Things were going smoothly, and, seeing that we were apparently trying to swim against the tide of progress, it was looking all too easy to accomplish. Then quite suddenly, and with little explanation, the guys we were working with to develop the natural dyes said they didn’t want to carry on. As we were the first people they had worked with who were demanding rather high ethical standards, they didn’t believe that these issues were of growing concern in the west. Where are the orders? they wanted to know. We can’t get orders until we sort the dyes out, we answered. This, it turns out, wasn’t good enough, and so they pulled out.

I can understand their reluctance to spend time developing something that no-one else appears to be asking for. In fact western rug traders have been so clear in their demands for cheaper rugs, woven at speed and using consistent dyes where colour can be precisely matched and repeated, that they had some trouble even understanding our reasons for not doing it that way. That 2007 was the UNESCO year of natural dyes, and 2009 is the UNESCO year of natural fibres means not a thing in an industry that has bent over backwards to try to compete with the cheaper and poorer quality rugs produced by their Indian neighbours.

In a “fast food” market that values speed over quality, progress has meant mechanisation, and rug companies not up to these changes have disappeared. The growing demand for environmentally friendly products over here has yet to make a great impact over there. A change might be coming, but as the Nepalese are still trying to reach the previous goal, it’s difficult for them to grasp why they might need to turn back now.

So, they are on board with everything else (see previous article) because we are paying for the extra time it would make to complete each rug, and people still have the skills, but we parted ways when we attempted not just to use natural dyes, but bring natural dying up to a standard where they could be used with confidence to meet our rather picky western demands. The up-front time required to do this, even with our help, was a step too far. It would mean changing the way the dying is done to make it less of a health hazard to the dyers (although they thought their new chemical dying vats had already achieved this); changing some of the dye stuffs (some of them are poisonous, some come from endangered plants and trees, like red sandlewood which needs to be cut down to get the heartwood suitable for dying, and some are the byproducts of animals or the animals themselves). It also means changing the water that’s being used. The water is so unreliable because of the varying chemical and mineral content (which changes the colour of the dyes), not to mention all the other stuff that gets dumped into it, that we needed to find a way to use a consistent (and consistently clean) water source. Quite prepared were we to invest in the necessary water collection and purification, introduce new natural dyestuff to compensate for the colours we were would need to remove, and pay for the R&D in general. However given the history of rapid industrialisation of the rug industry, they simply don’t (at this point) believe the effort it would take from their side is at all worthwhile. After all, no-one else has ever mentioned these things to them before.

Reaching this rather unscalable brick wall in our development, and after spending a peaceful week when we stopped doing anything to do with rugs and imagined how easy life would be if we were to just give the whole thing up, we decided nonetheless to persevere.

However taking on board the issues the Nepalese raised, we decided it might well be a good idea to test the meerkat first, before we go for full world domination. So we’ve gone back to basics and decided on a very cut down, rather purist approach. Since we cannot possibly engage in anything to do with the chemical dye ‘scene’ as it is in Kathmandu, and we will need to prove ourselves first before we can hope for any dye house to agree to the kind of R&D that would make vegetable dying a real alternative, we are relying on the sheep to come up with their own colours and going dye free. Simples.

Self coloured rugs are a venerable Tibetan tradition and the antique ones we have seen are beautiful in their simplicity of tone. (Plus neutral colours are the most sold colours in the rug industry anyway).

So, for the sake of our suppliers, here’s where you can help us test the meerkat.

From the beginning there were three things that all the Nepalese rug makers we spoke to were at pains to let us know: they can make rugs quickly, they can match any colour, and they can make rugs cheaper than their competitors. These are the three main things that most western rug importers want to know about.

Traditional Tibetan rugs (as they are known, although in reality these rugs were made all over the Himalaya) used to last generations. The process of making a carpet is very labour intensive: sourcing the wool directly from wool traders, then washing it, carding and spinning it, dying and rewashing, drawing the design onto a massive piece of paper, and giving all that to the weavers to weave the rug.

After this the rugs are again washed and stretched into shape and allowed to dry. Over the last 30 or so years, every step of this process has been changed which has speeded up the process, but has also meant a loss of quality.

The wool

Nowadays many rugs now sold as ‘Tibetan’ or Nepalese have little or no Tibetan sheep wool in them, but are made with a large percentage of imported New Zealand wool. This wool is whiter, cheaper, and directly available from the wool market with very little effort. However it’s also of a lower quality (no disrespect to the New Zealand sheep!), with very short fibres and very little lanoline. It has a fluffier look and feel, and the uniform whiteness makes it easier to dye without the colour variations and banding typically seen with Tibetan wool rugs. High street stores selling Tibetan rugs that seem quite reasonable priced are using New Zealand and not Tibetan wool (carefully not naming names here).
This is obviously fine, the weave quality is still exceptional, and there’s a market for these rugs that is keeping the Nepali economy going. However, and to the delight of our rug supplier whose family has been bringing Tibetan wool into Nepal for generations, we’re going back to using 100% Tibetan sheep wool. There is no wool like it in the world. The sheep survive extremely harsh conditions living most of their lives above the Himalaya tree line, and have developed a unique fleece over the centuries very high in lanoline, which makes it naturally fireproof and stain resistant, with fibres that are very long and hard wearing. A rug made with this wool lasts generations, and it is not difficult to find rugs many hundreds of years old in Tibetan antique shops.

Having made contact with an old wool trading family, we have even been able to choose exactly where our wool will come from. There are two main regions these sheep are found, tended by nomads who bring them down to be shorn once a year: around Shigatse and around Kailash. Ours will come from around Kailash, not only because it’s a special place, but also because this is where the best quality wool comes from.

How it was washed in Tibet.

