CARPETS
Pakistan dominated the carpet market for many years producing high quality Bokhara rugs (elephant foot pattern) with over 14,000,000 looms producing this quality rug. Pakistan has also attracted many Turkoman refugees from Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus’s with the unrest in these regions. This has led to a huge change in the carpet production in this country. Pakistan is the foremost producer of hand-spun vegetable dye rugs, Kazaks and very fine decorative carpets utilising New Zealand wool due to their commonwealth connections.
The description "very fine" refers to the number of knots per square inch in these superb examples of the weaver's art. This means there are 30,000 knots in a square foot! Labour spent on a piece is measured in 'dehari' which is one day's weaving, which equates to 6000 knots. A 12' x 9"' rug would take in excess of 600 dehari (days) to weave. On a rug 12' x 9’ there would be four weavers working, so they would take 150 days working together to weave this size. Designs in these rugs are nearly always Persian in origin. However, do not consider these pieces mere copies as when the conquering hordes of the Aryans subjugated these countries they left behind the art and skill to produce these rugs locally, which is enhanced by the indigenous peoples. Also found here are the finest hand-spun vegetable dyes in the world. Hand-spun wool being much chunkier than its machine-spun counterpart can only pack in to a certain density. This is around 18x18 knots per square inch. These very fine vegetable dyes called Haji Jalili or slightly less fine 15x15 Moteshams are named after and are reproductions of famous 19th century Persian Kashan master weavers.
