If there is one single thing that I wanted to take from Baku when we left, it's a carpet. I'd say Persian carpet but, according to the Azeris, there is no such thing as a Persian carpet because there are 20 million Azeris in Iran.....and so all Persian carpets are really Azeri carpets.....even though I don't think they make all the carpets. Also, there are many different kinds of Azeri carpets depending on the fiber, the region it was made, or where the design originated. I think after a week of intense carpet shopping, I can identify a few of them by sight. It really impresses me that I managed to get beyond 'ooohing' and 'ahhhhhing' to actually absorb some of what I was told in the shops.
At first I thought I wanted a silk pile rug large enough for a dining room. This was going to be at the absolute top of my budget but would still cost a lot less than if I was to buy one at home. My first stop was here, at "The Flying Carpet"
I went with Barbara on that first day. She introduced me to Ruslan (the shop's owner) as an absolute carpet neophyte, and I got the full crash course on "Carpetology"...served, of course, with hot cups of tea. Each lesson was accompanied by a full spread of delicious colors and textures as Ruslan, rolled out one beautiful carpet after another. It didn't matter to Ruslan what kind of carpet I said I wanted in the beginning, he had to show all types because I was new and couldn't really know what I wanted until I saw many. He told me to be patient he would get to the large silk ones later.
In the end I left "The Flying Carpet" with 4 rugs, 2 for the floor and 2 wall hangings. No money exchanged hands. I was to take them home on a try out.
This wool Quba carpet is about 40 years old, all the dyes are natural but the only thing I remember is that the reds come from beet root and the outer layers of onions. Oh, the teal blues are made by oxidizing copper, and a lot of the other colors are from different flowers that the rug maker would have grown in her yard. It was my first choice of the First Day Four. John wasn't all that wild about it. He said, "Keep shopping." Like that would be a problem?
I also really liked this wall hanging, The Garden of Eden. It has a little silk in it and is the only one I brought home that has any silk in it at all. So much for initial intentions.
I thought John would like this one, but he didn't, so it went back too.
This is the 4th one from the first day shopping at Ruslan's. Once I got this one home, it took me about 2 minutes to decide I didn't want it.
We took the 3rd and the 4th ones back the next day. Hung out with Ruslan, had some more tea while he showed us the larger silk on silk carpets he had in the shop (kind of like a well lit dungeon surrounded with piles of cushions and colors...rolled carpets leaning against the stone walls. John really really liked this silk Tabriz one.....it wasn't as dark as this in real life and the picture doesn't do it justice at all. The shading on the silk pile....just like velvet. I don't think I drooled on it but if I did Ruslan was kind enough not to comment.
I really really liked it, too. But being as we are beginning a new How Can We Ever Afford To Live in Europe? frugality plan, the $1500 best price made us hesitate.....more shopping. I could get the Quba and The Garden of Eden for $600 for both.
I learned a lot about carpet shopping from Ruslan. Not everything I needed to know was about the carpets, there were some things I learned about carpet sellers as well. First of all, you will always be offered tea and asked to sit. Sometimes you get a nice place to sit and sometimes it isn't so nice.....like an antique (I am being generous here) settee that looks like it's about to collapse, or eat you, when you sit on it. Carpet sellers are charming people who have a very logical and philosophical approach to their trade. As Ruslan told me, he can't lose if I don't buy a particular carpet. He can sell that carpet to someone else. (Insert appropriately accented English here.) "No problem...I no lose." Now, me on the other hand, I can lose. I walk away without buying something I like and, since he can sell it to someone else....I can lose. So, naturally, my interests are his greatest concern because no harm can come to him, only poor vulnerable me. I must remember to apply this way of thinking to other things in my life, such as a new pair of boots.
The second most lethal weapon in the arsenal of a carpet seller (taking a back seat only to the carpets themselves) is this.....
