Rug Ruminations

How to use google to find Oriental Rugs

Oriental rugs searches are on the rise.  People in many communities that do not have access to high quality ORIENTAL RUGS like bijar, gabbeh, tabriz, and others are now looking for fine persian oriental rugs at online rug stores like http://www.persianbijar.com.  Currently the entire inventory of Oriental rugs are available for purchae and we look forward to serving our clients.  You can also learn about oriental rugs through other posts in this blog as well as the learning corner on the website.

A brief history or Oriental rugs from Persian

Iran or Persia is known as the original center for Oriental rugs.  Once the most powerful empire in the middle east.  Persia stood at the crossroads of eastern and western civilizations.

Iran, during the Safavid dynasty (1502-1736) flourished in calligraphy, miniature painting, and tile work.  This brilliant era witnessed the development of highly qualified carpet factories in cities including Kerman, Isfahan, Kashan, Saruk, Tabriz, Bijar.  Most motifs, patterns, designs, were produced in Iran and then replicated throughout the world.  Although the very best are Persian rugs and Oriental carpets.  The Persian carpets, in particular Bijar rugs, because of their durability have become heirlooms passed on from generation to generation.

Export of Persian rugs began in the the 16th century.  Around 1850, American, British, and German firms established new factories in Meshed, Tabriz, Kerman, Isfahan, and Sultanabad to try to keep up with the extensive demand of these fine Oriental rugs.  Under the rule of Shah Pahlavi, royal factories were established to use only the finest materials and methods of manufacturing.

Persian rugs have always been and are still an intrinsic part of the Iranian culture and its peoples daily lives.  In fact Oriental rugs are in many cases their most valued possession, providing art, history, and furnishing all at once.  Even today Persian rugs continue to boast very high quality standards and command a very brisk interest in domestic and international markets.  Although the production levels have come down recently, much of todays productions is from the cottage industry and is made in smaller villages and towns and from tribes.

Oriental carpets are traditionally known for their tremendous variety in design, colors, and weave and the for the uniqueness of each rugs produced.  The uniqueness is also due to the diversity in methods from one village to the next.  Many oriental rugs are named after the village or town that they are made from, or the named, weaving tribe, in the case of nomadic pieces.  Each rug pattern, pallelle and weave are uniquely linked with the indigenous culture, weaving techniques are specific to identify the geographic area of the nomadic tribe.

For example, richly colored Bakhtiari rugs, often are characterized by ellipse- shaped medallion with floral patterning, woven by the Bakhtiari nomads and villages of southern Iran.

We hope to help you learn more about Oriental rugs from naine rugs to Bidjar rugs in the coming months and we hope you enjoy the information and your experience at http://www.persianbijar.com

Oriental Rugs are my Passion

Oriental rugs have been my passion for the past 40 years.  They are deeply rooted in my heritage.  I have loved my Oriental rugs and would like to share with many of you my beautiful Bijar rugs and Tabriz rugs as well as our Gabbeh rugs and other Iranian rugs.

You our my quest as you visit Borokims Oriental Rugs, and we invite you to look through our galleries.  You will definitely be impressed with the vibrant colors and geometric patterns found with our Gabbeh rugs.  As well my favorite oriental rugs is without a doubt my Bijar rugs also known as Bidjar rugs.  These are really tremendous rugs because of the fact that they are some of the richest looks area rugs you can find.  The production of these rugs is must lower now then they have been in the past and it has increased the value of these Persian rugs.

If you have any particular Oriental rugs you are looking for then please enquire by contact myself though our website info@persianbijar.com.

The making of a Oriental Rugs

Weaving Rugs:

Weaving Persian rugs may vary from country or region.  The principle of oriental rug making starts from dying the yarn to shearing the pile, the finished products are similar throughout the persian rug making countries.

