New World Rugs – The Renaissance

It used to be that nearly all American rug collectors perceived a beauty in the soft colors and polished wools of only an old rug that had been walked on for decades. And rightfully so, they usually found a new Oriental rug too contrasting and bright. This cultural prejudice for old rugs was reinforced from the 1920’s to 1980, when even the finest weavers all but abandoned the use of their traditional vegetal dyes, hand-spun wool and substituted synthetic dyed machine spun-wool of poor quality that usually faded with inconsistence, often bled easily and never lost an over bright quality. This caused the sale of new rugs to decline and the cost of old rugs to rise. The fine rug industry was all but finished and wall-to-wall carpeting was the norm in most homes.

Then along came Harald Bohmer, a German chemist, who while teaching in Turkey became interested in the dyes found in older rugs. After more than a decade of research he was finally funded in 1981 to revive the use of natural dyes used in rugs under a program called DOBAG. During the next few years a small number of Americans began producing Natural/Vegetal dye, hand-spun wool rugs as they once were 2500 years ago and The Renaissance began. From 1985 to present day the qualities of New rugs has only improved and are perhaps the antique rugs of tomorrow.

Swiss Chrome Synthetic Dyes with better fade and dye-run qualities, has replaced the poor quality synthetic dyes. These dyes are often used by producers that wish to provide “reproducible” rugs in various sizes with little color variation. Often these dyes are used in conjunction with machine-spun wool giving the rug a brighter contrast feeling that some people prefer. However, today’s synthetic dyes are also used together with fine quality, hand spun, "highland" sheep wool, which gives even the simple minimalist design a unique texture with glowing colors where so called "imperfections" or abrash add to the visual depth and beauty of the rug.

At Oasis New World Rugs we work hard to find only the best weavers and from them only the best of the best rugs. As the rug industry changes, we are proactive in our search for what is new and unique. But most importantly, each day we rejoice in our philosophy that we do not sell rugs, but we find homes for them. Let us help you and/or your designer find that perfect sense of beauty and calm for your family and home.

Ginger & Ron Weible