Thursday, April 3, 2008

Carpet

Well the other day I decided that I would like to find a nice carpet. Until I went to India I thought all oriental rugs were really ugly because by stepfather had some cheep ugly brown ones. They were like nylon on cotton and colored brown and black. While in I got to see some wonderful silk on silk, silk on wool, and wool on wool rugs. These were gorgeous the colors stunning and really interesting designs. I really wanted to buy one that was a silk on silk one from Kashmir but didn't have the money at the time. Well now over a year later I regret not getting it especially looking at a few places, most of what I have seen for oriental rugs was crap.

One thing that I learned for sure is don't even bother going to HOM furniture, if you are looking for a silk on silk rug. They only have 3 among all of their stores and all 3 are at the Plymouth store. Of the 3 there was only one that I would have considered buying since it had some nice colors and I liked the pattern. The rug was $6000 and was a 8'x10' silk on silk one so that is actually pretty reasonable. I would have like a smaller one that would have been easier to hang on a wall. Additionally it had a really low knot count for a silk on silk rug, It was only about 320 KPI (knots per square inch), the one that I saw while in India was a small 2'x3' silk on silk rug with a knot count of 1000 KPI. I would really like to find a smaller rug with that kind of knot count.

Now for some things that people should know if buying an oriental rug:
  1. Materials
    There are several materials that these are made of, most common is cotton or wool for quality rugs. You will see nylon, rayon and other synthetic fibers including synthetic silk on cheep rugs. If you want something that will not go up in value go with a rug made of synthetic fiber. From here on out there will not be any mention of synthetic fibers. If looking for one that will gain value go with cotton, silk or wool. If you want to use it on the floor go with wool it is by far the most durable one and will hold up to traffic the best. Cotton holds up better than silk and will provide a finer carpet than wool, but is not as durable. Silk is the least durable of the natural fibers, but makes very fine carpets.

  2. Construction
    The construction of the rugs is mostly done by hand and there are a couple parts to consider. The first is the wrap and weft, this may also be listed as the base. This provides the structure for the rug and is woven like a standard fabric. The other is the pile and this is the part that sticks up and makes the surface. The pile is knotted to the wrap and weft. When someone says a rug is silk on silk they mean that the pile is silk and the wrap and weft is silk also. A silk on cotton is a silk pile on a cotton wrap and weft. It is not uncommon to see a mix of materials usually silk and wool be used for the pile.

  3. Knots
    What determines how fine a carpet is it's knot count is usually wool will have the fewest knots while silk will typically have the highest with cotton in the middle, this is looking only at pure materials. When a rug is a silk on cotton rug will usually have a higher knot count than a silk on wool rug. The skill of the carpet weaver also affects the number of knots. The reason that knots are important is that they affect the detail in the carpet along with how different the light and dark side is. The light and dark side will be discussed later

  4. Colors
    There are several things that determine the quality of the colors in a carpet. First is the dyes. Vegetable dyes are better they are less likely to run, and more fade resistant. The problem with vegetable dyes is they don't work as well on silk so synthetic dyes are used instead. Both dyes can produce very vibrant colors, but for the best investment quality rugs go with vegetable dyes. As mentioned earlier there is a light side and a dark side of a rug. This is not the back side as you may think. If you are looking at a carpet on one side walk around it to a side next to it or to the opposite side. There will be a color change, some times it is only a mild light to dark other times it can be a very impressive color shift. The more knots per inch the more dramatic this can be. As mentioned the carpet I saw in India was 1000 KPI and there was a very dramatic color shift, green to white, red to yellow blue to black, where as the one I looked at at HOM with at best 400 KPI was only a mild darkening of each color.
There is still one place that I want to go in the twin cities that looks promising and at the very least it looks like it would be interesting to go to. It isn't a big chain store and it sounds like he knows his stuff so I figure why not give him some free promotion. Why not check out Kazempour Oriental Rugs. They have a website that shows some of the inventory that you can buy online and provides more information on carpets. This may be a plug for a company but at least I am letting you know. I haven't been yet, and don't know if they have what I am looking for but I think they would probably be more willing to entertain finding something.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Art

Have you ever tried to find computer generated art on the internet. It is kind of interesting in that there are various styles. Like POV Ray stuff, which is nice if you want photo realistic images. Then on the other end you have people with very abstract art, or my least favorite, crap created with Bryce 3d or WinFract. I really hate the last 2 since the person pretty much tries to color something in some meaningful fashion. It usually ends up looking like crap. Granted I found those programs interesting to play with, but in 10 years I have moved on. Personally I don't like the abstract art, but that is a preference. I like some of the POV Ray stuff mostly because I like realism. One thing I ran across when searching was more of an impressionist style of computer art. Some of the pictures seem to be very similar, but there are a bunch. I personally like this one of a bunch of cat tails, I think I like it because of the colors.There are some other images that I found but on a different site, that look like nice abstract landscapes and I find it pleasing. Below are both of the sites if you are interested:

John Art
Generative Art