Hereke Carpets - Tradition, Beauty, Luxury and Elegance

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Hereke Carpets - Tradition, Beauty, Luxury and Elegance

"How many times Mona Lisa has been copied? But nevertheless people are in a queue to take a look at the original." - Louis Armstrong

It is my desire to give the genuine Hereke Carpets the place in the world due to them. For this reason I created with my website the place to purchase your Hereke Carpet securely and without fear to be cheated. This I ensure with my name.

I wish you undiluted pleasure enjoying the tradition, beatuy, luxury and elegance of the genuine Hereke Carpets.

The famous Hereke silken rugs are the finest of the world. They are hand-knotted (warp, weft and knots) using completely the best silk from Bursa with a density of minimum 1,000,000 knots per square meter. Once they were destined only for kings and princes and today they could embellish your home and give it a touch of luxury.

The carpets from Hereke are always hand-knotted with the strong Double or Turkish Knots, which allow these highest densities and at the same time they give them their proverbal durability.

The Hereke Silk Carpets will not only warmth your home, but they also tell about the high art of hand-knotted silk carpets, which on this density are made only in Hereke.

On my website Hereke Carpets you will find a fine sample colleciton of these famous carpets.

I grant the originiality of the Hereke Carpets you purchase on my website not only with my good name, but as well with a certificate of the official Turkish Hereke Carpets Weavers Association. For my customers this service is, of course, free of charge.

I deliver more than one million Turkish double knots per square meter.

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Please note that the pictures of the Hereke Silk Carpets have my own copyright: Solveigh Calderin (all rights reserved) and the pictures of the Turkish and Persian Knots are in the copyright of Dania Calderin (all rights reserved). Thanks.

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Hereke Carpets

Tradition, Beauty, Luxury and Elegance

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The "King's Carpet"

That's my name for this awesome beautiful rug

To understand the fineness of these wonderful carpets, please take a lineal, mark a quadrat of 1 x 1 cm (0,39 x 0,39 inch) and then try to put with a pencil 100 points in it. Now you have an imagination, what it means to knot 100 double knots per 1 square centimeter (appr. 0,15 square inch). That is "only" the standard density of 1.000.000 knots per square meter of the Hereke Silk Carpets. There are densities of 4.000.000 knots per square meter possible, what are 400 knots per square centimeter - and sometimes even finer! Really incredible, but true!

The Turkish Carpet

An historical abstract

Did you know that until about 150 years ago the Turkish carpet was the epitome of Oriental carpets? Why did that changed?

Luxury and Elegance - only by child's hand?

Often our customers ask, if it were true, that only child's hands are able to knot such fine carpets. Read here, why that never ever could be true.

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The colours and patterns

You have to know that a Hereke Silk Carpet is knotted with up to 37 various colours (and, please, do not forget the high density). Therefore these beautiful silk rugs seem so warm and vivids.

The Turkish patterns look so harmounious, because they are composed almost on a axis of symmetric. That is one of the characterisics of the Turkish rugs. There are some exclusion in this rule, because in the time of Abdülmecid I. there was a "Persian Style" on the Ottoman court. However, the Anatolian origin never can be negated. If some patterns are not on an axis of symmetry, the rich and harmony of colours is characteristic for the Turkish rugs.

Find here some more details of the here shown awesome beautyful Hereke Silk Carpet

About Silk and Silk Carpets

A lot of people think, a silk carpet or rug is not for using everyday.

There are a lot of people, who tell that a silk carpet can be used only for watching on the wall.

Booth is not (always) true.

People, who talk things like this to its customer may talk about a rug, which is produced with silk only in knots and the warp and weft are of cotton or wool. It also can be that the used silk is not the filament silk (what is the best), but the Staple fibre silk or worst, the Bourette silk. Further it could be that the carpets are knotted with the single persian knot in poor quality. Those silk rugs, of course, are not very durable and you can only watch them on the wall.

What are the differences between the named kinds of silk?

Here you can see silk coccons

The Silk Filament

is also named the natural silk. It is originated from the continuous fibre out of the middle of cocoon. This fibre is usually more than 1,000 meters (1093.17 yards or 0,62 miles) long and is in uncoiled condition prior to its manufacturing process. When silk filament has been treated correctly, it is the finest, strongest and toughest type of silk.

