The Oriental Carpet Buyer

My friend Ismael, owner of SoHo’s Beyond the Bosphorus carpet store has finally decided that it is about time to get a web site and can now be found at BeyondtheBosphorus.com . His web site needs a little work still, but I guess it’s a start, right?

We have officially formed a partnership, whereby Carpet on Demand will provide at-home service to any customers within New York and Long Island for no extra cost.

Sorry I have been away from my computer for so long - it has been over a week now that I have been on the road - but not to worry, I have plenty of stories to share with my readers. Anyway, just to get back into the rhythm, I thought I would share with you an example of a black hat SEO web site enhanced for Oriental carpet searches. Anyone out there who sees these should report them ASAP so that people looking for REAL web sites find us.

The worst part is that these web site get ranked quite well in some search engines. Google is doing what it can to stop it, but when I searched for Oriental carpets on Technorati today, here is what I saw:

When you see one of these in your search results, here is where you go:

For Google search results: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

For Yahoo! search results: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/spam_abuse.html

This is a great episode of The Chasers War on Everything (an Australian show) where they go to visit Oriental carpet dealers who ARE NOT having clearance sales and ask them to put signs up saying that they are. The best part is when one of the owners says that he does not wish to pretend to have a clearance sale and the host of the show replies,

“I don’t mean to rude sir, but if you continue to do that your industry is going to get a reputation for fair dealing.”

As usual, I was inspired by something my son said the other day to write this. I needed to pick out carpets for a trip to upstate New York and he came along with me to visit some of Manhattan’s whole sellers. We walk into one and as I look around he stops next to a carpet and stares at it for a while. He turns and asks me, “How did they make this color?” It was a light blue color that was made using a synthetic dye. I replied, “That one’s made in China, it’s normal.”

My son was around Oriental rugs throughout his childhood while growing up in Turkey. He knows when something is different in a rug. And that Chinese-made rug had many things differences about it that he could see for himself.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with Chinese-made Oriental rugs. It is normal that cheaper labor is sought out in places like China. Of course, I do not agree with their labor practices, but I feel that way about carpets made anywhere else. What I do have a problem with is those who sell these carpets pretending they are authentic. So for all first-time Oriental Carpet buyers out there, I would like to tell you a little about Chinese-made Oriental rugs, so that you may have a better chance of identifying one.

Here are some very basic characteristics that immediately give them away.

1. Color

You will find colors in a Chinese-made rug that you have seen nowhere else: Elvis blue, Hello Kitty pink, and 100% pure Tropicana orange.

2. Workmanship

Much like a car factory, Chinese-made Oriental pile carpets are fabricated in an assembly line fashion. The same carpet is made by 20 people at the same time. They all tie the same knot at the same time, all directed by a supervisor, with a plot of the carpet. He yells out a color and they all tie that knot. When they get to the end a blade comes down, cuts the pile then it gets packed down similarly with a comb. The workers just have to stay clear of the blade and comb.

In the end the pile is not very closely cut, so you end up with a very thick carpet, and one that is packed down very hard.

3. Design

A popular design to copy - among others - are the Turkish Hereke silk carpets. These rugs, with their fine knotting are very rarely made today, and if so, are not knotted as finely. When made in China, the silk used is of inferior quality (this is a euphemism). Just like a cat’s hair falls out, so does the silk used in these carpets. TO AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

So where will you find these carpets? Most whole sellers in Manhattan carry these. Now whether they always tell the truth about the origin of these masterpieces is what is important here. Because, frankly, if a customer asks me for a cheap rug that will fall apart in a few years, I would suggest to them to purchase a Chinese rug. However, never will I pass one off as an authentic piece of work.

To give a few major names, I have seen these carpets at ABC and the ultimate source for authentic handmade carpets, Bloomingdales.

This is a nicely written entry by Emmet Eiland for his Rug Blog:

In 1949 the Chinese invaded Tibet, and inadvertently changed the modern history of Oriental carpets. Before then, Tibetans made rugs for their own uses, which often involved religious ceremonies. There was little, if any, commerce in new Tibetan rugs outside Tibet (though today the oldest rugs from Tibet are among the most desirable to collectors). The Chinese invasion forced thousands of Tibetans to flee, and many who survived the journey out of the mountains took weaving skills with them to Nepal and India, where they established carpet industries to support themselves. In Nepal, no carpet industry had existed before the Tibetan refugees created one[…]

(read the rest)

This is a video that I just noticed on YouTube. It is by Turkish Airlines, featuring my good friend, Ismael, who owns Beyond the Bosphorus in SoHo. It was done quite a while ago, but was only recently posted. It is a must-see for its comedic value. So funny.

What is interesting to note is Ismael’s deftness at speaking about the price of anything in his store. He is a former Grand Bazaar salesman who moved to the US about 25 years ago, but he is still the same. Enjoy.

So let’s say Paris Hilton is the nice-looking Oriental rug, and Asena is the authentic one. Judge for yourself which one is more worth it.

You can now take a look at Tip Top Design’s brand new design, complete with an RSS feed.

Rugjones gives some personality to the narrator and it seems like a winning formula. I like it.

I found this on travel writer Dave Fox’s site:

After nearly three months of travel, alone, on a ridiculously tight budget, I was sick of being politically correct. I had been ripped off – twice in two hours. And not knowing what else to do, I blamed the Turks. I blamed the entire country because in a city of 10 million, two people had cheated me out of about eight US dollars. I hated myself for my bigotry. I hated everyone else because they were there to hate. My flu was bad and my nerves were frazzled. I had a nasty case of traveler’s burnout. I looked forward to leaving in the morning[…]

Then he has a rather interesting experience at a carpet shop.

It was a small shop – about 10 by 15 feet, dimly lit with lights around the ceiling. Carpets hung from every wall. Some were brand new, others decades old. The room had almost no furniture. Just one small table a foot and a half high that supported a large boombox and a shoe box full of tapes. Def Leppard was blaring.

Ali ran back in and fidgeted with the stereo. He sat down. Jumped up. Walked around the room. Looked out the door. Sat down again.

A small boy appeared with tea and I took my glass.

“You want a smoke?” Ali’s cousin offered, holding out a pack of Marlboros. He was a lot calmer than Ali.

“No thanks,” I said. When offered, I smoked in Turkey. It was the social thing to do, but my throat was too sore for nicotine.

“You don’t smoke?” Ali asked.

“Not very often.”

My refusal was taken as a polite no rather than a real no.

“But really, you can smoke now,” Ali prompted. His cousin nodded, arm still extended with the cigarettes.

I had been sick for two weeks with a dry, hacking cough. “No thanks,” I said again.

“It’s okay,” his cousin persisted. “Really. You can have one.”

“Thanks, but I’m sick right now.”

“You are sick?” Ali asked.

“Yes. Sore throat.” I rubbed my neck below my chin.

“Oh,” Ali said. “I’m very sorry.” Then he asked me to repeat the word, “throat,” three more times to register it in his vocabulary.

Ali scrounged the shop for show-and-tell items, and I began to relax. His photo album was full of cars and friends. Proudly, he showed me an English paperback – a short play by Shakespeare. “So I can learn better English,” he said.

I couldn’t help laughing. “I’m sorry,” I said. “But you’re never going to learn English if you read that.”

“I know. I know. It’s just a gift. How’s my accent?”

“It’s great,” I lied. (read the full article)