Oriental rugs with pile, the wool is from sheep whose quality is dependent on climate, diet, and bread, as well as season it is sheared.   Once the wool is obtained from the sheep it is washed, the fibers are untwisted and either hand or machine spun.

There are many types of hand made rugs including flat woven rugs like kilims and sumaks.

The Oriental rugs most often chosen for luxurious look and long term value are hand woven, knotted pile iranian rugs, indian rugs, turkish rugs, Afghanistan rugs and some fine chinese rugs.

A person should understand that a Pile rug takes months and many times years to complete, and is unique sense one will differ from one handmade rug to another.  The knots are individually places on the flooring and then cut.  Next the yarn is dyed with many attractive colors and dried gradually in the sun.  The design for the proposed oriental rug comes from a detailed colored illustration on a graph paper.

There are horizontal looms used mostly by tribal nomads and vertical looms are used most commonly by city weavers.  The warp threads, usually cotton, are strung between the horizontal beams with consistent tension.   The thickness of the warp threads and the closeness at which they are strung are factors determining the knot density.  There are two types of knots, a turkish rug knot or ghirdes (symmetrical knot) or a persian rug knot, known as senneh or asymmetrical knot.  An average weaver can tie 10,000 to 14,000 knots per day.  One or two inches of the oriental carpet is woven by several weavers per day.

Before weaving the pile, the rug is secured at the bottom by a short kilam, a flat pile less fabric.  After rolling the different colored yarns to used into balls the weaver, reading from the design ties a knot around two adjacent warps, slide the knot down to the base of the weft and then cuts the yarn with a knife.  After a row of knots one or two wefts are inserted to secure the row.  This is done until the persian carpet is finished with additional kilim and cutting the warp to form the oriental rug fringe.

Finally, the rug is cut from the loom.  The selvedge, the side edges of the persian rugs is bound.  At this point the rug is washed and dried, a carpet cutter shears the top of the knots to create a uniform pile height.  The more knots per square inch, the shorter the pile, the more definition for the oriental rug design.

View our fine collection of these finished rugs at http://www.persianbijar.com

Iranian Rugs: the Persian rugs that last generations

Iranian rugs all well thought of Persian rugs.  They provide families and businesses that have them a richness due to their vibrant colors, durability, and stories often told with them.  Iranian rugs if they are hand made Persian rugs like the Bijar rugs at http://persianbijar.com are rugs that will last generations for your families enjoyment.  This coupled with the uniquness of each rug, many owners of Bijar rugs and other Persian rugs will see that value of their rugs increase due to the high demand and low production rates due to the hand made rug nature of the Persian rugs.

Buyer beware of coarse for those who purchase subquality rugs such as Egyptian rugs or North African Tribal rugs.  These rugs are not made of the same quality wool that is found with Iranian rugs.  These Iron rugs of Irant are called this because of the stronger then normal nature of the wool they are made with.  This with a heritage of rug makers whose repuation is worldwide, and the pride that goes into Iranian rugs is the highest in the world.  You can see for yourself when you look at Persian rugs in http://persianbijar.com.  This collection of rare bijar rugs, Kashan rugs, Tabriz rugs, and other fine Iranian rugs will wow you and your guests.

Gabbeh rugs: the great tribal rug of Iranian rugs

Gabbeh rugs are some of the the most sought after and appreciated of the Tribal rugs of Iran.  Gabbeh rugs are found in our collection of Persian rugs in http://persianbijar.com.  Their is a lot of people looking for Gabbeh rugs now.  Gabbeh in Farsi has the meaning of -Something natural something in the rough.  An organic or all natural rug is appreciated because of the intricate work that must be done in order to make a single Gabbeh rug or Persian rug.  The wool rugs will typically have Geometric shapes and sizes.  Sense these rugs are often made for the makers own home, they will usually tell a story as well that is being passed down through generations of rug makers.

