Most complete carpets we currently have are dated from the 17th century on, though older carpet designs can be seen in the secular and religious paintings of medieval Europe as oriental carpets were viewed by Europeans as prestige items worth preserving in the oil paintings of the masters as props for prominent religious and secular figures.

The Carpet Weaving World
Rugs and carpets can be and have been made in all parts of the world. But he heart of the craft and the major carpet weaving areas are in that part of the old world stretching from Morocco in the west, then across Turkey, Iran (Old Persia), Afghanistan and the Turkic speaking areas of Central Asia (formerly in the USSR), with significant production in India and China. These areas came to be the major producing areas for what is popularly called, the Oriental Carpet.

Carpets Designed by Weaving Style
There are several ways to designate carpets. One of the most basic is by type of construction and weave. Virtually all carpets are woven on a loom, which is simply a wooden frame, either horizontal (parallel to the ground) or vertical (perpendicular to the ground). A horizontal frame is easily portable and so is most often used by nomads. The vertical loom is not easily portable and so is used in village and city workshops. Because it is more stable it produces more equal or consistent sides.

The foundation of a carpet is made by laying warp and weft threads. Warp threads are strung vertically from the top to the bottom of the frame, with their ends becoming the fringe of the carpet. The weft threads run horizontally and are inserted in front and back, alternately, of the warp threads.

Flatweaves (Kilims): These are the simplest and most tribal looking of carpets. They are often less expensive per size because they are simple to weave and so take less time. The warps (vertical) threads serve by themselves as the foundation. The weft (horizontal) threads are woven over the warps to create the design in the rug. Kilims are woven just like a tapestry is woven. They are usually reversible.

Soumaks: A second set of weft (horizontal) threads is woven into the carpet over the warp threads to make the design a brocade fashion. This extra set of weft threads is cut so you can see them hanging in the back side of the carpet. They obviously take more time to weave than a simple kilim and so cost more.

Knotted (Pile) Carpets: This is the type of weaving most people think of when they think of a “rug” or “carpet”, with the standing knot ends looking like fur on the back of an animal skin. The knot is created by tying a short thread around the warp thread horizontally across the loom width. The color of each knot thread end collectively makes up the design of the rug or carpet.

Rug or Carpet Materials
Rugs can be made of wool (foundation and pile), cotton (usually just the foundation) or silk (foundation and pile or just pile), and sometimes with all these materials in combination. There are also rugs made of what is called “art silk” Art Silk rugs are not all real silk. Sometimes a small portion might be real silk, but most, if not all, of the rug pile will be made or mercerized (treated) cotton. This is all right, as long as you know that you are not buying real silk. Silk and art silk carpets often cost more as the silk thread is much thinner than wool and so a carpet will take many more knots per given area to complete, thus taking much more time to weave, in addition to the cost of materials (if real silk).

Dyes
All carpets were made using natural dyes (derived from plants, insects or minerals) until the 1860’s when synthetic dyes were introduced to the carpet weaving areas from Europe. Early synthetic dyes were aggressively marketed by Europeans and the rug weaving locals bought them because they were cheap and did not require a lot of effort or time to process as did the natural dyes. The changeover was very rapid, but it was soon discovered that the synthetic dyes would easily bleed or fade. Chrome dyes were developed and marketed after 1918 and these seemed to solve the problem. But people would often see older carpets made with the natural dyes and feel the warmth and depth of the color was superior. Rug workshops and importers would often try to “cut” the synthetic colors by giving carpets a chemical “wash”. Also, certain weaving centers are now making carpets to traditional designs and using natural dyes after abandoning them for over 100 years. These carpets are usually more expensive to account for the greater time required in the dying process and also the fact that many naturally dyed carpets are made using hand spun natural wool. We carry rugs using both process and buyers can judge for themselves what they prefer.

Abrash is a term one often hears around rugs and it refers to the color change in hue in some carpets. All dyes will fade over time if left in strong light. Sometimes thread will be dyed in different batches and the fading occurs at slightly different rates and so this color change occurs. Sometimes the weaver deliberately designs it into the carpet on purpose from the beginning. Some people new to carpets question whether this is a flaw, but experienced carpet enthusiasts love to see a beautiful abrash and think it enhances the carpet.

