I’m now on
my 3rd and final tour with the Foreign Service, serving in Lahore,
Pakistan. Oh, how I wish it were not my final tour but mandatory retirement
will shove me out the door June 30, 2014.
While serving
in Muscat, Oman, I fell in love with the hand knotted wool and silk carpets
that were available. I am the proud
owner of 15 gorgeous carpets, some wool on wool, some silk on silk. And if you have never had the pleasure of
walking on a silk carpet, you’re missing out on a real treat. These carpets are really works of art
and beautiful on the floor or hanging on the wall. I jokingly said I needed to enroll in the 12
Step Program for carpet purchasing!
Well, I’m once again back where carpets are produced and recently I had an experience (and temptation) I won’t soon forget.
Several of
us from the Consulate took a trip to the Lahore Carpet Manufacturing Co.
(www.lahorecarpet.com) here in Lahore, Pakistan. This was my Disneyland moment in
Pakistan! I learned so much about how the
carpets are produced and brought to market.
I now understand why these things of beauty cost so much. I’ve always believed that each one was an
investment and now that I’ve seen just what goes into the making of a hand
knotted carpet I understand why they cost what they do. This is just one more reason why I am
grateful to have served in this region with the opportunity to buy and learn
about this wonderful art form. Leading the
tour of this 150,000 square foot facility with over 400 employees were the 3
partners of the company. Their father established the company in 1949 and they
are carrying on the tradition he began over 60 years ago. This is an art that goes back to the 5th century BC. I was amazed at the entire
process, from the way the colors are established to just how many times each
carpet is inspected before it is ready to hand over to its new owner. We were told that the U.S. is their biggest
customer, with approximately 60% of their business going to Americans. Believe me when I tell you that designers are
beating down their door for these carpets, another reason that these carpets
are an investment! Turkey is another
good customer, so if you’ve served in Istanbul and bought a carpet there, it
could actually be from Pakistan. China,
who used to enjoy the majority of the market in hand woven carpets, is now one
of their customers, due to the economy. Below
is my photo trip through the Lahore Carpet Manufacturing Co. Enjoy!
Initial
designs are hand drawn on graph paper and filled in with color. The designs
then go to the people who write the ‘code’ or special language called Talim,
which is what tells the weaver which colors to use on each line. The design originals are archived and copies
are sent to the weavers. I was surprised
to learn that weavers are located all over Pakistan and Afghanistan. None of the weaving is done on site and we
were assured that no child labor was used in the making of these carpets…and no
child was seen on our tour. I asked
about the workday hours and was told that the work schedule is 8 hours a
day, strictly enforced.
Once the
design is complete (the picture below is a part of the completed design on the graph paper), the yarn is dyed.
Color schemes are driven by styles and trends…they already have the
colors that are scheduled to be in style for 2013-14. This information is vital in order to get the
wool and have it dyed and meet the carpet demand 1-2 years in advance. Their
wool comes from all over…Australia, Afghanistan and New Zealand to name a
few. Some sheep are sheared once a year,
yielding a longer strand, others twice a year with shorter strands. This all
comes into play in carpet manufacturing.
Depending on
the complexity of the design, size of the carpet and the number of knots per
square inch (the most important detail), it could take 2 years for one weaver
to make a carpet. Sometimes 2-3 people will work on the same carpet at the same
time, reducing the time to completion.
Once complete, it is sent back to Lahore and their process of finishing it and readying it for sale begins.
The carpets are received and inspected. They are then
cleaned, and I mean scrubbed! They are then
laid outside in the large courtyard on clean river rocks to dry, or in some cases, hung out to dry! Carpets are hung wherever there is room to hang them! The weather is watched and
if the forecast is for rain, the carpets are brought inside.
Once they
are dry, the process of getting them ready for sale begins. They are inspected over
and over, at every step in the process. This results in finding small errors in
the pattern which are corrected by a team. The rugs are stretched to make sure
they are exactly straight and true to measurements. Rows are checked to make sure they line up
the way they are supposed to. After each
process they are once again cleaned. I
learned that lots of water will NOT hurt your carpet! The backs of the carpets are hit with fire to seal the knots and keep them from coming loose.
When the
carpets are received from the weavers, they are not trimmed to the short length you're used to
seeing; they're really shaggy. So, off
to the room where the shaving takes place!
There are different lengths to a pile and these men have instructions on
just how short to shave each carpet.
They have electric ‘razors’ with rotating blades. I didn’t see any
guides on them so I assume they just know low, medium or high. After the
shaving, the carpets go in a tumbler that removes any excess wool that was
shaved off, even though there is a vacuum that sucks up most of the shaved
wool. By the way, the many bags of shaved wool are donated to a group who use it
for stuffing for cushions and other puffy things. Nothing is wasted in this process!
Then it’s
off to the binding area, where the men stitch around the edge, just inside the
fringe, making sure the rug is securely stitched so that nothing unravels. Once that’s done, it goes to another section
for further inspection, stretching, corrections and even re-dying. Yes, due to demands, more bright colors are
being requested by the younger generation of carpet lovers. Colors like purple, pink and teal! So, once a rug is completed in the colors of
the Talim, the carpet is re-colored by hand.
Yes, the browns, beiges, blacks or reds are transformed to pink, purple,
orange or fuscia, depending on the order.
All of us just shook our heads but if the demand is there, you have to
supply. They even have carpets that are
a patchwork. They cut up completed
carpets and then stitch them back together to form one patchwork carpet and
then (ugh) they are “over colored” to a palette of all blues or purples or
reds. None of us liked this process, but
again…supply and demand.
Once the
carpet has been through this long process, it finally makes it to the showroom
floor. The showroom is actually like a large warehouse where stacks and stacks
of carpets wait to be sold, shipped or repaired.
They are organized by style, size, technique and price. And those over colored ones? Those have a place in the back corner! You can see some in the picture below...not my favorites.
This is when
we had the opportunity to shop…at wholesale prices! I found one I liked and it has been delivered
to me and has a home under my dining table. Before it was delivered, it
went through one final inspection to insure it was perfect. One more carpet to add to my collection! That's it below!
 |
| My new carpet! |
This tour
gave me an increased respect for this art.
In Oman, I was told that the youth in the Kashmir region, where most of
the carpets came from, are not interested in learning this skill from their
elders. We can thank the computer age
for this reluctance to carry on tradition.
I fear that one day, all carpets will be made by machine and we will
have lost yet another art done by hand to machines. Machine made carpets are beautiful, but just
not the same as hand made. How can you
tell if a carpet is made by hand or by machine?
I’ve been told to take a close look at the fringe. A hand made carpet will have fringe that is
an extension of the weave of the carpet, as the fringe runs all the way through the carpet
to the opposite end. A machine made carpet will have fringe that is sewn
on and you should be able to see this.
The picture here shows how the design charts are bundled and saved. I asked if they had a good sprinkler system in case of fire. He told me they were in the process of scanning all designs in the computers so they will never lose them.
All dyes are natural. These are some examples of the colors used. Brown is never always the same old brown...the varying shades of colors is endless.
I’m being realistic when I say I am not done buying carpets. I have about 22 months left to serve here in Pakistan and I know there will be more trips to this carpet company. And when I return, I hope to pick up more details that I missed this trip, as well as another carpet or two.
I love my life.