After the sheep are shorn, Yaks bring the wool down to large wool sheds in the valley where it is sorted into shades, washed and baled for export. Generally wool is washed here in a chemical wash, which makes the whites whiter, and unfortunately also removes much of the lanoline. This wool is then baled and sent to the Kathmandu wool market. Our wool guy, who knows a mind-numbingly large amount about Tibetan wool, can by-pass the chemical wash process for us, and have it delivered to the border where he goes every season to fetch it. Permits permitting, he also goes to visit the sheep occasionally.

How it was sorted and prepared in Nepal.

Once in Nepal the wool is more finely sorted by colour and shade. The wool comes in a natural range from creamy white to dark chocolate. Most dye houses need white wool, which is bleached to make it whiter still. No need to mention what the bleach does to the wool. This wool is then sold to the rug makers who send it to be carded, spun, dyed and woven. Our wool, at this stage, will be sorted without being diverted to the wool market, and washed with soapnuts – which is what all the wool used to be washed in.

How it was carded and spun

Having thoroughly stripped the wool of lanoline it is sent for carding and spinning. There are not many people left who can hand spin hand carded wool, which is an indication of how much hand carding is still being done. Carding is now mainly mechanised and in Nepal this doesn’t mean shiny machines in clean, well lit spaces full of clean air and clever health and safety stuff – it means children running around massive outdated and rusting machinery with spinning cogs and blades, no safety guards in place, no protective gear for the workers, oil and diesel spilling onto the packed earth floor in an unlit windowless shed. These carding machines are certainly speeding up the process, but crucially they also break the naturally long fibres of the wool. Shorter fibres means the quality of the thread is weak and, because the lanoline has also been removed, snaps easily. This affects the lifespan of the rugs. Having removed the lanoline and broken down the fibres, it now no longer makes sense to use expensive Tibetan wool.

Wool that is machine carded and spun is very smooth and uniform, not unlike ordinary knitting wool, and this new generation of rugs doesn’t have that distinctive textured look of natural Tibetan rugs. Nowadays you often have to look at the back to see if its hand woven or machine woven.

Although mechanisation isn’t in itself a problem as long as it doesn’t reduce quality, from a social point of view it can be devastating. In this case knowledge is being lost and crucially fewer and fewer people are being employed because the machines can do a quicker, cheaper, although in this case not a better, job. However, as there are still some older people who can hand card and hand spin, this knowledge hasn’t been lost completely, and so our rugs will be hand spun and hand carded. More work for people, less pollution, better quality, and better looking rugs.

How the wool is coloured and washed

Tibetan sheep are strange ancient looking sheep, and they’re not white – they’re a motley bunch with fleece ranging from cream through browns and greys to very dark brown. To get any kind of consistent colour the wool is bleached, partly through the chemical washing, before it is dyed. Even vegetable dyed wool is bleached first. However traditionally this wool was always washed with locally grown soapnuts, which is how the older rugs achieved the subtle variations in colour (I have seen a few people selling soapnuts online recently – we’ll sell our rugs with a bag of soapnuts so you can clean your rug if you accidentally spill your coffee on it). If you’re interested in understanding the dye process in Nepal I’ve covered that here: picture this… – article on dying in Nepal

How it was woven

This is the only part of rug making that, except for one small detail, hasn’t changed. Tibetan rugs use a unique knot called a ‘sena’ knot. This method of weaving is similar to that used in Persian ones. The one small change is in the structure of the knot. ‘Crossed’ knots, which are rather more elaborate, have been replaced by the ‘simple’ knot being used today.

All antique Tibetan rugs have crossed knots. It makes for a much looser, less dense rug and for a nomadic lifestyle these rugs were lighter and easier to transport. The crossed knots are independent of each other and so you don’t get ‘runs’ if a knot loosens, plus it is easier to repair any damage. As to durability what you lose on knot size you gain in density of wool – the simple knot is smaller and so the wool is more tightly packed. We’re going for the simple knot, because the more densely packed rug is more luxurious, but if you’d prefer a cross knot rug let us know. We’ve found a few people who can still do them.

How it is finished

Believe it or not, Tibetan rugs sold nowadays are finished with a layer of col glue (wood glue) on the back. Once the rugs have been woven and after the final washing (in Surf – the washing powder seemingly favoured by All Nepali rug makers), the rugs are stretched to size on frames and col glue is slapped over the back and left to dry. This makes them more rigid, straightens out any waviness along the edges, and stretches them to a pretty exact size not usually found in hand woven rugs.
Needless to say our rugs won’t use any wood glue: we‘re happier to accept the occasional wavy edge and slightly uneven rectangle. Hopefully you are too, but if you want a wood glued rug let us know.

Tibetan rugs are sold in abundance on the internet, and most sites all say the same kind of stuff about them: namely that the wool has a very high lanoline content, that the fibres are very long and therefore the rugs are unusually hard wearing and will last generations. However all these sites aren’t talking about their own rugs if they’ve never checked the provenance of their products. What these companies do not say, perhaps because that they do not know themselves, is that in order for the Nepalese to keep up with the demands for speed, efficiency and accuracy of colour, design and size, they have largely mechanised the process, and although even these lower quality rugs are still superior to almost anything else on the market, except perhaps for Persian rugs, most of these claims are now false. In fact in the space of a few generations the needs of the Western rug market have taken a unique and incredible product, and turned it into something very ordinary.

So, because we like to be ethical and sensible, all our rugs will use only Tibetan sheep wool, washed only in soapnuts with no chemical washing ever. They’ll be hand carded, hand spun, hand knotted and finished without the use of wood glue or similar. They will retain all the natural lanoline and length of fibre, and, as long as you’re not too crazy with the design, will be enjoyed by many generations. We’ll also be using organic cotton for the warp rather than the cheaper polyester used by everyone else.