Stories
Statement of Concept - Rugs and Textiles are the Art of the Feminine
Throughout history, western art appreciation has consistently relegated rug artistry to within the boundaries of craft - ie. the domestic realm, the feminine, of lesser value. In the canon of European art, the 20th century rates as the period of discovery of colour as pure non-representational form. So late compared with rugs! "Oh you painters who ask for a technique of colour - study carpets and there you will find all knowledge." Paul Gaugin. As in Australian indigenous art, nomadic and peasant rugs premise on the spiritual - utilising "storytelling" symbols of totemic and magic significance. Our mission is to share and educate the community regarding these unique works of feminine sacred art. Before this age of mass production and child slavery there existed a feminine apotropaic and shamanistic weaving culture. That great culture, generically called "the Nomadic Horsemen of Central Asia" exists no more, and with it's demise go thousands of years of fascinating feminine spiritual knowledge. We do have some clues - the connections with various Turkic and American Indian cultures, for instance - but what speaks to us directly is the rugs themselves, as written and built histories generally have a "western male imperialist academic" filter. We in the 21st century see the ends of this culture, with pockets having survived in some form in parts of Iran and Afghanistan. We cry out for more, having just arrived at the end of an era. Rug art connects with an archaic epoch when the Gods were female at a time when our own cultural tide washes those shores. Look at our domestic housing. In the past European houses existed of a hallway with separate rooms of a specific function. This was the accepted western style - to separate and name. Look at modern open plan living with multi-functional spaces and rooms opening directly from the main area. This is akin to traditional nomadic and peasant dwellings such as the yurt, where the kitchen is the heart, where the feminine world is the centre, not devalued but elevated.
Learn more
A Traditional Rug is a Survivor
A Traditional rug is a spectacular artwork, which can survive in so many situations.
Learn more
I didn't want this bus trip.
February, when great drifts of snow showcase the brutal beauty of the treeless Kurdish hills. I’m leaving Sanandaj the capital to travel south towards the head of the Persian Gulf. Sanandaj is, in rug parlance, Senneh. Senneh rugs have a distinctive weave that can be easily identified. In English the look of the back or underside is “salt and pepper”, the little dots of fine white cotton (the salt) among the little dark dots of the pile knots. I easily take a seat at the front of this long-distance bus and settle down for the night. Within a few minutes I’m stripping down to tee-shirt. I’ve taken a seat right in front of the one blower that keeps the whole bus warm in these cold conditions. Extreme discomfort. No wonder the locals didn’t rush it. Being almost next to the driver and co-driver was a typical full frontal Kurd experience. After dawn the panoramic views of the low plains ahead combined with the imminent success of a journey, where nothing is taken for granted produces a series of spontaneous operatic airs by the driver. His wild tenor must have got him the job. People started to wake and join in in the obviously better-known verses. We arrived in noisy style in a dusty truck stop village. I get out and look around. The feeling is Mexican mid-day. A mangy dog carries it’s one limp leg and a crow squarks overhead. I take refuge in the almost deserted bus station. Well certainly deserted of travellers but with three local employees. Two oily workers and a shuffling severe down syndrome young man. This did not feel like Iran where personal grooming is an art form. But Iran it was, a face I’d never seen. The two men proceeded to play a game. Over and over they would speak sweetly to the boy, hold his arm and burn a cigarette into his skin. The boy would chase them as they dodged laughing. After finally settling down they would repeat the torture. The boy had many burns. I chose to turn my back and retreat to the street. Spying a stand-up 30cm brassier kabob seller, I buy one, just for something to do. The man takes the sword of burnt meat, grabs it with a flat bread and hands it to me. No smile, no friendly bon mots, am I really in Iran, home of poets? I pay and take a bite. The meat is goat heart and raw within. Blood gushes down my chin and across my last washed shirt. Yes this place is hell. This story has a happy ending. I get the next bus to Behbehan and stay comfortably with my referred contacts. Behbehan is a winter centre of the Boyer Ahmadi and Mammasani Luri nomadic weaving groups, but that's another story.
