Hand-tufted wool rugs from New York to Minneapolis

We always enjoy and appreciate receiving install photos from our interior designer clients.  Here are couple of beautiful recent installations where our custom rugs were specified.

Thanks to Melissa Pollack at Pollack Interiors Co. in Belmore, NY and Tim Ricker at At Home in Edina, MN for trusting us with their custom rugs.  We love working directly with designers to create special rugs in custom sizes and colors to enhance their spaces.

Space design by Melissa Pollack at Pollack Interiors Co. in Belmore, NY
15'5" X 15'5" Pearl Necklace rug by Julie Dasher Rugs
All wool/Hand-tufted

Space design by Tim Ricker at At Home in Edina, MN
4 X 12 Custom Geometric runner by Julie Dasher Rugs
All wool/Hand-tufted 

Casbah rug in Lake Forest, IL

Here are some photos sent to me by our client ESL Design in Lake Forest, IL.  This room was designed by Elizabeth Scott-Lisk at ESL.  She chose our Casbah design in wool and silk, hand-knotted in Nepal with 100 knots per square inch.  We love the colors and how the geometric design complements the beautiful furnishings in the dining room.

Abrash in a rug

Abrash in a rug is a striation created by yarns that are dyed in multiple colors which are fairly close in tone.  Abrash shows a beautiful textural effect which can stand alone without any additional pattern in the design.  The abrash technique can be done in heavy, medium or light variations.

Here is a picture of a rug with heavy abrash that we recently created for Sweet Peas Design in Chicago.  Susan Brunstrum, the owner and head designer, at Sweet Peas had done another rug with us using 3 colors in a heavy abrash in the background of the rug with a cream-colored design in the pattern.  This time, her client wanted just the heavy abrash background and no pattern for a highly subtle, textural rug.  This project didn't leave much for me to do as a designer but I am thrilled with how the rug turned out.

Hand-knotted rug being stretched in the finishing stage

Hand-knotted rug being trimmed in the finishing stage

Thank you for your generosity

As most of you know, there were 2 very powerful earthquakes in Nepal recently resulting in great loss of life and property for the people there.  Julie Dasher Rugs has received tremendous support from many of our clients, friends and family for our supplier in Nepal and for Goodweave. Goodweave is on the ground in Nepal providing a myriad of services for the children, their families and also supporting the efforts to rebuild so that properties are more earthquake resistant in the future. We are truly humbled by your generosity and are happy to report that our factory in Nepal is fully operational.  Our supplier and his team are amazing people and are recovering from this challenge with grace and strength.  We admire them greatly.

In that light, here are some pictures of a beautiful rug they just finished for one of our clients, an interior design firm in Washington, D.C.  The attention to detail and craftsmanship of this talented team are evident.

Attention to Detail and Craftsmanship

We are so fortunate to have such wonderful interior designer clients who give us the opportunity to create beautiful rugs for their projects!  Here is our Livorno pattern with a lovely merlot colored silk in the scrolls of the design.

Chinese silk in a merlot color woven into the scrolls in the Livorno design

Our Livorno design, an oversized damask pattern

Thanks to our expert craftspeople in Nepal who produce an exquisite product

Dare to be special! A custom stair runner and landing rug for a Kenwood home in Minneapolis

Here's a stair runner project we recently completed with interior designer, Janie Delaney, in Minneapolis.

The client wanted something colorful and fresh for her Kenwood home staircase and landing which can be seen as soon as you enter the home.  Janie thinks it is lively and fun but has depth and character so that it works with the house.  In Janie's words...it's "KILLER"!!  Better in person of course and the client loves it!

Installation--the runner was made in 4 sections so as to get a perfect match on each stair.
The project was templated and hand-knotted in Nepal by our wonderful weavers there.

Here is the hand-drawn template and the 4 sections of the runner.

Picture of the landing rug

Close-up...heavy abrash striation in the background of the rug

Landing area...love the zebra pillow

Original digital rendering with final colors selected
Pattern by Julie Dasher

Thanks to COVER magazine for featuring our design

Thanks to Lucy Upward at COVER magazine for featuring our new Lacy Maple Leaf design in their 2015 Trends report.  We are very excited to be included!  The Lacy Maple Leaf design was inspired by a beautiful tree in our new home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  The leaves look like fine lace.

Countdown to Highpoint Market

We are very excited to be exhibiting at Highpoint market for the first time the week of October 18th! Our booth is being transformed into a colorful display of our rug designs that were made all over the world.  If you are heading to Highpoint, please stop by and visit us in Suites at Market Square #M-1044.

Here are the 4 runners we had made for the show.  Stop by the booth and fill out your entry to win one of these runners!

Julie Dasher Rugs in COVER magazine's Highpoint Preview

Partnering with my interior designer clients is such fun!  Recently, Susan Brunstrum, owner of Sweet Peas Design in Chicago, IL and I collaborated on a beautiful Lily Pad rug for her client's dining room.  COVER magazine, the international trade magazine for the rug industry, picked up on the image of the rug and featured it in their Highpoint Preview.