Types of Gabbeh rugs inclue:

Basic Gabbeh, Kashkoll Gabbeh, Luribaft Gabbeh, Gabbeh Sumak

For more information on Gabbeh rugs please look in http://www.persianbijar.com/describe_gabbeh.html

Bijar Rugs

Bijar rugs are a type of rug originating from one of 65 areas in Iran a very fine persian rug or Iranian rug.  Each area has a  different type of rug with it’s own name. In most cases it is named after the town or village that it comes from.  So for example, there are Bijar rugs, Heriz rugs say Serapi, Kashan rugs, Nain, Esphan rugs, Tabriz rugs, Shiraz, and Tribal rugs (such as Kashgai, Bacara, Yalemeh and Backteiari).

Bijar rugs (bidjar rug) are often called the Iron Rugs of Persia they are some of the finest Iranian rugs. The Bijar is a heavy durable rug that has been very popular in the United States. Bijar rugs are especially fine when they come from the village called Tekab.  Bijars are normally woven on cotton warps and for the pile, superb quality kurdish wool is used and clipped low to medium. They have double warp and double weft and are made with kurdish wool.  The number of knots per square inch is anywhere from 150 to 250 knots/square inch.  Bijar weavers use a special tool to beat the weft strands together until they form an exceptionally foundation for the pile.  This makes the rug extremely dense and heavy and leads to a much sharper design as the more knots/square inch the more detail can be added. These rugs are the most hard wearing items produced anywhere in the world. They are strong, they are perfect and they last for many hundreds of years.  There are some rugs on the Borokhim website, that are 100 years old and still in perfect condition.

Something to be aware of with Bijar rugs, is that one should never fold them.  Because the warp and weft are so tight they press together, and could easily break if the rug is bent.

There are several different designs within the Bijar rug type.  The first is called Afshar, which is essentially octagon shaped medallions within medallions which are predominantly in the center. Another style called Herati or Farahan consists of a diamond surrounded by 4 half moon or fish.  Within this design you will often see a pattern called Minihani which includes 4 flowers as well as a Herati pattern with 4 half moon or fish around it.

The border on Bijars is generally called stylist wrap or turtle.  The Bijar palette is very rich with many jewel colors such as cherry red, green.  The most common colors are browns, ivory, ochre, and turquoise.  These tend to dominate the motifs.

These fine rugs have an extremely long life as they are structurally sound.

For the past 20 years, in addition to Herati and Afshar designs, Bijars from this Tekab area have incorporated designs with an overall pattern (with or without a medallion), called Shahabbass.  This design was based upon a pattern, done in mosaic and clay, found in the ceiling of a local mosque which is also called Shabaz.

In addition aside from the traditional Bijar patterns (Herati, Afshar, and Shahabbass) there are many other patterns that have been produced in Bijars.  They include a floral rug, which is called Gholfrang or essentially a Halvai pattern.

Another interesting facet of these rugs is that some of these rugs have silk foundations, silk warps or silk highlights.  The silk gives the rug a lot more color and shine and really makes the color pop.   And the nice thing is that these are just as durable as the rugs without the silk as the amount of silk used is essentially 1/2 of 1% so you are still getting an iron rug of persia.

Incidentally the newer bijars are far more intricate, are much tightly woven, and have more colors than the old ones.  In addition they tend to be straighter.  40 -50 years ago they used wooden looms.  Since they use a is called a wet weave (every time they put in a know they get the wool wet) they are extremely heavy (twice as heavy as any other rug of the same size).   Because they are so heavy when made with a wooden loom the loom would often break or warp leading to rugs which tended to be a bit crooked.  Newer Bijars are made on steel looms and therefore tend to be straighter. Although each rug is still unique with minor differences from rug to rug as they are handmade.
As far as I’m concerned, I cannot think of any rug as well made, as colorful or as good of an investment as a Bijar. I have been in this this business 37 years, and my father was in the business in iran for 58 years.

Every year I have been in this business, these Persian rugs have appreciated in value. You can’t say that about any other Iranian rug.