November 2007 Archive

• Emmett's Oriental Rug Book, Western Influences

  Technology and the Oriental Rug Renaissance

  11.29.07 | Comment?

  Egyptian weaver working at a loom near Cairo, 1998.

  Oriental Rugs Today: Chapter 1 Part 6
  One last factor has motivated the renaissance, and that is technology. It is perhaps surprising that a low-tech industry like Oriental rugs could benefit from twentieth-century technology, but such is the case. First of all, the information available to Western rugmakers […]

• Emmett's Oriental Rug Book, Oriental Rug Geography

  Geopolitical Events and the Oriental Rug Renaissance

  11.28.07 | Comment?

  A Little River carpet from Black Mountain Looms. Black Mountain Looms, in its formative stage, flew a spinner from Boulder, Colorado to teach Chinese weavers to spin wool by hand.

  Oriental Rugs Today: Chapter 1 Part 5
  Besides the movement of Tibetans into Nepal after China’s invasion of Tibet, several other international political events helped the rug […]

• Emmett's Oriental Rug Book

  The Decorative Carpet Movement

  11.27.07 | 2 Comments

  This is one of a new generation of Tibetan rugs from about 1987. I believe that American and European rugmakers in Nepal were among the first to sense the need for what we now call decorative carpets?carpets, that is, with light, soft, low-contrast colors, and an inviting texture.

  Oriental Rugs Today: Chapter 1 Part 4
  In the […]

• Dyes and Wool, Emmett's Oriental Rug Book

  Natural Dyes Rediscovered

  11.26.07 | Comment?

  An early Azeri from Woven Legends. The nascent renaissance in Oriental rugs moved a step forward in the middle and late 1980s when Woven Legends released carpets like this. Its outrageous asymmetry, its huge borders and giant design elements, its playfulness, its lavish natural dyes—all were without precedent. And this is not a little tribal […]

• Emmett's Oriental Rug Book, The Renaissance

  The Oriental Rug Renaissance

  11.21.07 | Comment?

  A Yuruk woman working on a kilim. She is using a heavy comb-like beater to compact the wefts. Turkish village, 1985. (Chris Walter.)

  Oriental Rugs Today: Chapter 1 Part 2
  These days I survey new rugs and carpets as they come available, and I find myself unable to suppress that old competitive, acquisitive feeling familiar from earlier […]

• Emmett's Oriental Rug Book

  The Decline of Quality in the Twentieth Century

  11.14.07 | Comment?

  Heriz from about 1935. Earlier Herizes were relatively simple and open. By 1935 they had become busy and cluttered—like this example.

  Oriental Rugs Today: Chapter 1 Part 1
  Americans and Europeans of a certain stripe have been in love with Oriental rugs for over a century. But we have preferred old rugs to new. Nearly all collectors […]

• Emmett's Oriental Rug Book, The Renaissance

  A Renaissance of Oriental Rug Weaving

  11.13.07 | Comment?

  This is a new carpet that easily could be mistaken for an antique. It’s a new Turkish runner by Woven Legends, one of the rugs that company calls Euphrates.

  Oriental Rugs Today: Introduction to Chapter 1
  The best Oriental carpets woven today, are more beautiful and of better quality than any woven in the previous seven decades. […]

• Emmett Eiland's News, Emmett's Oriental Rug Book

  Emmett’s Book, Oriental Rugs Today, Online

  11.12.07 | Comment?

  Emmett’s book, Oriental Rugs Today, was released in its second edition in 2003. It remains essential reading today, and is likely the definitive work on the contemporary Oriental rug market. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be publishing Oriental Rugs Today, second edition, chapter by chapter on this blog. Enjoy!
  From the preface:
  Just three years ago […]