In this day in age, machine-made rugs are widely available, and synthetic materials are cheaper than ever. And the truth is, as the technology advances every day and the manufacturing by machine becomes easier, there will be more and more machine-made rugs that will dominate the market. It is destiny, and the trend cannot be reversed.
Let's look at Turkey as an example, Turkey and hereke rug, their highest-quality rug. What happened to it? The practice was ceased, the region and people living in the region stopped weaving, and the country of Turkey didn't protect it.
What are the results? The intangible heritage, cultural heritage of weaving hereke died due to the machine-made imitations. Those weavers in Turkey are surely affected and the industry as a whole suffered the loss of cultural heritage. What a pity for the country of Turkey and the rest of the world. Even if one doesn't live in Turkey and may not even purchase a Turkish hereke rug, he or she would be grateful if the tradition and the heritage would have lived on just for the sake of
"existing value".
Persia on the other hand struggles to keep the cultural heritage of weaving. Even nowadays, the Persian government requires Persian rugs to contain natural, organic, and vegetable dyed material in their rugs. Thankfully, the heritage continues now and hopefully onto many generations in the future.
Established in 1986, Dena Rug has production lines in the "rug belt" countries which include Persia. Over the decades, our relations with our weavers and artisans have become more personal. And we feel partially responsible to carry on the heritage or at least do our part in maintaining the intangible cultural asset of hand-weaving and hand-knotting.
Once we make an investment in machinery and equipment to replace many of these full-time weavers, their livelihoods will be affect and heritage destroyed slowly but surely. Besides their livelihood, most artisans weave - to express themselves. Unlike machine-made rugs, which are consumables in our humble opinion, these hand-knotted Persian rugs and Oriental carpets are a form of art and a way of expressing himself or herself.
We believe that the heritage does not belong to a few museums through possession of ancient rugs but to the future generations who are not even born yet via the practice of weaving. We at Dena Rug are realistic and understand that it will be unavoidable in this day in age that the number of weavers will decrease over time and the genuine and traditional weaving of Persian rugs to be threatened in the name of manufacturing technology, but we at Dena Rug intend to contribute to the survival of the cultural heritage for everyone who is living now and will live in the future generations. Many of our customers know our commitment to preserving the practice of weaving rugs, and they are part of us and our philosophy that the cultural heritage belongs to the rest of the world and that it shall live on.
Please read our "Bespoke" page to learn more about this weaving.