Julie Dasher Rugs will be exhibiting at Highpoint Market for the first time this October.  We are very excited and busy preparing the booth.  Hope to see you there the week of October 18th in Highpoint, NC.

Help end child labor in rug making--Buy Goodweave-certified rugs

You may have seen the recent study by Harvard University that documented more than 3,000 cases of forced labor in India’s handmade carpet sector.  Awareness of this tragedy is the beginning of the end of child labor.  According to Goodweave, the non-profit based in Washington, D.C. working to end child labor in the handmade rug industry, there are over 250,000 children in Southeast Asia losing their childhoods due to bonded labor on the loom.

I don't believe that there any many people in this world who would knowingly buy rugs made by children.  To be sure that your rug is not made by a child, you can buy a Goodweave-certified rug.

Julie Dasher Rugs is a licensed importer with Goodweave and every one of our rugs has a label on the back of the rug which documents that it is child-labor free.  We donate a percentage of our profits each year to support education and community service in our weaving communities.

Photo courtesy of Goodweave

 Contact us to learn more or if you have other questions about our handmade rugs.

Our latest video...we love rugs!

Take a look at this video and enjoy looking at our rugs.  You will see many of our designs...on the loom and in beautiful rooms created by our talented interior designer clients.  Enjoy!

Click here to watch video

Rugs for a Neutral Palette

As much as I love color, I do appreciate the value of using texture and neutral colors as a subtle backdrop.  Here are a few rugs that we've created that showcase the beauty of "beige and gray."  Often times, the texture created with raised wool, raised silk or the type of weave such as our new lock weave can be just the ticket in a space where the client is looking for a timeless, classic aesthetic.

Loopy Diamonds pattern with lock weave and raised wool dots

Quatrefoil pattern with raised silk

Lotus and Wedding Rings pattern with raised wool

Turkish Coffee pattern with heavy abrash in field of rug

Let kids be kids...

Let kids be kids...that is why I support Goodweave in their efforts to prevent child labor in the rug making industry!

A child in India celebrating the Festival of Colors...what a beautiful site!

White Tiger

This traditional Nepalese tiger design was custom colored for a client who loves WHITE TIGERS.  It always amazes me how much color can influence a design.

White Tiger--Custom-Colored in grey and white tones

Tiger in traditional Nepalese colors

The Art of the Custom Rug

Take a look at this video which shows the process of making a handmade rug in Nepal.  From shearing the sheep to dyeing the wool to weaving, cutting, stretching and washing the rug, each rug is a work of art that represents thousands of hours of craftsmanship.  Thanks so much to my manufacturers in Kathmandu, Nepal for supplying the great video clips and to the sheep at the Minnesota State Fair for holding still long enough to get their wool sheared.  Enjoy!

Contact us for a free colored rendering in a custom size and color palette of one of our over 300 rug designs.

Rug for ASID Showcase Home

I recently had the wonderful experience of working with Angela Parker, owner of Interior Places and Spaces, in Minneapolis.  Angela and I worked together to design a custom rug for the ASID Showcase Home on Lake of the Isles.  A home with a view of the lake was the inspiration for 2 fish in the center of the 8 foot round rug...surrounded by sea scroll and fish scale borders and traditional lotus flowers in the gold, sage and lavender tones of the library in the home.  Here are a few pictures of the process and the finished space.

Angela's sketch for the rug

Angela's inspirations for borders on the rug

Kenyan fish bowl from Angela's collection...used for inspiration

The rendering of the rug design

The rug on the loom in Nepal

The rug just taken off the loom in Nepal.  Notice how the weavers use leftover wool yarn to complete the rectangle/square on the loom.  This yarn is cut away in the finishing process.

Finishing stages in Nepal.

The library at the ASID Showcase Home
Designed by Angela Parker

Making rug samples in Nepal

As a rug designer, it is very exciting for me to see pictures of my rug samples being woven in Nepal.  In most cases, we order a sample, call a strike-off, usually 1 X 1 or 2 X 2 feet, to confirm color and pattern in the client's rug.  Once the strike off is approved, we proceed with the rug.

2 X 2 foot rug samples on the loom in Nepal

As you can see in the picture below, multiple samples are typically made in a row on the loom with the same warp strands connecting all the samples.  When the samples are completed on the loom, they are removed and disconnected from each other by cutting the warp strands in between each sample.  My clients prefer no fringes so the fringes are turned under and covered with a cloth strip on the back of the sample.  All of this work is done by hand and the outcome is a beautiful hand-knotted rug sample to confirm the choice of their rug.

Rug Samples in Nepal

More samples in Nepal--fringes will be turned under and covered with cloth

Stately Damask--A traditional pattern with a contemporary twist

Our Stately Damask rug pattern is one of our most popular.  It's a traditional damask motif updated by limiting it to 2 colors and increasing the scale of the pattern.  In this family room designed by Martha O'Hara Interiors, the rug lays the foundation for a room with fun pops of limey green...a signature style for the talented designers at this Minneapolis-based design firm.

Dream Home--Edina, MN  Photo: Troy Theiss

Stately Damask Rug on loom in Nepal in brown colorways

Stately Damask Rug in trimming and finishing stages in Nepal