Indian rug – Navajo rug replica, 32″ x 68″, $149
This dark navy blue wool Indian rug resembles the classic Crystal or Wide Ruins Navajo rug. Crystal initially emerged as a regional style and center during the Rug Period 1890-1920. The typical contemporary Crystal is banded not bordered, featuring vegetal-dyed yarns in warm golds, browns, greens, and a touch of black. Wide Ruins became visible as a regional style during the Revival Period 1920-1940. Weavers in the Wide Ruins area make use of banded, unbordered designs reminiscent of Navajo Indian blankets; and colors were derived from all-vegetal dyes. The designs emphasize a range of soft pastel hues, but rather than the customary pale golds, greens and tans; the Wide Ruins weaver uses exquisite pinks, yellows, beiges, lilacs, blues, deep corals, rich grays, olive greens, and multiple shades of tans and browns.
Due to the steady increase in demand and value, in recent years, of Navajo rugs; Nepal weavers, indigenous to India and Tibet, began successfully replicating Navajo textiles; and produce a high quality reproduction, but at a much lower price than a truly authentic Navajo rug or blanket. The Tibetan-Nepalese weavers also have an old tradition of textile manufacture. The first written evidence of weaving in Nepal, is in the Indian sources of the Asoka period, in the second century AD. The rug weaving industry spread around Nepal in 1959, when 15,000 Tibetan refugees settled in Nepal, especially inside the Kathmandu Valley. Master weavers from Gyantse, the best carpet making area of central Tibet, who settled in Nepal eventually taught their skills to others, resulting in an increase in production of high quality hand-woven rugs. By mid 1970, the rug weaving business was firmly established and continues to grow today.
