| The shop at Mount Ararat sells almost exclusively Kurdish rugs and fabrics from the neighbouring regions of Turkey, Iran and the Caucus. The production is entirely from individual workers (as opposed to workshops or factories), creating their own spontaneous designs. Since the middle of the Nineteenth Century, Turkish and Persian rug production has been influenced by what the Middle Eastern and Western markets want. Today, this commercialization of rug manufacturing has spread to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Though the quality can be good, the choice of colour and design does not reflect local traditions and is often a copy of a carpet or kilim from a completely different country. It should not be forgotten too that chemical dyes have been in use for over 150 years in some production areas |
Undyed wool is used a lot, taking advantage of the natural ivories, greys and browns of the animals. White wool is collected in Spring when the colour is lightest. |
| Many village and nomad Kurds are accustomed to using a barter system, rather than money, even today. This ensures that the materials in the rugs are genuine. They use pure wool rather than artificial fibres because wool is what they have, living as they do in villages or tents, near their sheep and goats. Only natural vegetable colours are used because it costs them nothing to collect wild plants to prepare dyes for the yarn. |