Learn more
Octagram - The Eight Pointed Star
THE OCTAGRAM is so ancient it is pre religion, a time when Goddesses ruled societies that understood shapes and numbers can reveal the intrinsic beauty and complexity of the universe. With agriculture and settlement, the original monotheistic Persian Zoroastrians and later male God faiths required a simpler star as an emblem, a flag even, marching to war. THE OCTAGRAM suggests an infinite grid, multiple realities, shades of grey, a more peaceful feminine view. Possibly the original meaning and certainly in recent verifiable history THE OCTAGRAM is believed by many to convey magic thoughts from one person to another. Call it shared feelings. Compassion. The Gentle Star. THE OCTAGRAM is apolitical, does not define race creed or country. We welcome you to this Gentle Star, as it appears here in these lovely traditional weavings. VIEW RUGS WITH STARS
Learn more
Mab's Pecan Christmas Cake
* PECAN CHRISTMAS CAKE 250g Raisins 250g Apricots quartered 155g Sultanas 90g glace Cherries quartered 250g Chopped Glace fruit 1Tbsp Angostura Bitters 1/2 C. Dark Rum 6 Eggs 1 1/4 C. Caster Sugar ½ C. Flour 1tsp Baking pwd 90g Shredded Coconut 500g Pecan halves Combine all fruits, add Bitters & Rum stand overnight. Next Day :- Whisk together Eggs & Sugar. Sift Flour & Baking pwd & fold into the Egg mixture. Stir in Coconut, combined Fruits & Pecan nuts. Fill Mixture in a baking dish lined with baking paper approximately 34x24cms. Bake in a slow oven 150’C for approximately 1.5hours or until cake is firm to touch & cooked when tested with a skewer. *
Learn more
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
HISTORY REPEATS October 2001. For a year we had been refurbishing the heritage listed old building, working towards The Rug Shop when NINE ELEVEN happened.Not a propitious time to open a shop specialising in rugs from the US President’s “WAR ON TERROR” and his “AXIS OF EVIL”.However, we are merchants international traders in a centuries old profession.We don’t do politics.The opening was standing room only! This prayer was read at the Grand Opening:May you entertain this notion:That because the earth is beautiful, it has been a mother to these craftswomen whose high precision skills formed this sacred art, these gifts of peace and joy, and that it will, given time, sweeten the sourest mind and produce a boundless compassion, shared by all.And may you bring these gifts of peace and understanding to those around you, knowing life is full of joy, and thereby helping those who are hateful, jealous and warlike, focus instead on the boundless wonders of the appreciation of beauty in an everyday reality.For only by contemplating beauty are we saved from that hurtful misery so ready in the philistine's empty heart.Vote one for beauty, and sharing, because the policies are joy, and compassion.AmenMilton Cater
Learn more
Original Rose
The Bazaar Vakil is the one of the most elegant. Small in size, and hundreds of years old, the cupola archways every two odd metres with floors at chest height. As one casually perambulates along (everything is Shiraz is casual no rush) one can enquire more or less face to face with the retailer who is sitting on the floor. This colonnaded cupolaed walkway of a couple of hundred metres opens out into a larger market area. Here there is everything pastoral. Horse trappings, ropes, wool shears etc. This is where the goods are offloaded for the bazaar. It’s a working place and has a great café. An octogen on three levels with a fountain in the middle, where one can order a simple glass of black tea or have a complete party of 8 meal of many courses. Between this café/restaurant/chaykhana/teahouse and the bazaar proper is a flagstone area for sitting and doing deals and catching up. There are a number of well kept rose bushes. They are the original rose, a single petal rose of great perfume. This is the source of all the roses in the world and locals and visitors alike treat their presence with great respect. The rose travelled to Europe and with much breeding became the rose we know today. When this rose returned to Persia they called it Guli Feranghi, the Foreign Rose and sometimes Goli Frank The French Rose as France was and still is a sister of Persia.
