rugs and carpets: September 2008 Archives

Tanva: When did you join our weaving workshop?
NNK: Just arrived today
Tanva: What motivated you to join us in the first place?
NNK: Mostly it was the long grass that covers most of the site. And the numerous small mammals and birds. Especially the defenseless ones.
Tanva: How did the interview go?
NNK: Well, the guys, I mean the other cats, just sat there and kinda stared at me. And they did the tail swishing thing too. I was pretty nervous for a few minutes, I can tell you. Then they turned around and walked away. That's when I knew I was "in".
Tanva: How are the facilities on-site?
NNK: Well, the kitchen scraps are ok. But too many vegetables. I never understood the point of vegetables. Or rice for that matter.
Tanva: And how do you like the place generally?
NNK: Ok. But the pace is a bit too frantic for my liking. All that weaving and dyeing and stuff. Sometimes I get tired just from watching it and have to take a nap. My advice would be "slow it down a bit guys". Wait 'till it gets dark. That's the time to get stuff done.
Tanva: Any hobbies or interests?
NNK: Not really. There's the napping and tormenting of small, half-dead animals. But that's more of a vocation really.
Tanva: How long do you plan on being here?
NNK: Things are going pretty well. I might stay all day if it keeps up.
Well, can't stand around here all day nattering to you. Hey, I cornered a mouse this morning that was nearly as big as my head! No kidding! I swear to god it was this big...

Greetings from Lhasa (I arrived yesterday on a trip to visit our workshop here).

The atmosphere is very different here compared with my last trip in July. Tourists are returning, both local and from overseas. The restaurants are back open (huzzah! more than one place to eat!) and the traders are looking marginally happier. The weather is still decent, though cooling off a bit, and Lhasa residents are out proving the truth of the saying "whereever you find a patch of green, you fill find a Tibetan sitting on it". This includes traffic islands.

Pictured here is one of the new designs that has just come off the loom, that I am pleased with, photographed after washing but before the final trim. Well done Norbu and team. The design is based on one of the imperial seals used by the Kangxi Emperor (1661-1722), one of the two longest serving and most successful emperors of the Qing dynasty. Hope he won't mind me stealing his seal design.

The rug measures about 6ftx6ft (Imperial measures - what else?).

Volatile Organics (VOCs) are coming to be recognised as a key environmental safety issue in the home and in the office. The problem is that our fondness for synthetic materials for furnishings has brought with it organic materials that are used in industrial processing (as solvents and softening agents, or left-overs from the manufacture of polymers). These are slowly released into the air in your home or office.

If this sounds a bit technical and remote, think again. If you have ever experienced a headache caused by lingering paint odor, or a strange smell in your newly renovated home or office, then you have been affected by VOCs in your environment. The bigger issue is that the long term effects of breathing in small organic molecules are not well understood, and problems may lie ahead.

Carpets made from synthetic materials are a particular and recognized source of VOCs. They can come from the synthetic fiber of the carpet itself, or from carpets made of natural fibers that are embedded in a synthetic backing (flip the carpet over and look at it - if it has a mesh with something that looks like glue or latex on it, then you have a synthetic backing).

Some manufacturers of synthetic carpet tiles have recognized the problem and are making creditable efforts to reduce VOCs. An example is the TacTiles product from InterfaceFlor. These kinds of products will significantly improve office environments over time. But for the home owner the real question is why introduce any synthetic carpet materials into the home at all? I believe that a more responsible choice is to use a good quality handmade carpet such as the ones that my company Torana supplies. We use no solvents, glues, resins or volatile organics at all. The only materials that go into our carpets are pure wool, non-toxic dyes ... and the soap and water we use to wash the carpet after weaving. The best way to eliminate something is not to put it in in the first place.

Aside from synthetic materials, for home use skip carpets from sources you don't know or don't trust, that may have used sub-standard dyes, pesticides or solvents in their manufacture. Buy good quality from sources you can rely on.

Read more about these issues on our website.

At our Torana An Fu Lu store in Shanghai we have a show ongoing of Chinese silk textile fragments. These range from small pieces like the red silk brocade fragment shown here at far left, up to a complete silk tapestry robe panel from around 1800.

Most of these pieces I've collected in Tibet over the last decade during my regular trips to our workshop in Lhasa. The association between Tibet and Chinese silk textiles might not seem an obvious one at first sight, but in fact it's one of the best places to find old silk, particularly earlier pieces from the Ming dynasty (1353-1644) that interest me most. Chinese silk was used in Tibetan ceremonial robes, altar cloths and other items, and the state of preservation in Tibetan temples is usually better than that found in other parts of China.

As a rug designer, I'm particularly interested in the Ming fragments since they show some of the best characteristics of Ming design: bold designs, a fondness for flowing curves and generous shapes, a nice balance of "figure" and "ground" and a certain freedom and experimentation that is often lacking in designs from later periods.

Cloud designs from this period are a particular favorite of mine, and something I've used in carpet designs for Torana. As an example, I've included a fragment of a red silk cloud brocade that originally formed part of a Tibetan lama's robe, with a Torana rug design (below) that is based on similar cloud shapes. The colors in the carpet design are not characteristically Chinese though, the blue tones on a red ground were inspired by Indonesian batiks (another story entirely).

Textile designs from the Ming period remained fashionable in the early part of the Qing dynasty (17th century), but were replaced at the Chinese court in Beijing by new decorative styles from the 18th century onwards.

The An Fu Lu store show will run during September and October 2008. A map and contact details for our store are at this link.