In Palm Springs for the Restoration Industry Association convention.

If anyone ever follows my Facebook pages, you would know that I am currently in balmy Palm Springs California for the Restoration Industry Association convention. This is amazing on a number of levels: 1. It was totally FREEZING in Seattle when I departed on Monday in the midst of an early spring snowstorm that I was afraid would close the airport. 2. It's about the only place to hang with my peers in rug cleaning and restoration in the United States and
3. Today I had the great pleasure of lunching and visiting with Dr. Khosrow Sobhe in Los Angeles
(well, closer to Beverly Hills if you must know) and meeting his lovely wife and son.

Check out Ashkan's web design pages.

For those of you who may not know Dr. Sobhe, he is the President of Sobco International Trading with offices in Tehran and Los Angeles, He has multiple college degrees, is on the board of the Southern California branch of the Textile MUseum and more! On top of it all, he is just a genuinely nice person. With rugs.

Last year I had the singular pleasure of visiting Iran for the Kish International Handknotted Rug Exhibition, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Sobhe and others. It was a truely moving event for me
and I appreciate everyone's efforts on my behalf. Thank you too, Barry O'Connell for introducing us! Another genuinely nice person.

Thea

Hot rug news, but not much about rug cleaning in Seattle today

I don't know about anyone else but this seems like a perfect opportunity for that long awaited trip to London! Shah 'Abbas opens next month at the British Museum in London and includes the Cyrus seal - the first declaration of human rights. Very cool and perhaps the beginning of better relations with our Iranian friends.

Dr Khosrow Sobhe of Rug Idea in Los Angeles has successfully passed the first part of the Restoration Industry Association's Certified Rug Specialist course! The test is comprised of a written and visual identification component, then a separate written paper with something rug related as the topic. It's quite comprehensive.

I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Sobhe speak last July in Atlanta GA at the Oriental Rug Retailers Association meeting about Gashgaii weaving and he is a great addition to our association.

Hope to see him in March in Palm Springs CA at the RIA convention. After all of cruddy cold weather (snowing again by the way) some sun and warmth will be quite welcome.

Possible "Rug Morning" on the horizon and other ramblings

I found my good friend Dusty Roberts post to my blog and thought I'd post the link to the web album of the trip to Kish to share. It was so awesome and really the trip of a lifetime. My deepest and most sincere thanks to Dr. Khosrow Sobhe for facilitating this for me.

Dr Sobhe, in addition to his many other talents, has a rug showroom and cleaning facility in Los Angeles, CA. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Sobhe in person and hearing him speak this July
at The Oriental Rug Retailers Association meeting in Atlanta GA. His personal blog pages are a great inspiration to me.


Possible "Rug Morning": On the East Coast is the wonderful Textile Museum in Washington DC.
One of their most fun activities is the "Rug Morning" where anyone can bring an interesting textile or rug pertaining to the theme of the day and the TM staff will tell them about what they have. Doesn't that sound fun? Barry O'Connell has been in Seattle for work and has kindly offered to help me put on a few "Rug Mornings" starting December 6th! I will post more details as they come up.

Yesterday at Emmanuel's we were fairly busy with rugs coming in. I hope that this is a positive economic indicator and not just the result of all our rain.