The Bourette Silk

is product of coarse spinning procedure from short fibre pieces.

The Staple fibre Silk or Chappe-Silk

consists of all inferior silk parts dropped off during the preparation process, what is shwon on this picture. These silk parts are of different minor qualities and values and after cleaning they will be yarned and become to Chappe-silk. This fibre differs from other silk fibres by its rough and fibrous surface and it is also called "Strazza".

Some characteristics of silk

Silk is the most tough and solid thread produced by nature and it could not been reproduced yet by humans until today.

It can be stretched about approx. 15% without tearing.

It can take up upto 30% of its net weight in humidity without feeling wet.

The surface is stain resistant and insensible with smells.

It is poor in crease and dries fastly.

It isolates very well, in winter warmly, in summer chilly.

It is extremely tearproof and does not chafe lightly.

The durability of Hereke Silk Carpets

Aside from the characteristics of silk the high knot density and the double Turkish knots are cause for the durability of the Hereke Silk Carpets.

Why the kind of knots are so important?

If you already bought a carpet, it could be you astonished, why cleaning the carpet it leaves some or a lot of piles. The reason for that are both, the used and the quality of knots. The more piles a carpet leaves, the poorer is the quality of the knots and/or the less is the knot density.

The Turkish double (symmetrical) knot

is knotted around two warp threads. Both ends of the weft thread are wrapped completely around the warp threads and then pulled out between them and cut off.

The Turkish knot in combination with the high density of no less than 100 knots per square centimeter (1 square centimeter = 0,155 square inch) make it some difficult to demage our Hereke Silk Carpets.

Hand knotting a Hereke Silk Carpet

A short view of the process to knot a genuine Hereke Silk Carpet

That's a really master waever!
turkish woman weaving silk carpet
by shinjushinju | video info

3 ratings | 3,394 views
curated content from YouTube

Hereke Silk Carpets - The flying carpets exist!

A funny video, what shows the proverbial durability of the Hereke Silk Carpets

Flying carpets do exist. Marmaris-05
by stevenwk | video info

5 ratings | 2,429 views
curated content from YouTube

The Persian single (asymmetrical) knot

The Persian knot is knotted asymmetrically around two adjacent warp threads; the weft thread is wrapped completely around one warp thread and looped under the next, thus covering half of it.

The Djufti knot

To save material and to produce the carpets faster, the knots could be knotted arround two or even three warp threads.

The Chinese carpet knotting

Here you can see very well, how this woman knots a Djutti knot - and not only arround two or three warp threads, it seems she knot it arround four or even five warp threads.

No wonder that you can buy a Chinese silk carpet at that low prices!
Silk Carpet Weaving
by bobistraveling | video info

3 ratings | 3,516 views
curated content from YouTube

The trust and the knowledge buying a silk carpet

In wich way you, the customer, could know, if you go to buy a real silk rug, or a silk rug with warp and weft of cotton or wool, or if you received a carpet with poor quality of silk?

That - to be tell the true is very difficult.

The first step to know about the quality is the offered price. If there is one who offers a rug of pure natural silk with a high price, what is reduced at 70 %, you should be extremely cautious. The 70 % discount is a sign for a rug with poor quality. Very often a carpet bought at such a high discount is not the money worth, you spent for it. Such a "cheap" carpet or rug very often is an expensive experience.

Already the old Chineses said always: "Who buys cheap, buys expensive."

A comparison

Chinese Hereke Replica, made with two colors: cream and apricot.

(this is an example, what I found in the internet)

The seller of this carpet tells the buyer, this carpet had 1,000,000 knots per m², material silk and it is offered as "luxury". The size is given with 122 cm x 76 cm. The seller further tells that the trade price were 1,490 Euro (appr. 2,152 US$), but the customer would get this carpet for
499 Euro (appr. 721 US$).

The offered price is at appr. 66 % (or 2/3) lower than the given primary "trade price"! No trader is able to give you a 66 % discount, if he would like to live.