Rug Designs
The designs woven into carpets can vary from pictorial (People and animals) to abstract flower buds, geometric patterns (which some scholars allege are stylized stars, birds, goddesses or other), tribal identity emblems (guls), arabesques composed of vines and flowers or pure, abstract colors, similar to an abstract expressionist painting.

Most carpets feature a border of one or more bands which follow all around the edge of the carpet. The main area of the carpet inside the borders is called the field. There is usually one color that serves as the basic background of the field, the field color. The edges of the carpet are the long sides, while the ends are the short sides, and often feature a flatwoven or kilim end with fringe extending out from the end.

Types of Rug By Weaver’s Lifestyle
Normadic or Tribal Nomad or tribal peoples are generally mobile, moving from summer pasture to winter pasture and back for the sake of their flocks. They most often weave just for their own use. The foundation to their carpets is almost always wool. They most often weave just for their own use. They use the horizontal loom which is narrow and easily broken down for portability, so they usually weave their larger carpets one half at a time and then sew them together in the middle. One at first glance might think such a carpet had been damaged, cut and rejoined. But this is not the case. It is true tribal carpet and that is part of the carpet’s charm. Tribals are often very simple and still individualistic, which gives them their great charm for collectors.

Village Villages are often populated by former nomads and the village weavers often make items both for their own use and for commercial purposes to supplement their income and they use the more permanent and larger vertical looms. They often use cotton or cotton and wool in the foundation and the carpet designs are usually more sophisticated than a pure nomadic or tribal piece.

City or Workshop carpets City carpets are usually made in a formal “workshop” composed of a number of vertical looms with a staff of specialized skilled crafts people. All these skilled workers combine to produce a city or workshop carpet and virtually all the carpets are produce d for commercial sale. Their carpet foundation is usually cotton. Silk rugs are almost all made in a city workshop.

Do Not Rely on Knots
First time shoppers often ask the number of knots per square inch in a carpet, believing that this denotes quality. It does not. Often a wonderful tribal carpet at 80 knots to the square inch will sell for more at auction than a larger city carpet at 400 to 500 knots per square inch. A carpet with more knots per square inch can make amore finely detailed design, but its just a question of you liking that particular design. A carpet with more knots to the square inch will often cost more per area covered, but that’s just because it took longer to make.

Where Do Our Carpets Come From?
At one time or another we have carried carpets from almost every place that weaves them, from Morocco all the way through to China. We obtain our carpets by going ourselves to investigate, inspect and purchase. We buy direct, in large quantity and ship by container. There is no middle man. We can buy in quantity to get the best price because we supply over 90 stores all across America. You don’t need to travel the country to find our products, you can buy right here on the internet. We carry a wide range and ever changing variety of goods.

Some of the carpet categories you should know are:

Bokhara is a fabled city in Turkestan of Central Asia, famous from the time of Tamerlane as a trade center. Many of the tribes people came to the city over the centuries to sell their carpets. One of the groups was Tekke, a tribe of the Turkoman people. Their carpets featured a field with a repeat pattern of their distinctive tribal symbol (gul) which was so attractive it became the most copied of symbols and used on a number of carpets that are called Bokhara, after the city through which they were traditionally sold. We often carry old, original Turkoman carpets, high quality contemporary carpets made by expert Afghani refugee weavers plus “Bokhara” carpets made in Pakistan, which are both popular and economically priced.

Hand Tufted The politicians all tell us about the booming dot.com economy, but many new, young families, even with both people working, are stretched financially due to the high price of a new home or even a nice apartment in high rent areas were they work. If they have a child, it’s even worse. They don’t want a sizal mat on their living room floor. They want a real carpet with a pile. What can they do? We have traveled and located a good source of hand tufted (not machine tufted) room sized carpets. They feature lively contemporary designs and a full, deep pile, one just perfect for laying on Sunday mornings, having a cup of coffee and reading the Sunday paper. It’s just right for the toddler to crawl and take his first steps on, too.

Indo-Persian For centuries skilled Indian workshop weavers have been making carpets of classical Persian design or based on such design styles in Northern India. Some of these carpets woven for the Moghul emperors were considered equal to or better than the finest Persian carpets. With the embargo on Iran, India became the largest producer of classical style “Persian” carpets for the US market. So when you purchase an Indo-persian from us, you are really continuing a tradition of several hundred years

Sino-Persian Lately China began producing classical Persian style carpets in their large workshops for the US and other markets, as well as contemporary Chinese carpets, including “sculpted” carpets.

