You're on safari. Out in the middle of the desert, you pass a nomadic tribe. Hot sands, flapping tents, smelly camels. This is not a life for those who are not hardy and determined. You wipe the sweat and grit from your eyes and think wistfully of your air conditioned home and private pool.
Near one of the tents, a mother works at a loom. Close beside, her daughter is being taught to weave a rug. The rug is being woven from fibers they raised on their own sheep and goats. The daughter is taught how to tend the goats, shear them, dye the wool, card it and then to use the fibers to create a pattern in a rug, by patiently weaving the fibers in a knot pattern between weft and warp on the loom.
It is painstaking work with dozens of knots to be created for each inch of a single row, and dozens of rows just to create one linear inch of rug. The mother is a true artist, and her daughter learns from her, then gives it a bit of herself to make it uniquely hers. The tribe moves from location to location, so the instruction weaves a pattern of its own through the endless moving.
The daughter learns not just how to care for the animals to create good wool, and how to make that wool usable for a rug, but also how to care for the loom, and the careful art of weaving the rug. She learns how to prepare the wool for weaving, and learns which plants produce the vegetable dyes that create the traditional colors of the world she lives in the desert, the sky, the plants and the animals she moves among, some colors bold and startling, some soft and subtle. Those plants must be gathered in the proper season, and the dyes extracted from roots, stalks, or blossoms. Early in her life, she learns that there is no time during which there is nothing to do, always another task in the cycle of creating a rug, or the elements from which it is crafted.
She learns the traditional patterns, the stories and lore around which they are centered, and how to mix the dyes to create the colors that are used to then tell those stories in the rugs. She learns patience as she works day after day for months at a time to create a single rug, and she learns to overcome physical discomforts when her back aches and her fingers become sore from a new task.
Oriental rugs are more than just an object to pass down to new generations and to create an elegant look in your home. They are works of art that somebody created by hand. Objects that were cared for and tended all the way from the time that the sheep and goats, who provided the fibers, were nothing more than frisky kids all the way up to the point where the wool shorn from them is deftly woven into a colorful carpet.
Those who created these works of art live a life that is a far cry from the life lived by those who display the fruits of their labors. They have most likely lived a life in far less than we would consider to be poverty level, but yet they still find the inspiration to create these wonderful, elegant pieces. There is obvious joy, laughter, love, and deep emotion in the artistry of an oriental rug.
Each design is based on experiences and cultural or familial history that a particular person has lived or been close to. Each design is something to call their own, something to help their families continue to live. The love and thoughtfulness that goes into creating an elegant, high-quality work of art can not be created by a machine in a factory, it comes only from skilled artisans who live day in and day out immersed in a life that is permeated with all the aspects of creating a carpet.
When you consider purchasing a handwoven oriental rug don't just think about the design and the quality, think about and understand the story behind the creation. Only then can you fully appreciate these works of art.
Written by Laura Wheeler, marketing assistant for Handmade Oriental Rugs NYC - http://www.handmadeorientalrugsnyc.com. Professional contemporary handmade oriental rug showroom in New York.
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