Reasons To Choose Wool

Reasons To Choose Wool:

Natural - Grown on sheep that graze freely on the countryside

Sustainable - Wool is an annually renewable fibre and therefore is a resource that is naturally replenished.

Warm - Wool is the original fibre for warmth; it has insulating properties and can keep you warm and cozy in the coldest conditions.

Cool - Wool is also a fiber that stays cool - it breathes and will adapt to suit its environment or its wearer.

Comfortable - The flexible, tactile nature of wool makes it comfortable to wear or to feel underfoot.

Technical - The complex cell structuremakes wool a working fibre; the key attributes of the fleece that protect the sheep continue to perform even after it has been shorn.

Versatile - The endless suitability of wool for many applications from fashions to floors to insulation show that wool is capable of adapting to its use.

Naturally fire-retardent - as a result of its high water and nitrogen content, wool will naturally resist fire and does not melt, drip or emit noxious fumes, which are key causes of fatality in fire situations.

Pure wool is bio-degradable - The natural ability of wool to biodegrade is an asset to the world as the eco agenda grows.

Durable - Unique Resilience ensures that it can withstand wear and tear over a long period.

Long-lasting appearance - Appearance retention is a key attribute of wool so that it will look beautiful for many years

Natural bounce-back - On the floor, wool has the ability to resist flattening and in a garment it will resist creases. This is due to its natural spring-like character.

Quality and style - The enduring quality and style of wool is still seen by the world's fashion and interior's champions as being superior to other fibres.

Safe and slip free - Wool is the perfect flooring for the home - young children or the elderly can be protected from accidents with a soft flooring.

Carbon efficient - An effective insulator, wool will reduce the need for heating and protect against heat loss making it highly carbon efficient.

Non allergenic - Able to trap dust within its microscopic scales, wool prevents floating dust in the home so that it can be vacuumed later. This keeps the air cleaner for breathing

Sourced from campaignforwool.org

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

Shag Rug - The Clean Up

We had a large square shag rug come in recently into our showroom that needed some Rug Ideas attention. This is a unique piece as square shag's are harder to come by and the large size also makes it very unique. This rug had been cleaned about 2 years ago but had lots of foot traffic over that time. Take a look below:

The stains blended well enough when they were sparse but when it became multiple stains is was harder to ignore. Deep cleaning shag rugs requires more elbow grease as the pile of these rugs is high and we have to make sure to get the whole pile clean. Non problem for us at Rug Ideas as we have cleaned hundreds of these and know exactly the process needed. After the deep cleaning we were extremely happy with the results. Take a look below:

Our customer is also extremely happy and has put his rug back into his living room, ready for use again minus the eyesore of the previous stains. If you have a shag that needs attention bring it into Rug Ideas, where our expertise delivers smiles all around!

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

The Beauty of Wool, Part 1

The great majority of Oriental Rugs are made with wool because of its beauty and durability. Wool is capable of absorbing deep color from dyestuffs as wool fiber drinks in color like a sponge and locks it within the fiber in a unique molecular bond. Wool is a low luster fiber which gives colors a rich, deep quality.

Wool fiber resists staining, matting, wetting, crushing, and burning, giving it durability no synthetic fiber can match. The texture of wool does not change over time and its original color is not altered by repeated cleaning, shampooing and floor traffic.

Not all wool wool alike. Some countries have a natural supply of excellent wool for rugmaking. Other rely on imported wools from New Zealand or other sources. Some countries have a more consistent wool quality through blending, others a more diverse wool quality through different blends.

Throughout countless centuries the many special properties of wool have made it the most popular fiber for floor coverings. Those same properties continue to endear it to tug makers and owners. One of our next posts will go through the attributes of wool... soon to come!

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

Gabbeh - Cleaning and Repair

A customer that had been referred to us by his friend came in recently with a nice Gabbeh rug that had been in his collection for 20 years. He wanted our deep cleaning treatment on his rug as it had not been cleaned in about 5 years. We did an inspection of the rug and pointed out that the ends had some damaged that should be repaired to prevent further unraveling of the rug. Check out the pics below:

We first put the rug through our deep cleaning process before we started on the repair. Once it was clean one of our master weavers went to work on the ends. Take a look at the finished results:

This Gabbeh now has its ends secure so no more unraveling will happen, and the deep cleaning has brought back the vibrancy of the color and fluffiness of the wool pile. Now that's service... the Rug Idea's way!

