ALKHOBAR, 25 May 2006 — In most Saudi homes, guests’ toes are pampered by the delightful feel of exquisite carpets. Not just a treat for the feet, carpets are works of art that ensnare the eyes and capture the spirit in a web of delight. There are numerous local collectors of every kind of rug.
Serving that interest, Desert Designs is hosting one of the top Iranian producers of authentic tribal rugs, Reza Zollanvari, the managing director of the Zollanvari Company. He is visiting Saudi Arabia to exhibit the Persian nomads’ carpets, especially the Gabbehs. Heavy, thick-piled woollen rugs, Gabbehs have been made by the Lurs and the Qashqi tribes of south Persia for about 400 years. Today, Zollanvari will be sharing his expertise with the public in a presentation at 10 a.m.
“We generally work with most of the important tribes in Iran. We give them wool and material, or we even ask them to use the wool that they produce. They make the carpets and we buy those,” elaborated Zollanvari on the relationship between his company and the tribesmen who make the rugs. “We try to organize this well. We control size and material, but design and so on, we let the weavers weave, we let the weavers think. Therefore, many of our Gabbehs are individual and colorful.”
The average Gabbeh takes between five and six months to make and for the finer Gabbehs, a year or even a little more is required, depending on how big the knotting is. Of course, this affects the price of the rugs. Zollanvari detailed that all features of a specific carpet from, “knot, color combination, the material, color harmony and design all come together,” when determining the price.
To establish the quality of a carpet, Zollanvari advised that trained salesmen should be available to describe the rug thoroughly. Even without an expert on hand, he said it is easy to see that a carpet is of inferior quality, “if the wool doesn’t feel good or the color combination is not so good, these are obvious signs.”
With more and more carpets being made by machine, Zollanvari expressed hope that people would increase their support of the work of traditional craftsmen.
“The weavers are very happy for each carpet that we sell. It’s a chance to keep this beautiful art form alive while enabling people to live a better life,” he said.