Learn more
HERALD August 24 Feature
The Human ElementGeorgia Fox2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Cater family’s Rug Shop-the last 23 years of whichhave been spent enriching the main street of Bangalow. Georgia Fox spoke with proprietorsAnne & Milton to learn more.In 1974, with a handshake between strangers in the bazaar of the ancient Persian trading hub ofHerat, Afghanistan, Bangalow’s Rug Shop was born. Maybe it’s because he joined the “last gasp”of the ancient continuum of merchants along the Silk Road, predating the formalities of lawyersand contracts, or simply because Milton Cater is a fortunate man, but fifty years, a secondgeneration and a series of pivotal handshake agreements later, this traditional, good-faithapproach to business continues to stand the entire operation in good stead.It was Milton’s second time in Herat. He had purchased a Persian rug when passing through acouple of years earlier on his return to Australia via the hippie overland route - despite, accordingto Milton, not being a hippie and travelling with a suitcase. Coveted by friends and family back inhis hometown on the Gold Coast, the rug was snapped up by his uncle, and the possibilityemerged of turning his love of “all things Persian” into a career.With a small loan from said uncle, Milton returned to Herat where he found a dealer namedMohammed Amin who shared his preference for the more interesting rugs of desert tribes overso-called master weavers. After a satisfactory I Ching reading from Mohammed Amin’s holy manand with nothing more than a list, a total, a small down payment and a pledge from Milton toreturn with the outstanding amount “in a year or three,” the peculiar age-old human ritual ofextending and clasping weaponless hands was performed, formalising the agreement andheralding the beginning of an era.Setting up shop in Brisbane’s Paddington, it was only 18 months before Milton was back in Heratfor a third time, looking for Mohammed Amin to pay off his debt and secure more stock. ButMohammed Amin was no longer in the bazaar and his enquiries were met with “hushedundertones”. Milton finally found him working in the run-down old shoe market, stripped of hisformer life after being caught smuggling goods through the desert and avoiding tax collectors atthe borders - how, it turns out, he was able to develop relationships with remote rug-producingtribes. His camel train and wealth seized, Mohammed Amin apologised that he was no longer ableto be of assistance and introduced Milton to Qasim, who went on to become a dear friend andsupplier for many years.The communist coup in the late 1970s had already made things difficult for the merchant classesof Afghanistan, but as the country became increasingly war-torn, Qasim and his familydisappeared. He later surfaced in Agra, India, destitute, appealing to his Australian friend for help.Milton sent the family thousands of dollars from the profits he had made selling both MohammedAmin and Qasim’s rugs and heard nothing, until one day, about three years later when he receiveda call from his customs agent. A shipment had arrived from Qasim from his new home ofMashhad, Iran - a centre of carpet trade - containing inventory to the value of the funds Miltonhad sent. A full-circle moment of trust and faith, first set in motion by Mohammed Amin back in1974.Milton’s ties to our region stretch back to childhood, growing up visiting the family weekender atSuffolk, to which his parents moved permanently in 1972, and after closing the Paddington storein the early eighties, he moved to Bangalow and turned his attention to wholesaling. Anne hadrelocated from Sydney around the same time, and being eager to travel to India, was more thanimpressed with the nine trips Milton already had under his belt. The two married and had threesons - Nick, Alex and Max.In 1999, an opportunity arose that suited the Cater’s perfectly - the owners of the old grocerystore that formerly occupied The Rug Shop, Lisa & Peter, were waiting on the redevelopment ofthe garage across the road (present-day Foodworks), and the landlord, Cath Pugsley, neededtenants who could work with an undefined move-in date. With just another handshake, the dealwas sealed. So firmly in fact, that despite the rapid gentrification of Bangalow during the twoyears it took for the new supermarket to be ready, and the multiple offers of more money Cathreceived for the space, she honoured the agreement, and Anne & Milton opened in November2001 - tricky timing for merchants dealing in Islamic wares a matter of weeks after 9/11.They found a way around their usual twice yearly purchasing trips to the Middle East during thepandemic by shifting negotiations to WhatsApp, and even with the borders reopened, theconvenience has stuck. Trading remotely with sanctioned countries is not for the faint-heartedthough, both financially and logistically, and seems is only possible thanks to the meaningfulrelationships forged with their network on the ground over so many years.The boys gravitated towards the business, which is undergoing a gradual generational transition.As Anne & Milton ease their foot off the pedal and spend more time with their ever-growingnumber of grandchildren, Nick & Alex continue stepping to the front, with Max in the shop part-time when he’s not working as a local arborist. But it is not just their children carrying on themantle - Anne & Milton often find themselves dealing with a second generation of suppliers, aswell as a second generation of clients.The longstanding excellent relationship with their landlord also underwent a recent transition withthe purchase of the shop, cementing their presence on our main street. With their comprehensiveonline store offering free shipping Australia-wide though, their reach extends far beyond our littletown, with a huge client base in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.To be a trader of integrity amongst a world of mass-produced imitations and dubiously eternalclosing down sales puts The Rug Shop in an elite category alongside just a handful of othersacross the country. They are the only recognised valuers north of Sydney, offer a full service ofrepairs and cleaning, and deal in both antique pieces, as well as traditionally producedcontemporary rugs, directly supporting families of sheep farmers and weavers.Paying forward the good faith extended to them back in Herat half a century ago, the Caterswelcome customers taking rugs home to try in situ before purchasing, and in all their years ofentrusting strangers with such precious works of art, have, with only one exception, had their faithin the essential good of humans sustained.On the subject of whether rugs are art or not, Milton is passionate. “We have this hierarchy -there’s fine art and there’s domestic art, and it’s so wrong. Everything here,” he says gesturing atthe walls of exquisite colour and patterns that take months, and sometimes years to produce, “inthe Western canon, is not considered art. We consider it art.”