Kurdish and other Soumaks These contemporary carpets, some of wool and some of silk and wool, make a real “tribal” statement but, especially with silk, make it in a way which is compatible with the most formal and elegant home setting, to give you the best of both worlds.

Yarkand Partly through our thoroughly searching, but mostly through good fortune, we were able to secure a number of these highly unusual, classic carpets, the prize of many collectors. These carpets are named after the city from which they came, Yarkand, a city on old East Turkestan (now Sinjiang province of china), and were a real find for us. These are the real thing. Very scarce. They were woven in the early part of the last century and featured a synthesis of design themes from both Turkic Central Asia and Han China that make them unique in the world of rugs. They are wool or silk and, in either material, highly coveted.

Gabbeh The Gabbeh are a nomadic tribe in Iran who wove, and still weave, a very rough pile of carpet of bright colors and very primitive patterns. Some feature human and animal figures and some are purely abstract, just colors with abrash. They were so primitive looking that rug aficionados disdained them compared to the very sophisticated weaving of Persian city carpets until a famous collector wrote a book pointing out they were in the same style but prefigured abstract expressionist painting by at least 200 years! Of course, then the rush was on. These carpets are perfect for children’s as well as family rooms or very contemporary living rooms. We always have a good stock on hand as they are very popular. Pick your favorite now, before someone else does Of course, then the rush was on. These carpets are perfect for children’s as well as family rooms or very contemporary living rooms. We always have a good stock on hand as they are very popular. Pick your favorite now, before someone else does.

Afghan Carpets in Afghanistan came from a variety of sources, including the many weavers of the nomadic tribes, especially Turkoman or Uzbek. In the early part of the 20th Century, a number of these tribes people fled the USSR for Afghanistan. Now Afghanistan has been in turmoil since the Russian invasion destabilized the country, but we are obtaining new, high quality products from a village of experienced refugee weavers who fled to Pakistan. Their own experience and their pride in their centuries old tradition can be seen in the carpets they now weave for us and that we are proud to present to you. Because of their skills we are able to provide you with a reasonably priced carpet of the highest quality at very reasonable cost and them with much needed income. The designs featured in these wonderful carpets range from traditional Central Asian Turkoman to Caucasian Kazak. Dyes are both natural vegetable and mixed. You can own a classic carpet for your own home right now without spending a fortune on an antique carpet at auction.

Vegetable Dye This is our prized line of new carpets, a series of runners to room sized, contemporarily sized to fit the modern room, and in contemporary colors using traditional design motifs, made of hand spun wool and real, natural vegetable dyes. We have selected quality photographs of some of the finest museum piece classical carpets from the era of the Ottoman and Persian empires, such as gorgeous Ushaks and others, and taken them to our weavers to duplicate using the very best of our hand spun natural wool and natural dyes. They are soft and warm in appearance and their naturally mild colors make them adaptable enough to go with almost any décor. These are real vegetable dye carpets, they are neither chemically washed, nor are they artificially enhanced. You can be proud of them today and tomorrow.

Other Types We are not specialists, carrying only old collectible carpets or just the new. We appreciate them all and try to carry items for a wide range of tastes and pocketbook. You receive the same treatment and the same range of items whether in our store, warehouse, or on the Internet. At any time you may find products in our location from Latin America, Morocco, Egypt, Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey, Iran, India, Afghanistan, Central Asia-West Turkestan, East Turkestan-SinJiang China, old and new. But we do more or less specialize in the products of the traditional central rug weaving areas.

We also manufacture and specialize in a wide range of sizes and types of pillows, hand stitched on our premise from fragments of old damaged and new carpets, African Kuba Cloth and textiles. All are zippered and feature California standard stuffing. You might say we have pillows coming out of our ears. Plus we Custom make cushions and pillows for your special needs from old and new carpets and textiles, or your own material, to the same high standards.

What Else?
Well, we also carry textiles, artifacts, brass and bronze statuary from India, old and new stonework, architectural elements dating back to the 12th century including old pillars from the fabled Swat Valley, Spectacular classic wood swing set from Rajastan, dynamic palace horses, old Hindu temple courtyard pillar (complete with all four base stones, old and new furniture, chests, jewelry, antique clothing, dresses, and designer cloth made up of elements of old dresses that are spectacular.

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