Craftsmanship
OUR FIBERS
Julie Dasher Rugs uses the best wool in the world.
Our Nepalese rugs are made with Tibetan wool from Himalayan sheep. Tibetan wool is considered to be the finest wool in the world due to its texture, strength, luster and stain-resistant properties. Our hand-knotted rugs last for generations.
Our Indian rugs are made with New Zealand wool, softer than Tibetan wool because the NZ sheep are typically eating fine grasses on the plains compared to the Himalayan sheep which are consuming bark and sticks in the mountains.
Wool is a sustainable fiber as it is a naturally-renewable resource which is harvested every other year from the sheep. At the end of its life cycle, wool biodegrades into nutrients which improve soil fertility. Natural properties of wool in a rug can even improve indoor air quality. Our dyes are 100% eco-friendly Swiss Ceiba.
Other fibers we use in our rugs include silk, recycled silk, hemp, aloe, nettle, cactus, nylon, cashmere and mohair.
OUR WEAVERS
Julie Dasher Rugs works with weavers in Nepal and India and has recently started to cultivate relationships with weavers in Afghanistan, all of whom are women. Despite their artistry and skill level, women weavers all over the world struggle to earn a living wage and provide an education for their children. Traditionally, the women weavers in Afghanistan, who will often devote 1500 hours of labor crafting one rug that may contain more than one million knots, must sell their rugs to a broker in the local market. That broker will then markup and sell the rugs at a significant profit to buyers in the U.S. and Europe, depriving the women weavers of fair compensation for their work.
Our goal is to hire women weavers and purchase their rugs directly from them, eliminating brokers in the supply chain. In Afghanistan, women weavers are 100% of our workforce; their wages have increased by 10%-25%, as a result of their association with us. In Nepal, women weavers now comprise 60% (and growing) of our workforce. We also donate a percentage of our profits to GOODWEAVE International, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending illegal child labor in the rug making industry. All our weavers in Nepal, India and Afghanistan receive child care and education services through GOODWEAVE.
When you purchase a rug from Julie Dasher Rugs, not only are you bringing a world-class work of art into your home or office, you are also contributing to the betterment of the lives of women weavers around the world.