WHO WE ARE  (page 11 of 15)

Back of Small Pattern Holbein, showing wide. multicolored selvedges, long kilims and braided extended warp fringes
WHY THE DETAILS ARE SO IMPORTANT ~1~

Chris confesses that his carpets show an almost obsessive attention to detail, from the colors, to the finishes—the selvedges and kilims and fringes, from the actual structure of the warp and the weft, to the pile height.  Many people ask him, how important is this, are these things that really make a difference?  

He says “When we first started out making carpets, I thought we could just draft accurate drawings of these designs and  then simply make something we couldn’t find in the market—decent reproductions of  antique carpets.”   

“I quickly found out that it wasn’t enough to just make good drawings, that beautiful carpets only resulted when all of the details, from the quality of the wool, to the quality of the dye colors, to the weaving foundation structure of the carpet itself, were at the highest level and completely integrated with each other.” 

It is this attention to detail, along with a well drawn design, that ultimately distinguishes a great carpet from an ordinary carpet.  

Chris feels he has been very fortunate to work with manufacturing partners who understand the importance of this attention to detail, and have brought their experience and energy to this task of getting these aspects just right.  It has required a great deal of trial and error experimentation.  

One detail that distinguishes modern handmade carpets from the antiques is the fundamental physical structure of the warps and wefts.  Modern handmade carpets most often use white cotton warps and wefts, wherein in the antique carpets we see all wool warps and wefts. Some say that the cotton foundation is stronger, but Chris doesn’t don’t buy it.  “The oldest carpets have wool foundations—they’ve lasted hundreds of years.” 

Classical Carpets often dyes the foundation wool, just like we see in the antique carpets, and unlike modern carpets.  This dying serves several functions.  When the pile of the carpet is worn (dozens or even hundreds of years later) the foundation is exposed.  The colored wool weft, when exposed still brings color to the carpet, rather than graying it out as a white weft does.  

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