| |

Celebrating Rug Making

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!”

We offer these hands-on learning times roughly 2-3 times a year at the Bunyaad Rug Room at Ten Thousand Villages in Ephrata, Pa. Join our blog email list to learn more!

Next event will be our Rug Festival on Saturday, June 25. Stay tuned for details.

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Natural Dye for Eggs and Rugs

    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?

  • |

    Fair Trade is a Revolution

    bumper-sticker-fair-trade-revolution

    “A bond with customers based on shared values is the strongest bond you’ll ever make,” stressed Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s and currently working with Stamp Stampede, a venture dedicated to getting the money out of politics.

    Sitting in the room with over 280 other fair traders at the Fair Trade Federation Conference in Burlington, Vermont last week, I almost stood up and shouted “AMEN.”

    Renee Bowers, Fair Trade Federation Executive Director, opened that morning sessions reminding us that “as fair traders, we work to give voice” to those who otherwise would not have as loud of a voice in the world.

    And in this week where we celebrate World Fair Trade Day, I want to say thank you to our customers who are using their economic dollar to vote for the change they wish to see in the world.

  • | | |

    Juggling Family, Household and Work

    Bunyaad artisans Arshad, Mustaq and family

    Let Me Introduce: Arshad

    Arshad, usually called by her nickname Bebe, and her family live in the village of Darianwala located approximately six miles from the Indian border in Northeast Pakistan.

    Arshad and her husband Mustaq have been working for Bunyaad for the past five years (since 2009). Prior to joining Bunyaad the family had been drifting from place to place in hopes of finding work that would support the entire family. As a woman working outside the home would not have been acceptable for Arshad and so the challenge of providing for the entire family rested on Mustaq’s shoulders.

    How does a family in rural Pakistan make ends meet when jobs are scarce and mostly seasonal?

One Comment

  1. We are new to the area and attended this event. It was a wonderful learning experience and fun to boot. We are so impressed with Ten Thousand Villages. We enjoy having lunch in the cafe and have invited friends to experience the cafe plus shopping in the store. We are looking forward to the big sale coming up. Many blessings on this great mission.

Comments are closed.