Antique rugs that never go out of style

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Antique rugs that never
go out of style

I have been in the business since 1983 and guess what. Having actively dealt in rugs for almost 30 years, here is a quick look at some rugs that were probably hot even then.

The reason these rugs work with almost any setting is due to the softness of color and the flow of design.

The Marriage of Art and Design

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0700

2011 Contemporary Collection

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The modern interior of a home, and its furnishings, shape the human experience of everyday life. One of the most distinguished textiles is the Ikat, now antique, and prized for its bold, original designs created with vibrant colors. In the streets of 18th Century Central Asia, a man's clothing defined his status in society and proclaimed his wealth. In his home and during family ceremonies, Ikat textiles provided luxurious embellishment. Today the influence of Ikat designs can be seen in contemporary fashion and home decor.

An Ikat is an ancient technique involving the preparation of threads through a process of tying, binding, and dyeing. The dyeing process has similarities to the contemporary technique of tie-dyeing, except that bindings were applied to the threads which resisted the dye penetration, to ensure that the desired patterns emerged.

Alteration of the binding and the dying of more than one color produces elaborate, multicolored patterns. When all the dying has been completed, the bindings are removed. It is at this point that the threads are ready to be woven into cloth.

Ikat weaving styles vary widely. Many designs motifs may have ethnic, ritual or symbolic meaning or have even been developed for export trade. As alluded to earlier, traditionally Ikat are symbols of status, wealth, power, and prestige. With the amount of time the craft takes, as well as the skill involved in weaving an Ikat, some cultures have come to believe that the cloth is actually imbued with magical powers.

We at DLB have developed a collection of Modern Carpets that reinvent the patterns of old Ikat textiles, while employing a wealth of new textures. The use of Jute, Aloe, and Natural yarns give our rugs an amazing abrajed and layered feeling. In addition, the use of various dye materials from vegetables to herbal sources has infused our rugs with a wide range of vibrant colors. We are proud to have the ability to create unique designs and patterns that reflect our own social and aesthetic preferences. Our Modern rugs showcase a wide range of weaving techniques that have been gleaned from all over the world. These international techniques marry amazingly well with our new designs. With luck, the rugs that we are creating today, with all of our contemporary sensibilities, will be what others look back on as the Antique rugs of tomorrow.

Vintage European Rugs reception

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Scandinavian Rugs

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Tibetan Rugs at Doris Leslie Blau

Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

"Cinnamon" rug completed

"Hand-knotted in Nepal, new Tibetan rugs often work best in transitional spaces and in contemporary interiors due to their luxurious texture to the unusual play of light that alters how they appear depending on they are viewed. Highly practical as well, the high lanolin content found in Tibetan wool also makes them incredibly resilient. Due to the system of rug production in Nepal, the descendants of traditional Tibetan weavers working today are able to make rugs in almost any style, pattern, shape, size, and material." as quoted in the book The Decorative Carpet

At Doris Leslie Blau, our Tibetan rugs are among the highlights of our custom rug division. We are delighted to share images of our rugs being produced and a detailed explanation of the entire production process.

Nepal is one of the worlds poorest countries. Living conditions, services, and environmental circumstances are well below western standards. Over the last 30 years, the Nepalese handmade rug industry has become Nepals largest employer. It is the countrys largest exporter, its the largest source of hard currency, and it provides one of the few means for uneducated people to learn valuable working skills.

Handmade Tibetan rugs, an artistic tradition in Tibet for over one thousand years, are made with a unique method of hand knotting. Tibetan style rug making was introduced to Nepal following the forced expulsion of Tibetans from their homeland by the Chinese suppression of Tibet in 1959.

About 50,000 Tibetan exiles crossed over the Himalayas by foot and settled in Nepalese refugee camps that were organized by Swiss and German relief organizations. With early European assistance, the Tibetan rug trade has grown from a small cottage industry in about 1965 to its current leading economic position in the country of Nepal.

Alternative sources for Tibetan style production: India and China

"Cinnamon" rug in production

Nepal is the only country in the world, with the opportune combination of talent and raw materials that has been able to execute high-end Tibetan quality. The Tibetan people in Nepal, are the originators and leaders in the production of the highest quality Tibetan carpets; especially those tailored for the American market.

