Interviews
Mechanized carpets besiege hand-made rugs
06 Sep '06
2 min read
Once the famous hand-made carpets had been among the most important sources of income for rural Turkmen families.
The new mechanization is rapidly replacing the traditional picture of close family members and their looms.
State enterprises that run the factories are increasingly interested only in mass-producing commercial carpets.
They sell their products abroad cheaply and in bulk quantities and their formula is for steady profits.
The trend is damaging the international image of Turkmen carpets and driving down their value.
In the past, fine carpets used to be hand-woven, all the rugs were handmade but now, people make rugs by machine and they are even made from plastic fiber, which at first glance is hard to distinguish from wool.
In this manner they create a carpet in the shortest time to make it ready for sale and carpets are increasingly losing value.
Presently, over half the workforces are unemployed and the rise of the factories has heavily undercut family weavers in Turkmenistan threatening what was once a common source of supplementary income for many households.
Carpet experts also blame the Turkmen government's policy of isolation from much of the rest of the world and the policy severely limits the ability of artisans to reach foreign markets or respond to new trends.
The biggest problem they face is for obtaining a visa and even private entrepreneurs who are Turkmen citizens have difficulty creating an export business.
The new mechanization is rapidly replacing the traditional picture of close family members and their looms.
State enterprises that run the factories are increasingly interested only in mass-producing commercial carpets.
They sell their products abroad cheaply and in bulk quantities and their formula is for steady profits.
The trend is damaging the international image of Turkmen carpets and driving down their value.
In the past, fine carpets used to be hand-woven, all the rugs were handmade but now, people make rugs by machine and they are even made from plastic fiber, which at first glance is hard to distinguish from wool.
In this manner they create a carpet in the shortest time to make it ready for sale and carpets are increasingly losing value.
Presently, over half the workforces are unemployed and the rise of the factories has heavily undercut family weavers in Turkmenistan threatening what was once a common source of supplementary income for many households.
Carpet experts also blame the Turkmen government's policy of isolation from much of the rest of the world and the policy severely limits the ability of artisans to reach foreign markets or respond to new trends.
The biggest problem they face is for obtaining a visa and even private entrepreneurs who are Turkmen citizens have difficulty creating an export business.
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