 6'x 9' loom. We paid them by the yardage and the square meter, so they were not our employees and were considered independent contractors. The weavers were not on payroll and did not receive an hourly wages. It was up to them how many hours of work they wanted to put in weaving a carpet. If the speed and the quality of the work were satisfactory, they received bonuses and a new job when they finished the rug they had worked on.

Varamin Carpet Designs

One of the old designs was called "Pashotori" or "Came Foot" design which resembled the foot stamp of a camel. We prepared the cartoons (designs on graph paper) for all mentioned sizes.

Another old design from Varamin was called "Shah Abbassi". We modified this design and made the Shah Abbassi motives and flowers bigger.

Some times our customers asked for asymmetrical designs and a little out of balance designed rugs. We created such design and produced several pieces of these rugs in Varamin. Traditionally, there was a contrast between the color of border and the background in Persian carpets. For example if the color of background was red, the color of border was dark blue or visa versa. Recently, there has been a shift in demand in this regard. Therefore we produced some rugs in Varamin with Ivory background and borders. Below, you can see a picture of a rug with this type of color palette and out of balance design.

We produced many Varamin rugs for Atiyeh International Ltd. of Portland, Oregon. We had several trips to Varamin with Tom Atiyeh between "2000" to "2003". Tom provided us with very good information on all aspects of the American rug market and the customers' tastes.

Varamin Carpet Dyes

We produced all our Varamin rugs with hand spun fine quality graded wool with natural dye. The quality of the dye in Varamin was not satisfactory, so I asked my good friend master dyer Abbas Sayahi in Shiraz to dye our hand-spun wool and yarns. We shipped our cargo of yarns from Varamin to suburb of Shiraz, where Abbas Sayahi's dye plant was.

We produced our Varamin carpets in three main color palettes of Burgundy (deep red), Dark Blue, and Ivory. For the red, we used root of madder which were seven years old grown in the desert in central Iran. Cochineal is not grown in Iran any more and is imported from south America, the Caraibe Islands and India. Since it is imported, cochineal is very expensive compared with locally grown root of madder and there was no need to use cochineal. If we needed darker and deeper red, we asked master Abbas Sayahi to mix the root of madder with a little bit of walnut husk in the dye bath in which wool was boiling to get dyed. For the dark blue, we used indigo which is locally grown in Fars province.

Construction of Varamin Rugs

At the beginning, we used wool warps and foundations, but it seemed to be a bit difficult to manage this as the wool foundation was softer and more elastic. The rugs could not be as straight as we wanted. We changed the foundation to cotton and our problem was solved. All our looms were vertical and our weavers who were from all these four ethnicities of Turk, Lor, Kurd and Arab, used hooks to weave rugs and the knots were all symmetrical. The knot per square inch of these rug are approximately 160.

Varamin Kilims and Flat Weaves

In the past and before Varamin became famous for its rugs, making kilims and flat weaves was more common. All the kilims were woven on horizontal (ground) looms with wool foundation.

In one of our trips to Varamin, I saw a very old man who had an antique Kurdish Varamin Kilim Farsh, a combination of flat weave and pile rug. The size was almost 7'x 7'. Part of the rug in the center was made with un-dyed camel hair. I wanted to buy this beautiful piece but the man did not want to sell it to me. I said I would buy it from you with any fair price you give me but he rejected my offer. I said at least let me take a picture so we may reproduce a piece like this. The man agreed. We prepared the cartoon and made few pieces. Three female weavers worked on these kilim-farsh rugs. Two were rug weavers and one woman did the flat weave part. I have one of these rugs in my carpet store in Los Angeles. The central part and some motifs on the borders are pile rug and the rest is fine flat weave. The size is 6' 6" x 6' 9".

References:

1- Parviz Tanavoli, Tribal and Rustic Weaves from Varamin, Tehran (2003)
2- www.rugidea.com
3- Personal experiences of the author, Khosrow Sobhe

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

Rug Water damage and Rain in Los Angeles

Yesterday was Saturday and it rained a lot here in Los Angeles. The rain had started from Thursday. We received few emergency phone calls from customers who had water damaged rugs. We picked up those rugs. Some of these rugs had bleeding and color run. Our response to picking these rugs up was around 45 minutes in each case.

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