In the factory selected by the Doris Leslie Blau gallery, over half the employees are Tibetan. The original Tibetan Master Weavers, who came from Tibet, have trained the current master weavers. The workers in all hand manufacturing processes: carding, spinning, dying, weaving, shearing, carving, etc., have learned from Tibetan masters. Many factory employees have 30 years of experience.

The Nepalese government is solidly behind the Tibetan rug business in Nepal, and continues to support initiatives to bolster its number one industry. Comparatively, in India and China, Tibetan rugs are a small percentage of the handmade rug business.

Production Site

Among hundreds of alternatives, Doris Leslie Blau selected a manufacturer that has the technical know-how to support the high-end American market. The factory has the talent, the facilities and the programs to perform in business and to sustain its employees.

This factory provides living quarters, clean drinking water, childcare and heath benefits to its employees. No manufacturing processes use child labor and the company takes steps to improve its local environment.

There are hundreds of rug making factories in Nepal. Each has ownership varying in ability and reliability, employees varying in skills, produces rugs of varying grades, and uses materials of varying qualities. Many have never successfully exported to the U.S.

The company has superior abilities and has a proven track record. Management philosophies and practices, including those regarding social and ecological responsibilities, are exemplary in Nepal. Doris Leslie Blau aims to produce the best quality of rugs available in Nepal, with a factory that maintains high standards for their work, employees and their families, and local environment.

The Tibetan Knot

The common denominator that makes a rug a "Tibetan Rug," whether its made in Tibet, Nepal, India or China is the "Tibetan Knot." The Tibetan Knot is an ancient technique. The knot itself is most like a Persian knot, but instead of being looped around one warp thread and cut knot by knot, the Tibetans loop the yarn around two warp threads and a metal rod, anchoring the yarn to the underlying cotton foundation. The yarn is looped across the full length of the rod and intermittently cut when colored yarn must be changed. When the looped row is complete, the weaver cuts the loops across the rod by hand with a sharp knife to create the cut pile.

The Tibetans developed this method to save wool and time perhaps a thousand years ago. Each Tibetan clan or village might have owned a few sheep to provide a limited supply of wool. Since rug making in Tibet was a cottage industry to supply personal needs and adorn Buddhist temples and monasteries, rugs were traditionally small. The rugs were simple in design and may have had one or just a few colors to save yarn.

Tibetan Wool

Native to Tibet, the Tibetan line of Himalayan sheep was bred by individuals or groups of families in villages in Tibet. Although the cold, wet, and high altitude climate was enough to provide the conditions for the native sheep to grow long, hearty, oil rich coats of wool, the Tibetan shepherds selectively bred their most productive sheep over hundreds of years. There are no other sheep in the world that posses the long-stapled, lanolin rich, wool indigenous to Tibetan sheep.

Today, with updated designs and colors, the Tibetan knot woven with Tibetan wool on a metal rod has created a fresh fabric that pleasingly lends itself to the execution of simple, but sophisticated designs and to naturally textured pile. The colors are in harmony with the wool, and are subtly enhanced by their natural variation and luster.

Doris Leslie Blau Tibetan Rugs: made with 100% Tibetan Wool

The wool is imported from Tibet. Tibetan sheep, living in the Himalayan environment,

yield a thick coat of long stapled wool, naturally high in lanolin. Tibetan wool is the basic element for the special texture and finish of the final rug.

The factory imports its own 100% unprocessed Tibetan wool for all qualities. The wool is sheared in the Tibetan region of China and brought over the Himalayas to Nepal by truck or sometimes by Yak. Once in Nepal, the raw wool is hand sorted into its different natural shades of ivory, gray, brown, and black, and these batches are kept together to be dyed with the appropriate colors for each shade.

Indian Silk

The factory imports 100% unprocessed premium grade Indian Silk to be used for rugs with silk accents or wool and silk blends. The silk is hand-carded, handspun, and dyed by experienced artisans. Although machine processed Indian or Chinese silk are available in Kathmandu, our factory has selected the highest grade of unprocessed silk to best complement the look and feel of hand crafted Tibetan wool.

Handmade Yarn

The unprocessed Tibetan wool is hand scrubbed in mountain water to retain its natural strength and lanolin content. The wool fibers are gently combed with hand made carding tools and then handspun with handmade wooden spindles. The remarkable combination of the natural softness, texture, and lanolin infusion found only in Tibetan wool and the ancient art of handcrafting the yarn, creates a special luster, luscious feel, and gentle variation in color, unparalleled in any other handmade rugs.

