Just entering the picture on the left is a modern bus, about to pass a camel drawn cart, passing a side street with primitive stalls for vendors of food, crafts, just about anything. All this right in front of the Holiday Inn Resort.   Okay, maybe the word Resort is a little bit of a stretch, but it is as modern as one would expect of a Holiday Inn and actually nicer than some I have stayed in here in the states.

Of course, the purpose of my visit was to see rugs and the manufacturing process. Jaipur was an excellent choice for that.

I was fortunate to have had a source here in the states to arrange contact with a specific manufacturer.
One of their executives met me at the airport and graciously provided me with car and driver during my stay.
(They drive on the left side of the road plus traffic is truly mad. Every driver absolutely must take advantage of even a 6 inch gap between other vehicles. If you go, let them do the driving.)

I spent my first (full) day as an ordinary tourist, touring the 400+ year old Amber Palace. Then Monday and Tuesday seeing rugs.

Rug Designs
There are still some manufacturers who have artists drawing every detail of a pattern by hand but my host (Saraswati Exports) has progressed well beyond that with computer aided design programs that provide everything needed for each pattern. For example, this makes it much easier to design a rug that will be available in several sizes, or perhaps a pattern made in more than one set of colors.

Preparing the yarn
Although the face of these rugs is wool, there is wool and then there is wool. Of course, most of us have heard of New Zealand Wool. This is a long staple wool that is particularly well suited for rug production but is not the only good choice. One other excellent wool is Chokla wool. This Indian wool has a very soft / silky touch yet maintains the strength associated with other, better known, wool names. Then Ghazni wool has once again proven to be among the world's highest quality wools. (from the Gazni mountains, west of Kabul, Afghanistan)

Weaving Rugs
To many, a rug is not a genuine oriental rug unless it is hand knotted (or hand woven). Well, that, of course, can be argued but hand knotting is what I saw first.

Hand Tufted Rugs
Another manufacturing process is called Hand Tufting. This has become one of the best ways for many of us to get an affordable, hand made wool rug with far greater detail than many machine made rugs and a thick, plush pile.

This was published in Tallahassee Discoveries Magazine
(My "15 minutes of fame")

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