ORIENTAL RUGS-DESIGN ELEMENTS

Oriental Rugs design elements are a fascinating part of the appeal of these rugs. Oriental Rugs can truly be considered works of art. It is the variety of design elements used to weave a rug that helps determine its value as well as its appeal to an individual buyer. 

The design elements can also help give us clues as to where and why a particular Oriental Rug was woven.

The design element value of a rug includes the intricacy of the design as well as the beauty of the motifs and the pattern. With the exception of rugs with an all over, portrait, and panel design, these rugs should be symmetrical.

RECTILINEAR and CURVILINEAR

ORIENTAL RUGS DESIGN ELEMENTS

Oriental Rug design elements can easily be broken down into 2 major types:

• Rectilinear Designs – mostly geometric motifs and angular patterns.

• Curvilinear Designs – mostly floral motifs and patterns that are usually more intricate.

Rugs may contain both rectilinear and curvilinear patterns.

FIELDS and BORDERS

These are the 2 major distinguishing parts of an oriental rug where the Oriental Rug design elements can be found.

FIELDS

The field is the large area in the center of an oriental rug which contains the main pattern and designs. The field can consist of many different design elements, or it may simply have a large area of a solid color (open field). The contents of a field can be broadly categorized as follows:

Open Field

As mentioned above, these rugs have a large area of a solid color in the field which will be surrounded by a series of borders. Examples of open field design can be found in some Caucasian Talish and Kazak rugs, Tibetan, Nepalese, and Sultanabad rugs, etc.

Medallion

These are usually found in the center of the field but can appear in many different styles, number, and sizes. Central medallions can be superimposed on an empty field, or one filled with a repeated motif or an overall pattern. 

Repeated Motif

In a repeated motif design, the field will be filled with multiple rows of the same motif and may be combined with the medallion design.

Examples of popular motifs used in oriental rugs are the boteh, herati, Mina Khani, and gul. 

Allover Pattern

This type of design has a field filled with a number of motifs that are not in a repeated or regimented form. There may be palmettes and flowers with a network of vines and tendrils (Shah Abbas). Or a vase, tree, garden and other patterns may alternate as well.

Panel

A panel design rug contains a compartmentalized design divided into squares, rectangular shapes, domes, diamond shapes, lattice or trellis patterns, etc. Within those shapes there can typically be found a variety of motifs such as flowers, trees, botehs, stars, palmettes, etc. 

Portrait or Pictorial

In this design, landscapes, historic monuments or events, religious scenes, scenes from daily life or folk-lore, and even copies of famous European paintings can be found. These types of designs began to appear by the end of the 18th century. 

Prayer

Prayer rugs most often have a prayer niche called a Mihrab (Mehrab) or arch at the top of the field. Stars and urns may also appear. The designs of the prayer rugs may be rectilinear or curvilinear depending upon where the rug was woven.

BORDERS

The borders of an oriental rug are the series of bands, which may number up to ten or more, that run along the perimeter of the rug surrounding the field.

They usually have repeated motifs such as flowers, rosettes, stars, geometric motifs, etc. You may occasionally find inscriptions in various languages depicting poems, prayers, dedications or possibly the signature of the weaver.

MISCELLANEOUS OTHER ORIENTAL RUG

CONSTRUCTION ELEMENTS

Spandrels

These are located in the 4 corners of a field and may be a solid color or may contain motifs.

Pendants

These are the small elements that can sometimes be found at either the top or the bottom of a medallion or both.

Guard Borders

These are usually narrow borders that can be found ‘guarding’ or ‘protecting’ the main border or borders.

SOME COMMON PERSIAN RUG SYMBOLS

Please continue reading here to view illustrations and meanings of common Persian rug symbols and common Turkish Rug Symbols, as well as how to determine the top and bottom of an oriental rug.

ORIGIN OF VACCINATION

THE REAL STORY

You may be surprised to learn that the story of the origin of vaccination that history has relayed to us really amounts to a massive white lie!

The history books tell us that Edward Jenner was a young doctor who, during the smallpox endemic, observed that milkmaids never got the disease and therefore escaped the inevitable face scarring. He theorized that milking cattle exposed the young ladies to cowpox, and it was the cowpox virus that was giving them protection from smallpox.

Jenner tested this hypothesis on a young boy by inoculating him using material from a cowpox pustule. The boy was proven immune from smallpox and voila! the procedure of vaccination was born!

This story can be found on many authoritative websites, even the CDC’s. The PBS NewsHour enhanced it further by reporting that a milkmaid in the English countryside, witnessing an outbreak of smallpox, told Jenner she would never have smallpox because she had contracted cowpox so she would never have a pockmarked face!

Here is the real story of the origin of vaccination:

VARIOLATION and SMALLPOX

The procedure of variolation, which predated Jenner and vaccination by centuries, was used around the world with the hope it would protect against the horrors of smallpox, a very old disease. 

Smallpox is highly infectious and can kill nearly one in three people who catch it. Survivors are often left with pitted scars on their skin, and some can also lose their sight. Traces of its scarring have been found on some thousand-year-old Egyptian mummies!

Our ancestors did not know that smallpox was an infection caused by the variola virus. The word, variola, comes from the Latin that in this context meant ‘mottled’ or a ‘pimple.’ 

Variolation was known as inoculation or ingrafting and could be found in many areas of the world, even as early as 1549 in China, and possibly for thousands of years in India. The real story behind the origin of variolation or inoculation (ingrafting) has most probably been permanently lost.