Alternatives: Cost-cutting methods can be used to reduce the cost of yarn. Various grades of New Zealand wool, Indian wool, or Chinese wool, none of which posses the natural character of Tibetan wool can be used. Some of these yarns can be spun with Tibetan wool to give the yarn a splash of Tibetan character. Cuttings and leftover Tibetan yarn that is bleached and re-spun into yarn is very often used to produce

Inexpensive commercial grade rugs. None of these alternatives can impart the look and feel of 100% handcarded, handspun Tibetan wool.

Wool can be machine carded, machine spun, and bleached, to cut corners. These can be violent or obtrusive processes that strip the wool of its lanolin and divest any wool of its intrinsic strength and resilience. These processes create uniformly white wool with the same consistent twist in every square inch of the yarn. The yarn then absorbs dye evenly and produces a perfect rug, precisely carved and with no color variation.

Since our wool is untouched by chemicals or machines, we uncommonly maintain the rare qualities of the Tibetan wool. The wool is gently combed and spun by hand, producing a delicately twisted yarn. Each square inch of our yarn is inconsistent in thickness, lanolin content, and natural shade. There can often be specs of natural gray or black wool within the twist of Tibetan natural ivory. Therefore, when our yarn is dyed, every square inch of wool bonds with the color at varying levels of absorption.

In cut pile, the colors reflect the random blending of naturally inconsistent dye strengths, resulting in fortuitous imperfection. Every handmade Tibetan rug made by The Doris Leslie Blau gallery is a work of art and made for unique interiors.

Rugs are finished in Nepal

To continue the tradition of handcrafted workmanship, the factory washes and finishes its Tibetan rugs in Nepal. The washing, rinsing, shearing, and carving processes are done by hand to assure each rug is attended to individually. The gentle care helps to preserve the inherent qualities of Tibetan wool and the handwork of the craftspeople.

Alternatives: In Europe and the U.S., more mechanized methods are used to wash and finish Tibetan rugs, with some producing excellent results. We prefer the more natural and hand processed methods we found in Nepal.

Doris Leslie Blaus Advantage: Among many alternatives, the Doris Leslie Blau gallery has selected one finisher with whom we have developed our own washing process. The handcrafting and personal care at each stage is exceptional allowing us to maintain a soft finish with the color variation and luster expected in high quality Tibetan rugs. Our washing process is ecologically safe and especially consistent.

High quality dyes

Alternatives: Natural dyes have a limited range of color selection, since the source of color pigment is limited to plants and insects. Natural dyes, by nature, are inconsistent from batch to batch. Rugs made with natural dyed wool react easily with atmospheric conditions, sunlight, and traffic patterns. They are not conducive to programming a line of rugs. Synthetic dyes are used for programming because of their wide range of color selection, their consistency, and their color fastness.

In Nepal, there is a large assortment of imported synthetic dyes. The most common are made in and imported from India. We use only Ciba Geigy dyes and Sandoz mordents made in and imported from Switzerland. These are the most expensive of the synthetic

Dyes, but they are the safest and the most colorfast. The Swiss formula is called Swiss Metal Complex. It is the only chemical compound that allows chromium to carry color, but causes it to be fixed. Chromium, the best carrier of color pigments, can be toxic if unfixed. Swiss made Ciba Geigy and Sandoz products give us an unlimited selection of color, color fastness, safety, and consistency.

Top designers and colorists

In Nepal, we have one of the best design departments in the industry. They are adept at interpreting and creating new designs, placing colors properly, and producing color graphs used by the weaving team to hand-knot the rug. Doris Leslie Blau also provides design services on request from its clients for programming or custom designing. The core of our custom business is the creation of one-of-a-kind rugs within the exact color and design specifications of the interior designer, architect, or artist.

Security

The Doris Leslie Blau gallerys partners in Nepal systematically maintain control of designs and colors. Our rug producer and washer operate in secure compounds. The rug producer works solely for Doris Leslie Blau using colors produced exclusively for the gallery. The factory has its own yarn making, dying, weaving, and finishing compounds, working solely for the producer. The washer uses a formula developed with and exclusively for Doris Leslie Blau. Completed rugs are kept in a secure warehouse that is totally out of view.

Systems

Doris Leslie Blau has developed and implemented several quality-related procedures to make the Nepal experience a pleasant one for its clients. We oversee order processing, production scheduling, quality control, and shipment planning.

Heart Gallery