According to Victor, oriental carpets are addictive and the way to avoid the habit is to avoid the addicts. I think there is something to that and should have been more careful who I was hanging out with. I always thought the carpets were nice but I never really considered buying one. But then you hang out with the addicts for a while, and listen to them going on and on, and then you start to casually examine the carpets, and first thing you know you are having to buy a new one every week yourself. And it is an expensive habit. It is also counter to my philosophy of not collecting "stuff". Nevertheless, now I am a carpet collector and I even traded one.
There are all kinds from many different places. Some are wool, some are silk, the cheap ones are synthetic. Some are made in factories and some are made on the floors of tents. Some are made with child labor and some are made by a mother and her daughter. Some are made for sale and some were made for use by the weaver. They can be modern or traditional, religious or just pretty. They are made in Turkey, China, and lots of places in between. The antiques can be very expensive. Its kind of like quilts but men can participate.
I think I like the "tribals" best. Tribals are made at home and not by professional weavers. This tribal is a very fine wool Turkmen from Northern Afghanistan (Andkhoi). Turkmens are famous for their red color made from a natural dye taken from the roots of the madder plant. The pattern is Iranian. The carpet was weaved by a well know family of weavers named Sulaimani. Higher grade Turkmen carpets such as this with a high knot count are called Biljik. The pile is kind of directional and it appears lighter form one side than the other. You can see a little of that from the angle of this photo. The bottom of the carpet appears darker but lightens as you move down the stairs from where the photo was taken. A large carpet like this takes well over a year to make by hand.
My boss unashamedly says he has $30,000 worth. I will quit going on about carpets now because I don't want to influence young impressionable readers. However, if you need to know some good carpet stores in Doha, just ask and I can set you up...
This is not my last day in Qatar but I think it will probably be my last blog. Next week I'll be in Houston and the following week in Australia. I wrote my first letter from Japan and blogged it three years ago. It is amazing that the time has gone so fast. In the last five years I have worked in the United States, Venezuela, Japan, Europe, Qatar, Nigeria, and now Australia. That is all the habitable continents.
