No Plants on Your Oriental Rugs Please!

I recently was forwarded a few photos of my clients home and was highly distressed to see a plant placed on a very special rug she purchased from my gallery.  I immediately sent her the relevent information that this could damage her rug.

What occurs is moisture collects under the plant.  Seeping down slowly into the very stucture of the rug.  If the rug stays moist the process of deterioration can begin and move forward quickly. Here is more info: Water damage on rugs!

There are some additional advices in this article about placing rugs on potentially moist cement floors.  Hopefully this will be of some use.

My Recent Discovery! Beautiful Amish Furniture!

This morning I spent over 45 minutes on this wonderful web site reading about handmade Amish furniture.  I was introduced to this site by one of my clients. She casually mentioned it and my interest got the best of me.

After reading all about the craftsmanship involved and the quality of this furniture, I felt this was a great match for people that like Oriental rugs or even tribal rugs in particular.  Many of the pieces have simple lines and a timeless look.  Another aspect of the products offered that I really liked were the various finishes available and the interior decorating advises.  Always learning, that's for sure.  Have a look!
 Amish Furniture Factory

8 x 11 Persian Bijar, Garrus Design in Living Color!

Better late than never.  This rug was supposed to arrived Tuesday.  It came today.  Have a look.
It is nothing less than fantastic!

Video of My New Room Sized Bijar!

Beautiful Bijar Rug on the Way to Paradise!

This wonderful rug has been hiding in a warehouse in New Jersey for the last two years.  Brought in prior to the Persian Rug Embargo, my fantatic wholesaler has been revealing these pieces to me one by one!  This piece is 8' 8" x 11' 4" so that puts it somewhere between an 8 x 10 and a 9 x 12.  This is the classic Garrus design that one can see in antique Bijars.  This rug is new and was woven in the Bijar area.  Dyes of course are vegetable or plant based, wool is hand spun Persian wool and of excellent quality.  The rug will be arriving next Tuesday at which time I will do a short video and post it on my You Tube channel.   Here are a couple of photos of this lovely piece.  Enjoy!

To see more unique and beautiful rugs, have a look at my gallery pages:
http://www.paradiseorientalrugs.com/gallery/  Thanks for checking in.

World Class Bijar Still Available! Cypress and Willow Design with Tree of Life.

I studied this rug in depth yesterday and it only became more beautiful the longer I looked.  Noticing the many nuances of it's detailed drawing I did find the intentional mistake.  In fact, I found two.  My hint is that the rug is not exactly the same from left to right, nor top to bottom yet perfectly balanced in color and design.  That takes skill.  To find the intentional mistakes, you may have to come and see this wonderful work of art in person.  You are invited!    

www.paradiseorientalrugs.com

This piece is 10'3 x 13'9".

http://www.paradiseorientalrugs.com/gallery/

A Few New Beautiful Persian Rugs Added to my Collection and a Video!

Recently acquired and available for sale now.  Have a look at the quick video I made today.  Some lovely pieces!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-suqpM2uLQ

Vintage Turkoman Rugs.

I recently purchased two very nice older Turkoman pieces that will be arriving at my gallery soon. One is out for a bath and the other is visiting me at home for a few days before I bring it in! Don't be too shocked as many of the amazing rugs I have offered in the last few years have been my houseguests for at least a couple days.  You see, I really do love this woven art form!  OK, so before I sent the 7 x 10 out for a wash I took a few photos, so here you are.

This design is actually on the cover of a book I have on Turkoman rugs and in the 20 plus years I have only seen two of these.  The dyes look good (plant based) and as any genuine tribal rug of this type the foundation is wool.  It has a 1 & 1/2 inch kilim skirt (flat weave) at the top and the bottom and some lovely dark green accents throughout the body of the rug. There are two distinctive reds in this piece, one is a rich darker wine red, the other a softer medium red. If you are looking for a vintage Turkoman rug, this is a lovely piece.  It will be up on my site the moment I have it back and will do my best to get accurate photos.  
Vintage Turkoman Carpet, Circa: 1950's, 7' x 10'

www.paradiseorientalrugs.com

8 x 10 Heriz Rug woven in Afghanistan.

Just uploaded a new video to my You Tube channel of a very pretty 8 x 10 Heriz rug from my gallery.
Have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ8IOSuzQeo

Symbols found in a Persian Qashqai tribal rug.

I recently received and email from a couple that had been given a Qashqai tribal rug as a gift  for their engagement.  They had been in possession of the rug for only a week but were fully enamored with the endless details of the drawing and color combinations.  

The email read, "My wife and I were wondering if you could take a few minutes to look over our rug.  We have been progressively interested in the "behind the scenes" knowledge of Persian rugs and have been spending quite a bit of our free time researching the web to get as much information as possible.  That is where we came across your excellent web site!  We only know it is a Kashghai.  We found it incredibly entertaining to look at and it has added some magic to our house for sure!  We were not able to figure out the meaning of the main central symbol.  Also, on one side of the rug there are some numbers?  The other thing is that our rug does not have a standard border configuration   Is it that unusual?  We would be very grateful for any feedback you might be able to give us about our Persian rug."

My response is below.

Dear Paolo and Ilaria,

The design element in the main central medallion and each of the 4 corners of this rug, where it is repeated, represents a scarab beetle. I do see two small borders on the right and left sides of the rug which are smaller than usual but design wise very well done.  One of the borders is continued at the top and bottom of the rug. The line going up the middle of the rug with simple branches leading to and away from the medallion is a simple rendition of the Tree of Life. The numbers you are actually seeing are S's.  A bit messy but none-the-less a frequent symbol used in Southern Persian tribal rugs.  They each represent dragons.  The design (drawing), colors and wool all look very good from what I can see in your photos.  My best guess is that some of the dyes in this piece are from natural sources but a few of the colors, such as the orange may be from chrome dyes.  Overall, you have a very nice rug!  Here is link that may be of assistance to you with more info on rug symbols.  http://www.arastan.com/journey/carpet-motifs-beginners-guide

Hope that helps.
Penny Krieger
www.paradiseorientalrugs.com

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Dear Penny,

Thank you so much for your feedback and explanations on your rug!  We appreciated it. Please feel free to use our pictures and email request on your blog. We are based in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK!

Kind Regards,
Paolo and Ilaria :)

PS The link sent is very interesting, thanks!

San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show February 2013

This show will be at Fort Mason, in SF, February 8-10, 2013.

The show is always fascinating and one of the best in the world!  I will be there and recommend it to anyone interested in antique tribal art and textiles! 

Here's the link! http://www.caskeylees.com/SF_Tribal/SF_Tribal.html