Learn more
Latest Shiraz Kelims
Our collection of Shiraz Kelims all come from various Qashgai weavers in the surrounding Zagros Mountains of Shiraz, Persia. Handmade in the 20th Century. Hand-spun wool. They are used as flooring or as decorative wall hangings in their nomad tents. The colourful traditional Qashgai live an elemental style of life. They migrate each year between their winter and summer pastures. The essence of this natural way of life very clearly shows in the artistry and durability of their distinctively woven kelims. Due to their vintage and tribal setting, the hand-spun home-dyed wools have many imperfections and un-even patterns. This is why we love them. Made for the home not for the market. View our Collection View our Collection
Learn more
NATIVE ART - A DEALER’S CHOICE – WORLDS COLLIDE
How is this for a coincidence? Australian Native First Nations art, and especially Queenie Mckenzie paintings really appealed. Then an art gallery friend called to discuss the issue of having these paintings translated to the medium of woollen rugs. Blow me down, this gallerista represented Queenie Mckenzie along with other Indigenous artists and had a Merch deal already prepared and signed. We in The Rug Shop had dabbled in producing rugs in non-traditional designs. My favourites were the Sonya Delaunay paintings, and her large-scale part-circles were not dissimilar from the full shapes of Queenie Mckenzie. The offer looked interesting and at first, I was keen. I had the raw materials and the weavers at the ready. What’s not to like? OK we planned a business meeting to work out the finance details. But as I slept on it, I became increasingly uneasy. For instance, I am from the generation that knows the humour behind the meme “Pro Hart Wastepaper Basket.” There was also the “Ken Done Merch.” In Surfers Paradise one could buy a dizzying range of clothing and homewares printed with these painters art. The thought occurred to me that if one were to make a copy why do it by hand? If it is only a copy and not a handmade work of art why not just make it by machine anyway? Certainly, the unequal power of the dollar can be exercised in the second or third world. And here’s the rub. Western, Global North, rich developed societies have morphed from slavery and colonialism into a new exchange rate difference that is repeat: Colonialism 2.0. Decision time: STAY WITH TRADITION. Consider the Meme “If branded, its suspect”. It works fine for baked beans or autos but with traditions such as the handmade rug there is no copyright, no patent. If it is branded its suspect. There is a precedent: Jim Thompson “saved” the Thai Silk industry which was at a low ebb after WWII. 1950’s and 60’s Hollywood stars wore Thai Silk; men’s ties were mass produced and this was applauded as a great success story. Following Jim’s mysterious disappearance in 1967, a large factory was set up and money was made. By the time this fashion in the West ended nobody could remember the original cultural reasons for the weaving, and the quality took a race to the bottom as unscrupulous fakery took hold.
Learn more
Our take on Shah Jahan's Pashmina Carpet
Here is a link to see a video of the 17th Century Pashmina Carpet made for the 5th Emperor of the Mughal Empire, Shah Jahan. Here is a creative take from our Afghan friends, using all locally sources materials. It's not too much of a stretch to say the people of Afghanistan who made this are the same ethnicity and even among the family descendants of the weavers of the original. Premium vegetable dyes. Sheep wool. Brand New. View our Afghan Mughal Carpet Here
Learn more