The simple, innocuous, desktop calculator. The tool that helps new recruits like me get over that first initial haggling experience with some grace and dignity, especially in the presence of others whose sheer presence would be enough to make that first low ball offer strangle in your throat. Most of the time the "last price" isn't given first, though a couple of times it was (as in the case of the silk beauty up there). So, haggling is expected but this ain't a bag of cherries, there are emotional ties in the mix. And sometimes there are other customers in the store who you just KNOW are experts and KNOW how much you should expect to pay for the privilege of taking your treasured one home with you forever. The fear of looking stupid can be overpowering. It can make fainthearted shoppers like myself exit stage left when no one is looking. So, if you pause for a deep breath after...'How much are you willing to pay?'....the calculator will be passed so you can sheepishly enter your amount without uttering a word. The calculator will be passed back and forth with each party getting closer until everyone is happy, and nobody loses. I am kind of proud that I had to resort to the calculator for only my first time. Ever since then, I've managed to blurt out my counteroffers without hesitation. Ruslan said I learned quick.
After we left 'The Flying Carpet', Ali took us to another carpet place close to where he lives. Using our usual North American logic, we thought that if it was away from the "tourist section" of town, the prices might be even better. Unfortunately, this is the lobby. It is not attached to a hotel. But it had hotel lobby prices.
We were offered cognac instead of tea. Instead of dungeon like stone walls, the main showroom had the proportions of a ballroom.
It also had some absolutely gargantuan silk rugs....with matching price tags.
I am so glad they don't take credit cards!
I don't remember the name of this carpet shop, if I ever did know it at all. I'll never forget the Mercedes S-class parked by the front steps with a couple of young Russian mafia types in dark sunglasses sitting in the front seat. And I'll never forget what was behind these doors.
This was amazing to watch.
There were about 8 looms in this room with 4 women at each, bent over and hands flying as they worked. They work five days a week, 10 hours a day. A wool rug takes 6 to 7 months to complete and a silk one longer, 9 months to a year.
None of the women gave us more than a passing glance and I think they're used to the touring customers.
And then there was the dying room...
And the dyed silk just hanging there waiting for my fingers to play with it.
At this point everything was beginning to get fuzzy and I wished I had taken that cognac to steady my hands. Drooling, quivering people do not win the bargaining game for carpets....even though I was pretty sure if I so much as asked price in this fancy-schmancy carpet place John would clamp a hand over my mouth before I could get the chance to show off my new bartering skills. I wonder if those mafia types parked out front were the boys they sent out to collect the carpets sent out on approval that didn't make it back as promised. That's logical right? If you've got their rug, you've got to come back...and probably 99% of the time that works.
By now we had been shopping for 2 days. John decided he really needed to get back to the office, so Ali took him there and then drove me home. I rested up for the next time. We were going to Samir's.
To be continued......
At first I thought I wanted a silk pile rug large enough for a dining room. This was going to be at the absolute top of my budget but would still cost a lot less than if I was to buy one at home. My first stop was here, at "The Flying Carpet"
I went with Barbara on that first day. She introduced me to Ruslan (the shop's owner) as an absolute carpet neophyte, and I got the full crash course on "Carpetology"...served, of course, with hot cups of tea. Each lesson was accompanied by a full spread of delicious colors and textures as Ruslan, rolled out one beautiful carpet after another. It didn't matter to Ruslan what kind of carpet I said I wanted in the beginning, he had to show all types because I was new and couldn't really know what I wanted until I saw many. He told me to be patient he would get to the large silk ones later.
In the end I left "The Flying Carpet" with 4 rugs, 2 for the floor and 2 wall hangings. No money exchanged hands. I was to take them home on a try out.
This wool Quba carpet is about 40 years old, all the dyes are natural but the only thing I remember is that the reds come from beet root and the outer layers of onions. Oh, the teal blues are made by oxidizing copper, and a lot of the other colors are from different flowers that the rug maker would have grown in her yard. It was my first choice of the First Day Four. John wasn't all that wild about it. He said, "Keep shopping." Like that would be a problem?
I also really liked this wall hanging, The Garden of Eden. It has a little silk in it and is the only one I brought home that has any silk in it at all. So much for initial intentions.
I thought John would like this one, but he didn't, so it went back too.
This is the 4th one from the first day shopping at Ruslan's. Once I got this one home, it took me about 2 minutes to decide I didn't want it.
We took the 3rd and the 4th ones back the next day. Hung out with Ruslan, had some more tea while he showed us the larger silk on silk carpets he had in the shop (kind of like a well lit dungeon surrounded with piles of cushions and colors...rolled carpets leaning against the stone walls. John really really liked this silk Tabriz one.....it wasn't as dark as this in real life and the picture doesn't do it justice at all. The shading on the silk pile....just like velvet. I don't think I drooled on it but if I did Ruslan was kind enough not to comment.
