Weaving Life
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
The first rug I ever knew, my grandmother’s painted Sarouk, inspired my soul and fed my imagination. Having no idea what a wonderful work of art lay on the floor, I traced the patterns with my tiny hands. Now with experience, I realize what a treasure we gave our cousin when we divided grandmother’s estate.
Remembering my first impressions of rugs as an adult began when I got married and began living Athens in 1988, our monthly excursions to the Oracle of Delphi, to see the foliage, feel the mystical connections, and purchase the wooly cream colored flokatis. The Turkish kilims and deep black goat’s hair rugs that we were gifted.
The Greek factory in Piraeus where I worked dyeing textiles had woven silk in the olden days as finely as I weave this story. My search for understanding woven fibers began with my fascination with their culture, history, art and even religion wrapped within.
When I arrived in the Gaslamp of San Diego, after 12 years overseas, I looked for places reminiscent of my ancient home. I walked into the 4th Avenue Rug Gallery. Falling in love with an octagon rug in the window, I crossed the threshold to another space and time. A world of rugs! The owners were from Tabriz, my eyes lit up as in the Rubaiyat’s of Rumi, Shamus-i-Tabriz, I knew in my soul there was something to learn here.
Over twenty years in the industry I have met wholesalers, retailers, repairmen, cleaners and rug lovers and world travelers. Growing my knowledge base year after year, knot by knot, their story drew me in deeper. I studied many threads of education that made me love them even more! To rug friends, collectors and business owners who shared their stories with me, and all the chat rooms revolving around rugs and textiles, I love you!
Their story started me crafting poems to describe my experiences with rugs as my only company. The thing I realized is that rugs hold a woven memory for me in my mind’s eye. I remember textiles as if they were my creations or my very own children. With this deep passion for the woven textiles, the symbols and stories they contain, the people that are the process from fiber to rug, I give you the work of my heart: Weaving Life.