Mother's love ❤️ عشق مادری

Описание: Watch as we talk about this circa 1900 Northwest Persian village rug and a most unusual aspect of its making!

Footnotes

Our conversation regarding the proportion of the design does not mention the fact that in the beginning the mother was tying knots more quickly, since she and her daughter were starting from the edge of the rug and working their way towards the middle, it makes perfect sense that the design has better execution beyond the halfway mark on the mothers half (left hand side). This would explain the compressed nature of the design on the daughters (right hand) side in the beginning. This begs the question; how much of the improvement in the design towards the end is a result of the mother simply going farther on every row of knots in order to keep her daughters interest, as opposed to her daughter’s skills improving? I would say a little bit of both!

** There are aspects to this rugs design and color that strongly suggest it was woven in or around the city of Bidjar. The fact that most Bidjar rugs are double wefted, and have a higher knot density suggests that this rug was woven in a home in a nearby village. The mother would have had a strong familiarity with Bidjar rug colors and design, and rendering it in her village's “native weave” produced a rug with a more stylized design. When a weaver attempts a more floral, representational design in a quality like this, she doesn’t have the number of knots per squre inch or centimeter to produce curving, flowing lines. Think of it like having fewer pixels! In my opinion, it is this simple fact that brings the charm and, more importantly, personality to the rug!

*** Finally, because I had my loyal Iranian followers in mind when I shot this with Ali, I was hoping to dispel some of the pre-existing bias there is against coarsely woven village and nomadic rugs. Over my 45 year career, I have often had to listen as a client dismissed a rug of this quality by tossing their head, clicking their tongue and saying “we used to have these in our servants' quarters!” Every time you look at an extremely fine rug with a design that was rendered close to perfection, think about the women who were weaving in that workshop, and the fact that they had zero input into the design or colors that were being used. My goal is to represent the nomadic and village women who wove these rugs as the true artisans of their time.