I really really liked it, too. But being as we are beginning a new How Can We Ever Afford To Live in Europe? frugality plan, the $1500 best price made us hesitate.....more shopping. I could get the Quba and The Garden of Eden for $600 for both.
I learned a lot about carpet shopping from Ruslan. Not everything I needed to know was about the carpets, there were some things I learned about carpet sellers as well. First of all, you will always be offered tea and asked to sit. Sometimes you get a nice place to sit and sometimes it isn't so nice.....like an antique (I am being generous here) settee that looks like it's about to collapse, or eat you, when you sit on it. Carpet sellers are charming people who have a very logical and philosophical approach to their trade. As Ruslan told me, he can't lose if I don't buy a particular carpet. He can sell that carpet to someone else. (Insert appropriately accented English here.) "No problem...I no lose." Now, me on the other hand, I can lose. I walk away without buying something I like and, since he can sell it to someone else....I can lose. So, naturally, my interests are his greatest concern because no harm can come to him, only poor vulnerable me. I must remember to apply this way of thinking to other things in my life, such as a new pair of boots.
The second most lethal weapon in the arsenal of a carpet seller (taking a back seat only to the carpets themselves) is this.....
The simple, innocuous, desktop calculator. The tool that helps new recruits like me get over that first initial haggling experience with some grace and dignity, especially in the presence of others whose sheer presence would be enough to make that first low ball offer strangle in your throat. Most of the time the "last price" isn't given first, though a couple of times it was (as in the case of the silk beauty up there). So, haggling is expected but this ain't a bag of cherries, there are emotional ties in the mix. And sometimes there are other customers in the store who you just KNOW are experts and KNOW how much you should expect to pay for the privilege of taking your treasured one home with you forever. The fear of looking stupid can be overpowering. It can make fainthearted shoppers like myself exit stage left when no one is looking. So, if you pause for a deep breath after...'How much are you willing to pay?'....the calculator will be passed so you can sheepishly enter your amount without uttering a word. The calculator will be passed back and forth with each party getting closer until everyone is happy, and nobody loses. I am kind of proud that I had to resort to the calculator for only my first time. Ever since then, I've managed to blurt out my counteroffers without hesitation. Ruslan said I learned quick.
After we left 'The Flying Carpet', Ali took us to another carpet place close to where he lives. Using our usual North American logic, we thought that if it was away from the "tourist section" of town, the prices might be even better. Unfortunately, this is the lobby. It is not attached to a hotel. But it had hotel lobby prices.
We were offered cognac instead of tea. Instead of dungeon like stone walls, the main showroom had the proportions of a ballroom.
It also had some absolutely gargantuan silk rugs....with matching price tags.
I am so glad they don't take credit cards!
I don't remember the name of this carpet shop, if I ever did know it at all. I'll never forget the Mercedes S-class parked by the front steps with a couple of young Russian mafia types in dark sunglasses sitting in the front seat. And I'll never forget what was behind these doors.
This was amazing to watch.
There were about 8 looms in this room with 4 women at each, bent over and hands flying as they worked. They work five days a week, 10 hours a day. A wool rug takes 6 to 7 months to complete and a silk one longer, 9 months to a year.
None of the women gave us more than a passing glance and I think they're used to the touring customers.
And then there was the dying room...
And the dyed silk just hanging there waiting for my fingers to play with it.
At this point everything was beginning to get fuzzy and I wished I had taken that cognac to steady my hands. Drooling, quivering people do not win the bargaining game for carpets....even though I was pretty sure if I so much as asked price in this fancy-schmancy carpet place John would clamp a hand over my mouth before I could get the chance to show off my new bartering skills. I wonder if those mafia types parked out front were the boys they sent out to collect the carpets sent out on approval that didn't make it back as promised. That's logical right? If you've got their rug, you've got to come back...and probably 99% of the time that works.
By now we had been shopping for 2 days. John decided he really needed to get back to the office, so Ali took him there and then drove me home. I rested up for the next time. We were going to Samir's.
To be continued......
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