Spring Market at Highpoint

We finished setting up our exhibit at Highpoint market today in the Modern History furniture showroom at 430 N. Wrenn.  We will also have several rugs on the floor in the furniture vignettes. Hope you will stop by if you are coming to market!  Lunch is served daily on the patio...hoping for beautiful weather!!

Beautiful new samples

I can't help but share a picture of 2 new beautiful samples created by our team in Nepal.  The green sample on the right is our English Damask pattern in all Tibetan wool.  This is a strike off for Rebecca Laymon, an interior designer in Raleigh, North Carolina. The sample was woven in 2 different colorways, with half the sample in a mix of green and cream and the other half of the sample in shades of green.  The cream-colored sample is our Quatrefoil pattern in Tibetan wool and raised Chinese silk for Francia Fusik, a designer who has a beautiful new showroom in Windemere, Florida called All In One Decorating Solutions.  Both samples are hand-knotted in Nepal with 100 knots per square inch.

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

VIDEO: Learn the steps to creating a custom rug

Watch our new video and learn the steps to creating a custom rug.  It is 1, 2, 3... couldn't be simpler.

1.  Pick a pattern from our website...over 350 to choose from...order a colored rendering in your size and colors.

2.  Order a strike off...either 1 X 1 foot or 2 X 2 foot.

3.  Order your beautiful custom rug...be it a work of art or a textural backdrop...it will be unique and special to your room.

Click here to watch our video

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.

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

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

Dreaming of Spring

Here in Minnesota, we've had an extremely mild winter...outdoor hockey rinks melting in early February is a rare sight.  So...of course, we're all dreaming of an early spring.  With that in mind, yesterday I created a couple of contemporary rug designs with a few orchids sprinkled on the rugs in bright, fresh colors.  If you have any inspirations for rug designs, please feel free to share them with me and I'll see what I can do to create the rug.  I'm always looking for ideas.

Copyright by Julie Dasher Rugs 2012

Copyright by Julie Dasher Rugs 2012

Copyright by Julie Dasher Rugs 2012

Merry Rugs!

This is the display in our showroom in Suite 542 at International Market Square in Minneapolis.

Raised Silk--A Beautiful Touch in a Rug

I love the color purple and what could be a prettier use of that color than in raised Chinese silk in a rug design...   I created this trellis pattern for a client in Florida who loves the color too.  The silk is raised about 2 mm higher than the wool pile in the background.  The border is the same color as the background but in a loop pile instead of a cut pile, which makes the color look a shade lighter.