Rugs

Rugs/Carpet making in Afghanistan is a craft of great antiquity for which the country is justly famous. Before 1978 Afghanistan's Rugs/Carpets ranked fifth amongst the country's exports. Rich in form and color, the flat-woven, hand-knotted and felt creations woven by highly-skilled Turkmen, Uzbek, Hazara, Aimed, Kirghiz and Baluch craftsmen once represented the highest quality in Central Asia.

Daulatabad is a famous rug center just north of Maimana, and Shahkh, near Qaisar, to the west. In addition, one may often find good buys in other tribal Turkoman rugs such as the Mauri and the Qizil Ayak. They also display numbers of Donkey bags, bildow (narrow woven pieces used for yurt decorations) and namad, felt rugs. Ranging from black to grey, occasionally a prized white, namad are decorated with floral and geometric designs in bright, hot pink, yellow, orange, and white. When used as roffing for the yurts, the decorated side is turned toward the inside to enhance the colorful interior festooned with long strings of pompoms, woven bands, some narrow, some wide, all gayly exuberant.

Almost every walled compound in the suberbs of Maimana contains a yurt (prounonced ooy in Uzbaki) for summer living. The namad are made by specialists in the village of Wenchalat across the river from Maimana and are available in quanitity only on bazaar days when they may be purchased on almost any sidewalk and off the backs of numerous donkeys. Besides these various types of rugs the rug dealers also offer saddles and finely embroidered hats for sale.

Area Rugs Can smart Up Your Living Room

Choosing the correct area rug know how to live a intimidating chore in itself, as fine as situation. Naturally, you’ll desire to go through a unbiased color, although if you are a bit on the odd side, a model and a bright rug strength irritate your imagine.

Typically, the majority area rugs are located below a coffee bench or the attraction of the living room, but it may outfit you improved to set it separately of any additional furniture in the room to, once more, provide it a fuller result.

On one occasion you discover the area rug that suits your qualities and the nature of your home, you’ll locate that your living room resolve appear that much more full.

Ashan runner from the Shirvan district Caucasus

This wool and cotton Afshan rug is from the Kuba region of the northern Caucasus. The term Afshan refers to a particular design, derived from 17th and 18th century Persian and Indian floral and arabesque sources, rather than a group of people or a geographical area. Rugs like this one were made throughout most of the 19th century and possibly earlier, and sit within the broader category of Shirvan rugs.

Carpet weaving in the Caucasus has a long history, the earliest known group being the so-called 'dragon' rugs which date back to the 17th century. The Afshan design is related in structure and colour to dragon rugs, and is in turn an obvious design source for many later Shirvan rugs.

This rug belongs to a collection of five rugs and three nomadic trappings covering the main carpet making regions of Asia, from western Turkey across Iran (Persia) into Central Asia. The collection was given to the Powerhouse Museum by Dr George Soutter to acknowledge the achievements of the Oriental Rug Society of NSW, an affiliated society of the Museum, to emphasise the significance of the Museum's rug collection and to encourage its growth. The collection, which includes floor coverings and tent partitions, horse decorations and saddle bags, documents different types of rugs and trappings and highlights their varying functions.

Canal boat Astra

Handmade rag rugs were some of the many canal related crafts available for visitors to buy on the towpath