In newest time I saw some sellers, who offer Chinese silk rugs with Hereke patterns, but call them Hereke Silk Carpets - that is lying the customers. So I would advise you: If you like to purchase a genuine Herke Silk Carpet: look at the price. If it seems too good, to be true - you can be sure: It is a lie, you are purchasing a rug with Hereke patterns, but not a genuine Hereke Silk Carpet.

The Guarantee

The certificate of the origin and quality looks like that in the picture here.

Here is written:

"An assured genuine handknotted orient carpet. For the authenticy of this carpet we assume the full guarantee."

The rest, I think, you can understand without translation.

You can also see, that this label is put not on the offered carpet, which is knotted only in "cream and appricoat" - why I can see here green and red and brown? On this "guarantee" there is to read no word about the density of this carpet, no word about the origin of this carpet and no word about the material of this carpet. I have to believe that CH-Hereke means China Hereke. It could be also Chile Hereke or any other land, what begins with CH, like Chechoslovakia.

This guarantee is a paper, what every one can print in any print office of the world... or with the own printer on the own computer.
For comparision now another more pichture of a genuine Hereke Silk Carpet

A test - and the trust

Further to the price there is a test in smell. You have to take a little part of thread and to burn it. If it is smelling like burned human hair, it is silk. But that, of course, is some difficult to do... and you can't take a part of warp and weft to try the same...

So the bying of a silk carpet (and theremore a genuine Hereke Silk Carpet) is a kind of trust? Yes, it is.

Where ever and in wich way ever - online or in a real shop - you buy a handknotted rug or carpet, you have to trust the trader. You have to believe, what he is telling you, like in each other shop you have to trust that in the package is, what is written on it.

My advise: If you like to buy a valuable carpet, ask for a qualified (not their own written) certificate. If there is a trader, who does not like to give you for the "handknotted silk carpet of best quality" such a certification, what do you think, could be the reason for that?

That is the cause, why our Hereke Silk Carpets are sent with a certificat of the official Turkish Hereke Carpet Weavers Association, free of charge. The number given in this certificate you can always verify on the website of this Association, so that you can be sure to get a really genuine Hereke Carpet.

Thank you for voting for my lens

Our current collection on Flickr

curated content from Flickr

Articles and Blogs

Other sources about Hereke Carpets and Rugs

Here you'll find an short article about the famous Hereke Carpets
Encyclopedia - The free dictionary
Articles and descriptions
The Ottomans
This site tells a lot of interesting details about the Ottomans - and, of course, about our Hereke Silk Carpets, too.
My Blog
In this Blog you'll find some further information about Turkish carpets in general and the famous Hereke silken Carpets.
Wikipedia about the famous Hereke Silk Carpets
Here is a short article in Wikipedia about the famous Hereke Silk Carpets. I did not say, that the most handknotted silk carpets are in great sizes, because the duration for production of such a great carpets would be about some years...

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Thanks a lot for your Feedback

  • Margaret_Schaut Apr 2, 2012 @ 4:22 pm | delete
    Love hand knotted silk rugs. There isn't anything like them!
  • madinvestment Nov 4, 2011 @ 9:00 am | delete
    I really enjoyed reading your lens. You did a fantastic job!

    One squid thumbs up vote issued for this lens :)
  • Jun 21, 2011 @ 11:08 am | delete
    Thank you for this lens. It is quite informative. As a Designer, I am always on the look-out for new products and ideas.
  • hesika Jun 21, 2011 @ 12:07 pm | delete
    You are very welcome, chasecreative. When ever you would like to embellish the homes of your customers with genuine Hereke carpets or rugs (or other ones from Turkey), just drop me a line.

    As far as I know, the USA prohibited to import new Persian carpets and rugs, so the colourful and always harmonious Turkish carpets and rugs maybe a good option. Also, because they will not increase their price like the Persian ones will do on behalf of this prohibition...
  • EbruUlufer May 12, 2011 @ 1:16 pm | delete
    What an informative lens! Thank you Solveigh for sharing.
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hesika

With my website I created the place to buy your genuine Hereke Carpet safely at fair prices. The fakes at moonprices you get elsewhere. more »

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