Regarding the War Rugs, this is my understanding. There's a really good website that has an awesome detail on these rugs from sheering to weaving and final piece. When I have a chance I'll have to dig it up. But you're absolutely right, whereas it once was a spontaneous craft as many would call it, it certainly has evolved into what would now be considered a commercial industry on a small scale. While I'm not entirely certain on whether or not they are the same refugees or descendants, this is my understanding from having spoken with other people, although I could be mistaken. I think my coffee hasn't quite kicked in :)
You ask some really good questions. Regarding starched rugs, the country who seem to use this process more than others is India, although it's not necessarily confined to their exports. I guess you could say the Indian's are more aware, in a sense, to meeting the aesthetic demands of overseas markets to appease more regularity of carpet shape. Many of these village pieces you see from Iran, more often than not, they have no specific corrective measures to straighten a rug. The objective in general is to weave a straight and true rug right off the loom: While weavers don't necessarily use the process of bedding and starching a rug as a "crutch" to rely upon, it certainly helps accomplish the task of correcting inconsistencies which otherwise may not have been seen until after the rug is cut from the loom. So I guess the answer is that the process of starching a rug is done after cutting the piece from the loom, and 90% of the time (if needed at all), pre-exportation. It is an acceptable practice in the sense that it meets the needs of the Western markets to have straight rugs, however, from the perspective of a rug purist, starched rugs are certainly not considered the "cream of the crop," but they're not quite seen as a "seconds good" either. My position is that if a rug has not been corrected properly, it would be considered a "seconds good," although some rugs are starched so heavily, they certainly have lost one of the most important characteristics of a hand knotted rug. One of the most important things to assess when looking at the back of a carpet is that the design is as sharp on the front as it is on the back. Adding the starch has an adverse affect on this quality measure, as more often than not, you can not only see a heavily starched rug as having a slightly whiter back, but you can also feel that it is stiffer to the touch, rough and especially abrasive. In some select areas around the perimeter of the carpet, you may also notice small punched holes with a possibility of a little rust surrounding them. This is where the carpet had been stretched, and more often than not, this process is applied to runners with lengths exceeding 15' of today's imports, although can be found in almost any size rug. Coffee kicked in
Regarding washing of starched rugs, it completely depends upon how good of a job the weavers did with correcting the problem as well as the types of application used. You set the rug on a bed of needles, wet it, stretch it and then starch it, but depending also on the severity of the problem and the length of time it had been set for, you never know if post usage washing will render this procedure as being good or not. The more thorough and slower the process, the better. Often rugs which have mild shape problems can be fixed with a simple wetting and stretching repeated maybe one or two times, although often the case is that starching accelerates the process for mildly affected rugs foregoing the repeating process and simply jumping to a quicker final solution. Rugs with severe curve or irregularities, they find the need for starching as the only option.
There are other instances, where you may encounter a hard or stiffer back to a rug without the visual clue of starching. This can be attributed to torching methods which are mainly used to facilitate the previously mentioned "quality measure" of having the rug appear as sharp on the back as it is on the front. The torching method is used to literally burn away loose wool fibers from the knots woven, which often can muddle the knots on the back of the rug. I would show you some pictures, but this is best demonstrated in person as to the difference before and after. There are instances where a carpet has too hard of a torching application, which subsequently dries the wool giving it a coarser feel. One way to see this is in some of the newer imports with hard twisted wool for example. If you look very carefully, not only can you see the remnants of singed fibers, but you can also smell the burned "hair" if you get close enough to the rug - literally put your nose to it.
To answer your question, those who set the trends for style and taste are usually people who have been in the business for quite some time with extensive and very close ties to producers overseas. It's very difficult to establish ties to some of these weavers from a new importers perspective, as more often than not, weaving production is based upon how much purchasing power you have, and your leverage within the industry. A new importer with intentions to have one small shipment will literally have to accept whatever the weaver produces as standard designs, which often can be found as a more commercially available rug. In regards to designing it's different for every aspect of the business. For machine made carpets and hand tufted carpets as examples, given the value of the shipment is significantly low, and production time is significantly shorter, they can afford to make more advantageous design and color decisions. Those in the Oriental Rug business have other indicators on their side regarding the anticipated demands of customers.
One example would be carpets which were produced pre-WW2 tended to have darker colors with very sparse use of pastels and bright colors. This can also be attributed to the Great Depression where rugs afterwards were darker, bolder. However, before the depression we also see the importing of many Nichols rugs, which were extremely bright, and appealed to the Art Deco crowd: A reflection of the sentiment of the times within the roaring 20's. After WW2, importers realized that the tone was of relief, so around the 1950's, we began to see the transition of these topical pastels being integrated into the fields of carpets, becoming the more predominant overtone of the rug. The thing about importing Oriental Rugs is that there is quite a time lag in today's ever changing design themes. So more often than not, objective is to create something timeless or trendy, but also considering the high investment value of each shipment which is at stake. Of course can't be incredibly aggressive with coloring and designs. One of the safeties is to create something timeless, or to produce something which has a proven track record. Although, there are those who commission rugs on a more textural basis, where it's not only the design and the colors of the carpet which are on the line, but also the advantages of a hand knotted rug over a machine made can be explored with much greater tactic. An example of this would be Peshuar carpets. While tea-washed carpets have been extremely popular, in the early 90's, these rugs tended to have the antique look, but not the antique feel or texture as the original rug subjected to the tea wash was of the thickness of a standard rug. The essence of these antique carpets which are so highly sought after were then expounded upon. Combining the elements of a softer, more subtle design and color with also a thinner type of weave has proven to be a fruitful combination, as not only are they including the track record success of antique washed carpets, but also feature the delicate, finely and thinly sheered pile of an antique rug.
I appreciate your kind words, certainly the market has become li
