Fair Trade Difference

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    Natural Dye for Eggs and Rugs

    ByBunyaad

    The natural dye on the eggs goes well with this Persian rug.

    Have you ever tried your hand at dyeing eggs with natural dyes?

    Naturally dyeing eggs is truly a labor of love. It speaks to my instilled love for eating healthy. Collecting and prepping all the ingredients like onion peels, purple cabbage and chopped beets shows dedication. Allowing the eggs to simmer in their dye bath for 30 minutes or even overnight for truly stunning deep colors is worth the wait.

    When I look at our naturally dyed Chobi Tribal rugs and our Kazak Tribals, I have a new appreciation for the amount of work that goes into producing one of these rugs.

    Naturally dyed chobi rugs are roughly 100 knots per square inch but take the same amount of production time as their Persian counterparts at over 500 knots per square inch.

    The preparation for getting a Chobi on the loom is over half of the time needed for the rug’s production, where as it takes less than 10% of the total production time of a Persian to get it on the loom.

    What takes so much time to get a Chobi on a loom?

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    Fair Trade Makes Every Day Women’s Day

    ByBunyaad

    Celebrating first rug

    Artisans go to the local sweet market and grab their favorite mithai (sweets), maybe hot gulab jamun soaking up the sugary sweet cardamon syrup or to the local jalebi vendor who is busy lifting hot, orange mini funnel-cake-like rounds out of their copper pot of bubbling oil as the jalebi head to their own bath of heavenly syrup.

    One woman carries a carafe of chai made with her water buffalo’s milk. Another grabs more tea cups from her home. It’s time to celebrate.

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    Truffula Trees & Whimsy in the Rug World

    ByBunyaad

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    Look at this rug. Really look at it. What comes to your mind?

    Upon discovering this rug as he checked in the new shipment, our co-worker Doug proclaimed that he was convinced that Dr. Seuss had something to do with this rug. “Look! Look at those trees! Don’t they remind you of Truffula trees from The Lorax?”. At first, we rolled our eyes but we then saw what he meant.

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    Celebrating Rug Making

    ByBunyaad

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    A wonderful night celebrating rug making and the joy and relaxation of adult coloring!

    Over 30 coloring fans gathered at the Bunyaad Rug Room at Ten Thousand Villages in Ephrata, PA, to learn how fairly paid adult artisans carefully color intricate graphs as part of the rug making process. After a short journey through talams, rug graphs and hand knotting rugs, each person got to color their own rug graph tile.

    “I came for the coloring but I leave with a much greater appreciation for hand knotted rugs and the quality and uniqueness that fair trade produces,” remarked one coloring night participant. “And I’m still in awe of how many knots are in a 9’x12′ Persian rug…over seven million! Just hard to believe that that many knots are all tied by hand!”

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    The Dougs Say Goodbye and Farewell Pakistan

    ByBunyaad

    Doug and master designerWe enjoyed a great time in Pakistan. Everywhere we went we met friendly, helpful and incredibly hospitable people. It seemed like everyone wanted to shake our hands and give us a hug. On Sunday afternoon, while touring the old Lahore Fort, a number of people wanted their pictures taken with us. Contrary to what we hear and read in the media about Pakistan, it’s a great place to travel – safe, friendly, hospitable and very scenic.