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Berber Rug

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Berber Rug

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Length Size

Length Size

0﹣180 cm
180﹣220 cm
220﹣320 cm+

Width Size

Width Size

0﹣100 cm
100﹣130 cm
130﹣200 cm+

Colors

Colors

Blue
Brown
Green
Grey／Black
Multicolore
Purple
Red／Pink
White／Beige
Yellow／Orange

Type

Type

Kilim
Margoum

Use

Use

Bedside rug
Hall runner
Living room rug
Medium rug Bedroom／Living room
Small decoration

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Traditional woven rugs in natural materials

Chwaya rugs come from Tunisia and Morocco. They are all hand-woven from natural materials. Most of them are made of wool. Some also include cotton or aloe vera. They are handmade in the traditional way, which makes each rug authentic; a unique piece in terms of shape, colour and size. It takes an average of one month to make a rug. They are made by women who have learned the trade from generation to generation. For these craftswomen, each rug is an object of art, a newborn child whose value is inestimable. With a desire to continue this thousand-year-old heritage, Chwaya rugs have purely traditional designs that bear witness to their Berber origins. Chwaya remunerates this great work at its fair value in a fair spirit. By avoiding intermediaries, the prices are particularly competitive considering the work done and the quality of the products.

The Kilim rug

Our kilims are rugs woven from sheep's wool by craftswomen from rural villages in southern Tunisia. They recall the Berber history of Tunisia and differ from the Turkish or Persian kilim by their patterns, their thickness and their manufacturing technique. The patterns are always geometric and mainly derived from the Berber heritage. They are woven very tightly, which allows the weaver to play with the colours. Each village has its own style and each kilim is a unique piece from the imagination of the craftswoman. If you want a colourful, light and easy to care for rug, the kilim is the right rug for you.

The Margoum rug

The margoums have the unique characteristic of being made only in Tunisia in the cities of El Jem, Oudhref and Kairouan. They recall the grandeur of the city of Kairouan with its prestigious past. It is thus a city rug which has certain manufacturing standards which give it its cachet. Our margoums all benefit from the "First choice" stamp issued by the Tunisian Handicraft Office. However, each margoum is unique! They are woven and embroidered in sheep's wool and composed of patterns that include mainly diamonds. Berber motifs also decorate the borders. Woven and embroidered with two threads, margoums are thicker and stiffer than their kilim cousins.

The Beni Ouarain rug

The basic colours of the Beni Ouarain rug are ecru white and black. These are rural products from the mountainous regions of the Moroccan Middle Atlas, produced by women's arts and crafts. Although its pure diamond lattice patterns appear quite modern, they date back to the Neolithic period and have survived to the present day because of the isolation of the villages where they are made. This is why this rug has the particularity of seeming both ancient and modern and currently decorates the living rooms of many Western homes. Its thick, silky wool pile makes it a soft, cosy rug much appreciated by Europeans.

The Azilal rug

Like the Beni Ouarain rug, the Azilal rug has a thick, silky wool pile that makes it a very soft and cosy rug. Its bright and colourful Berber motifs stand out against the white background for a very trendy style. The Azilal rug is mainly made in the province of Azilal in Morocco in the Middle Atlas, and it is in this very isolated region that the most original forms are found. This type of rug never ceases to fascinate us by the astonishing spontaneity of its enigmatic motifs, rich in symbolism.

Berber rugs: a popular rural art

In North Africa, the regions where the Berbers have survived have been little affected by the foreign influence of oriental or Asian rugs. The making of rugs has remained a popular rural art that women learn from an early age and practise at home. They make their rugs in their spare time. They are used as mattresses or blankets, and are displayed for decoration during festive days. The rugs may also be sold at the souk, but they remain the pride of the women and a very precious possession that they find difficult to part with.

The Berber rug is never made on a model that is scrupulously imitated with symmetry, as is the case for Persian rugs where several female workers sit side by side facing the loom. Berber rugs are the fruit of the woman's imagination, which leaves room for fantasy. They are woven or knotted by one or two women, mother and daughter or neighbours, sitting on the floor facing the vertical loom. The finished part of the rug is rolled up on the bottom beam. The craftswoman will not see the result until the rug is finished. The making of the rug is therefore based on the woman's memory and imagination, and she must retain the shapes for an interior design. She is thus free to give way to her creativity in order to bring her fantasy and her emotions into play. This is how the Berber rug is characterised by a great artistic richness resulting from diversity and spontaneity.

For a long time, the Berber rug was not taken seriously and was ignored. The criteria for evaluation came from the oriental rug, which followed well-defined rules and precise models. Nevertheless, the Berber rug began to attract attention around 1900 in the field of art with the emergence of Cubism, Abstract Art and Pointillism. The simple, abstract forms of Berber rugs were the object of particular attention from artists such as Paul Klee or Le Corbusier and are today highly appreciated by Europeans for a contemporary yet grounded decoration.

The decoration of the Berber rug is almost exclusively rectilinear. It shows simple geometric shapes (rhombus, triangle, chevron, zigzag, square, star, X, cross, etc.). There are almost no floral motifs, and the rug is rarely symmetrical.

Berber carpets from Tunisia and Morocco

Tunisian and Moroccan handmade carpets of Berber, kilim and margoum type.

Each rug is unique and combines beauty, simplicity and naturalness.

- Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together -

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69003 Lyon - France

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