The Rug Chick Blog Rug care education for oriental and area rugs.

There is a drive in every aspect of our lives to make things better.  Quicker, stronger, cheaper.

This Macbook I’m typing on right now, wirelessly at an airport – is a prime example. Ten years ago… even five years ago, I wouldn’t be able to do this post right now.

It’s part of what makes the world – and life – amazing right now. But also makes us impatient. My flight is delayed, and people here are grumbling, not I guess too impressed that we’re about to fly through the air to magically appear in another city.

Here’s a VERY funny video about this topic – funny but sad I guess.  Life is amazing and nobody is happy.

It makes me wonder sometimes about “progress” actually progressing us as a “people.”  I know at least in the rug world, as the craft of hand weaving a rug slowly dies away, we are losing something important.

Many rugs are becoming commodities – made by machine, quicker, and cheaper.  Absolutely not better. Inferior fibers, dyes, and construction. I see more disposable rugs today than ever before. Ones that will be replaced in a few years instead of in a hundred years.

A hand woven rug can take months, sometimes years, to create. It is a piece of someone’s life. The dye masters are experts in just that - dyeing. The results of a dye master family, skills passed down from generation to generation, makes our new products pale in comparison.

Here is a photo of a rug loom – just look at the detail required to create a textile:

A rug is a piece of a weaver's life.

As there is “progress” in the rug weaving world, we are losing the culture and connection and tradition that made these textiles “magical” in the first place. There are places where the handcraft and tradition still exist, it’s just slowly getting harder to find.

But this is the same with all traditions, as they are engulfed by “progress.”

I just read a book this weekend – “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superatheletes, and the Greatest Race The World Has Never Seen” 

Absolutely a book worth reading, even if you are not a runner. It brings to light a lot of wisdom from a isolated culture not just about running, but about life, and living it to enjoy it rather than simply to “get something done.”

It’s amazing how as we get more and more connected to one another electronically, that we become more and more disconnected with life, with tradition, and with doing something just for the pure enjoyment of it. 

What I love about rugs – REAL rugs – is that story behind them. That a shephard raised the sheep that gave the wool. That a dye master scoured the wool, and dyed it a myriad of colors. That a weaver had a picture in her mind, and spun the wool to create that textile. That the rug before me will outlast me several times over.

Progress is awesome. I love my Mac, I love my iPhone, I love my blog.

But tradition is very cool too. Let’s try to hold on to a little bit of both.  Now I’m off to go fly through the air like a superhero!

- Lisa