Nate - I did not know there was an RIA course on the calendar - where is the marketing for it? Why don't they ever advertise these things?
Thea Sand is AWESOME. You will love the class. I think they had to cancel her last one because not enough people signed up for it, and I think the price was kinda high - if they promoted it on places like here, they could easily get enough bodies. If I knew it was happening, I would have posted that info first, and then offer up a workshop for the true basics, which is what I'm gauging interest in because 80% of the repairs that come through the doors are ends, sides, and isolated field work. The cooler restoration/reweaving work makes for great photos - but that is not what's rolling in on a week to week basis. (Great photos by the way Hyde!)
We had an in-depth conversation with the Weavers Guild in our city, and we were discussing Peter Stone's new repair book - which is well-done.
My mom Kate, when she first apprenticed as a rug weaver, used the original Stone book as a guide - and then ended up dropping all of his techniques, because the gist of that book, and the new one, is on how do you hide your work to make the sale of something "undamaged" versus what repairs are needed that is structurally best for the rug in terms of longevity.
Sometimes stringing in a whole extra set of warps and wefts into a hole in a rug - though the end result may look perfect - causes strain and stress on the original construction that means it will come out over time, and create damage in the areas originally unaffected. You have a high knot count rug, and you suddenly double the warps and wefts, how can that not damage all of the surrounding areas? It's like doubling the bones in your body - two right femurs instead of one. There are always consequences to that.
But this is more of a repair philosophy conversation. Is the rug repair PERFECT because you cannot see it, or because it will last for a lifetime? Having worked with so many rugs through our galleries, and our shop, it is very rare that those in the first group also fall into the second. Dealers like to hide repairs, which makes sense.... and for them dollars... but sometimes more is needed than just to make damage "disappear."
And that comes into talking about collectible rugs versus purely decorative or sentimental value rugs.
The bulk of our repairs are for people who love their rugs and want them to last forever, versus someone trying to sell a textile for top dollar at an auction. We do a TON of patches, but doing so to prepare the areas so that if they ever decide to ship it to Turkey for reweaving with old fibers (unraveled from antique kelims from the same period) to try to make it as "original" as possible, they can. So it's two phases generally - lower price, quicker, stable repair now - that looks great AND you can walk on - and then down the road sink in the thousands, and up to a year, for the "real" work to take place.
That said, we have our repair crew close their eyes to FEEL the rug to see if they can sense where their work is. And if they can, then it needs to be reworked. Many of these visually perfect repairs - you may not see them, but you can feel them, and a stiff, slightly elevated area will get more abrasion and strain as a result.
Those of you already in the rug business, already doing repairs, the RIA classes are IDEAL for you.
Those who are at ground zero - that is what I'm thinking of offering again, because no one is serving that market. RIA is priced out of the beginners realm - and if their only other option is learning from Peter's book, then they will be only getting one side. Funny in the book, a very SLIM section on rug care and cleaning ... dealers always seem to have little interest or regard for the care of the textiles they sell. Great photos though, and a cheap book - definitely worth buying for reference. And I loved his Oriental Lexicon book.
RIA prides itself - and prices itself - as an "elite" group. I tried for years when I was on their NIRC council to get them to offer some basic courses - and eventually came out with Rug Secrets as a result because no one in their leadership wanted to reach out to the "regular" carpet cleaners or restorers not wanting to be rug specialists, to teach them the basics. But as their ranks get smaller and smaller - they have to either open up this avenue, or simply be a very educated, and very small, group of specialists.
I loved the CRS course. But I have referred some students (before my RS program with Jon-Don) who were intimidated in that environment. Spent thousands and weeks, and then did not pass the tests, and had to redo them, which was a huge disappointment - and expenses. College environment works for some, but not everyone. I'm a great test taker. But not everyone thrives in that kind of intense memorization environment. And, to be honest, just because someone can memorize and take tests well does not mean they are superb at the craft. Some of the best cleaners and restorers I know are horrible test takers. My mother would fail the CRS test - not the rug ID, because she's better than anyone I know on that, because she truly knows rugs from the inside out - but because she freezes up on tests and writing out answers, and reports. She barely got out of high school. As did most of the most highly successful entrepreneurs I know - all C and D students.
Even my rug supervisor Andrey, who has personally cleaned over 2 million square feet of textiles, one at a time, would fail the test. English is his second language - those tests would intimidate that hell out of that big Russian General.
So, this is not a one or the other conversation. You can never have too much instruction. And while RIA is great at taking a small group of those who "know" it already farther along their path - there are a lot of others who will never take that academic, testing path. And if the rug care craft is to grow and advance, someone needs to begin training the next wave of rug care specialists to get to that point where they would even consider an RIA course.
Hope that answers your questions. This would be ground zero basics. My target is not you Nate or you Hyde - let me know how you enjoy Thea's class, I'm sure I'll hear great things.
Lisa