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

Decorating with Oriental Rugs

Open virtually any magazine on decorating and you will find Oriental Rugs used as an integral part of the decor. They blend wonderfully with contemporary, formal, ornate, casual and traditional decorating styles. Oriental Rugs are as adaptable to the casual living styles of today as to a formal board room.

The warmth and beauty of Oriental Rugs bring interest and luxury into almost every room in the house. Their amazingly resilient and durable qualities make them perfectly suited for heavily traveled areas as well as seldom-used parlors. Wall-to-wall carpet is no reason to hesitate in purchasing an Oriental Rug. Properly placed on top of existing carpet, an Oriental Rug brings a new dimension to a room, and has the added benefit of being easily transported if you move.

Oriental Rugs do not necessarily have to be regulated to the floor. Flatweave rugs such as Dhurries and Kilims make attractive wall hangings. Fragile antique rugs that are too worn for floor use and fine silk rugs are equally attractive when hung on the wall. Before you set out to buy an Oriental Rug, measure the space you would like to cover. Then think about what colors in your room would be enhanced by the rug and whether you are looking for a complex design or something relatively simple. The dealer can help you determine which patterns are most likely to fit in with your current decor or serve as a basis for a room's decorating scheme.

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

And Then There Was Two

A law office contacted us recently with a custom job request. They had a rug they wanted to use in their lobby/welcoming area but it was too large! It was a 5 x 8 rug but the largest the room could fit was a 5 x 5. Well, they brought the rug to right place because we here at Rug Ideas have done downsizing countless times before. We discussed where to do the cut during our initial conversation to make sure the rug would look great. Take a look at the before pics below:

After carefully taping the area to be cut we started work on the separation. One of our master weavers cut the rug by hand and started on binding the cut ends so that the final product would be 2 great looking, functioning rugs. We used top of the line New Zealand wool to do the binding and everything was done by hand. Take a look at the results below:

The 2 rugs look great and not only that, it's impossible to tell that they were 1 rug to begin with. The lawyer just set these down in his office yesterday and gave us a call to exclaim how happy he was with his rugs. If you have a custom rug job give us a call at Rug Ideas so we can step you through your various options. We love helping your rug ideas come to fruition!

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

The Beauty of Silk

Although silk is found in rugs from every major weaving area, it is only used in a small percentage of rugs. Silk is also used as an outline around design motifs in many of the quality wool rugs from China and a few weaving areas in Iran. True silk will wear well and has excellent tensile strength but great care should be taken in the cleaning process.

Real Silk

Real silk is produced as the cocoon covering of the silkworm, the pupal form of the Asian or mulberry silk moth, bombyx mori. The cocoon is spun by the silk moth caterpillar of a single silk fiber that can be up to several thousand feet in length. To harvest the silk, completed cocoons are boiled or heated to kill the silkworms, then laboriously unwound into single fibers which are plied together and spun into thread or silk yarn.

Natural silk is a fibrous protein composed of a number of amino acids: glycine (44.5%), alanine (29.3%), serine (12.1%), valine (2.2%), tyrosine (5.2%), glutamic acid (1%), others less than 1% each. Chemically, natural silk is C15H23O6N5 (we give the formula in case you want to whip up a batch of your own). Silk is extremely high in tensile strength, exceeding that of nylon. It has been estimated that if a single silk fiber with the diameter of a pencil could be produced, the fiber could lift a 747 aircraft (who figures these things out, anyway?). Silk is used to make Oriental rugs because dyed silk is a fiber with rich, saturated colors, and a distinctive, almost translucent luster. 

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

Large Area Rugs - Deep Cleaning

We recently picked up a couple of large area rugs that belonged to a luxury condo in Beverly Hills that had MAJOR stains. These rugs had seen years of traffic and had never had a professional deep cleaning. Take a look at the rugs below:

These rugs needed the Rug Ideas treatment... and fast! These are extremely large rugs and took a lot of manpower to handle and clean them. We did our thorough wet wash deep cleaning and the results speak for themselves. Take a look below:

We delivered the rugs a couple days ago and the management at the complex were astounded with how clean the rugs had gotten. We were more than pleased with the smiles all around and the great job that our deep cleaning does!

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

Finding His Grandfather's Rug In Our Store After 100 Years!