The procedure of variolation consisted of taking material from an active smallpox pustule and putting it into another person’s body. This could be by rubbing against a superficial cut made on the arm or ground up pustule material blown into the nose using a long pipe (although this technique could potentially multiply the virus and overwhelm the immune system).

The idea was a sensible one. A more localized infection most likely would not kill the recipient but could give lifelong immunity against smallpox. Variolation was much safer than getting the disease itself with its high mortality rate.

The variola virus spread around the world and variolation followed it. When it got to Great Britain, the procedure was popularized by Lady Montagu, the wife of a British ambassador who while living in Constantinople saw that since the country had adopted variolation, smallpox was a relatively harmless disease to the Turks. She had her young son inoculated in Turkey and had her daughter, who had been born in Turkey, inoculated when she returned to Britain. In Britain, she enlisted members of the aristocracy to spread the use of inoculation. Her story can be found here. 

ORIGIN OF VACCINATION-THE REAL STORY

The real story of the origin of vaccination begins in southwest England in an area known as the West Country. It was here that John Fewster, a country doctor, had been inoculating the people of the area against smallpox. He was using an improved version of variolation formulated by 2 other doctors in his practice, Daniel Sutton, and his father.

Fewster found that most people he inoculated would develop a pus-filled blister on their skin. But some people did not show any sign at all that they had been inoculated and Fewster’s curiosity was peaked. While variolating a farmer one day who did not react to the procedure, the farmer told him he had contracted a violent bout of cowpox. Fewster went back to the people who had no reaction to the variolation and found that all had previously had cowpox.

In Fewster’s time, medical conferences did not yet exist, and medical journals were rare. Instead, local doctors would meet and exchange information in informal settings. Fewster relayed his discovery at a meeting where Daniel Ludlow a doctor and his brother Edward, an apothecary, were present. Daniel had a 19-year-old apprentice at the time by the name of Edward Jenner.

Jenner eventually became a house surgeon in London and after many years he returned to the West Country and found that most of the physicians and farmers had spread the discovery that a lack of pustulation after inoculation could be due to a prior exposure to cowpox.

At the time of Jenner’s arrival, Fewster had lost interest in going further with his studies and was fine with the fact that inoculation was safer than getting cowpox. Unfortunately, cowpox did not always provide protection against smallpox. Enter Dr. Edward Jenner...

EDWARD JENNER'S REAL CONTRIBUTION

Please continue reading here for Jenner's actual contribution and for more of the real story of the origin of vaccination leading ultimately to the eradication of smallpox.

BE MY EYES-

MICRO-VOLUNTEERING

Be My Eyes is a free app (Android and Apple) that connects sighted people to those who are blind or have low vision with the use of video calling technology.

Anyone can sign up to be a volunteer to answer simple questions that require a pair of eyes. It is a fantastic way to help people wherever you are, whenever you have the time. You can be someone’s eyes for as little as two minutes. Welcome to micro-volunteering!

WHAT IS MICRO-VOLUNTEERING?

Micro-volunteering is a relatively new and rising trend in the non-profit community. (Non-profits can include research, charitable or non-governmental organizations.) It is the process of providing short-term, low-commitment opportunities with the goal of engaging more volunteer prospects.

Micro-volunteering, in general, describes a volunteer or team of volunteers completing small tasks that make up a larger project.

There are many benefits to this type of volunteering for the organizations and the members they assist as well as for the volunteers.

Benefits of Micro-Volunteering for the Non-Profit

• Can broaden the volunteer database.
• May result in the potential to convert micro-volunteers to traditional volunteers.
• Engages volunteers in a new way and can keep them motivated.
• Provides increased diversity among volunteers.

Benefits of Micro-Volunteering for the Volunteers

• Can provide more flexibility for volunteering.
• Volunteering can be for short outcome-focused assignments.
• Volunteers can learn more about an organization before fully committing.
• Volunteers can give of themselves for the greater good.

Be My Eyes is a form of virtual micro-volunteering where the tasks are usually distributed and completed online via an internet-connected device which includes smartphones. There is typically no application process, screening, or training period. 

HOW BE MY EYES CAME ABOUT

Hans Jorge Wiberg, a visually impaired Danish furniture craftsman, realized that blind and low vision people often need help with everyday tasks. He knew that video calling was already being used by the blind. They typically called friends and family by video for help with simple questions such as: What is in this can? What is the expiration date on this food? Is this a red or a black sweater? When a blind or low vision person can easily get answers to these simple questions, they can experience more independence.

The problem is that regular helpers are not always available. Also, too, there is the issue of wearing out one’s welcome. What Wiberg realized was that the world is full of people who could help at different times. Thus, in 2012, he launched his Be My Eyes startup to connect people with volunteers from across the globe. The Be My Eyes app was released for iOS on January 15th, 2015, and within 24 hours the app had more than 10,000 users. An Android version was released on October 5, 2017.

Today (August 2023), there are over 6.7 million volunteers worldwide to help with questions from over 500,00 blind and low vision people. The app is available in 150 countries and 180 languages. Currently, the number of volunteers outnumber the vision-impaired people who use the app!

MOST POPULAR USES FOR BE MY EYES

• Reading home appliances.
• Reading product labels.
• Matching outfits and identifying clothes.
• Help in the kitchen.
• Reading digital displays or computer screens.
• Navigating TV or game menus.
• Operating vending machines or kiosks.
• Sorting music collections or other libraries.
• Picking jewelry or crafts.

HOW THE BE MY EYES APP WORKS

Please continue reading here to find out how the app works and for more information on the organization.

AUGUST DISCOUNT SPECIAL...