In our rug gallery, an old gentleman finds a rug made and signed by his grandfather 100 years ago in his workshop in Tabriz, north west Iran. He gets permission from the owner of the rug and kisses the rug which smells his grandpa. You will see this great huge rug which is hung on the wall in our Los Angeles Rug Tour & Workshop next week.http://rugmaster.blogspot.com/2012/01/tabriz-carpet-animal-combat-design-rug.html 

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

Los Angeles Rug Tours & Workshops

Los Angeles Rug Tour & Workshop presents:
“Five Centuries of Carpet Weaving in Kerman”
with Taher Sabahi Author, Independent Researcher,Carpet Dealer and Editor, GHEREH Magazine, from Turin, Italy


Carpet weaving in Kerman, Iran goes back to the 700’s, where it was influenced by geography and history, including the origins of the sovereign Sassanian, a turbulent age of the Seljuk, and the Safavids in the Qadjar period. Taher Sabahi will describe the evolution of weaving of Kerman carpets, viewed through the examination of the famous Termeh shawls and costume design worn by the woman of the Qadjars, the oriental shawls which later become fashion in 19th century Europe. Mr. Sabahi will also use examples of historic carpets from well-known private and museum collections to illustrate his talk, and discuss the most influential designers in Kerman carpet history. He will take a look at some diverse carpet designs and themes, each of which tells a story like a novel. He will also comment on the carpet created especially for the American Centennial, where all Presidents are depicted as well as all major figures that have contributed to history of the United States.

Taher Sabahi is an internationally renowned scholar, author, dealer and expert in the oriental carpet world. Born in Iran, he currently lives and works in Torino, Italy. He is the author of numerous publications on oriental carpets, and two of his books, L’arte del Tappeto Orientale and Kilim, and Tessuti Piani D’oriente, have been recognized by UNESCO as documents of cultural heritage. He has contributed to the field of oriental carpet dictionaries and encyclopedias that have shown a theme dedicated to the art of oriental weaving, with relative publications. He is the Director and Editor of GHEREH International Carpet & Textile Review, and a director of the International Conference on Oriental Carpets (ICOC). Dr. Sabahi will be one of the speakers of our rug tour and workshop.

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

Rug Tours, Rug Workshops: Los Angeles Rug Tour & Workshop August 10-12, 2012

We are very excited to get closer to our Los Angeles Rug Tour & Workshop of August 10-12, 2012. Many  of our participants are coming from other states, therefore we made a deal with Los Angeles International Airport Hilton Hotel and received a special and preferred rates for rooms for our guests. On the third day of the event, we are going to have a custom made tour of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood. This will be so much fun.

We are going to cover many different topics on the following aspects of rugs:

• Designs
• Dyeing process
• Weaving
• Pricing
• Appraisal
• Rug Weaving Centers of the World with A Detailed Rug Center Map of Iran
• Rug ID and How It Can Generate Confidence and More Income
• Rug Cleaning and Related issues
• Rug Repair and Color Restoration

One of our main focuses will be on rug identification. We will also discuss online and Internet marketing of rugs. There will be hands on rug repair projects and sections and one of our master weavers who has been restoring rugs for decades will show how simple and difficult repair jobs are done.

We also are going to have Dr. Taher Sabahi speak for us on five centuries of rug weaving in Kerman, a very famous city in south east Iran. He has written 22 books on rugs and has done a five-year research on kerman rugs. He will present the English edition of his book on Kerman catpets. Since Taher Sabahi lives in Turin, Italy, this book was originally written in Italian. He flew from Italy to be here for our event and we're pretty exciting about his presence. Ashkan Sobhe who is a marketing guru and a third generation rug expert will talk about rug online and Internet marketing. His company ranks #26 in the world and is in the top 1% of his industry globally. Ashkan will tell our guests how to get ahead of their competitors. He will also ave a free analysis of the participants' websites and will come up with some practical suggestions/recommendations for our guests.

We will keep our readers posted on this unique event. This is a by-invitation only workshop for rug professionals. We will share our six decades of family rug experience with our guest and attendees.

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

Tufted Rug - Cleaning and Repair

One of our repeat customers came in recently with 8 rugs to be deep cleaned as she was redecorating her house and wanted everything clean, sanitized & deodorized. One on the rugs, however, had lots of foot traffic since it was in her living room. The fringes on both ends had started to disintegrate and made the rug look very worn. Take a look at before pics of the rug below:

We proceeded to do the cleaning of all her rugs, which got the full Rug Ideas treatment, and when we were done we started on repair the ends of the rug. The owner opted to have the fringes removed and then have us hand sew binding on the ends to make the rug look uniform. We had our weaver start the process and in no time we had a great looking rug in front of us. Take a look below:

The rug now is totally deep cleaned and with the repair looks absolutely fantastic. The owner has picked up her rugs and was extremely happy with the results. So much so that she has recommended us to one of her good friends, who is bringing her rugs in to our care next week. We can;t wait to give her friend the same great Rug Ideas service!

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