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Veedon Fleece - a short history
After spending some time working for the then world leading auction
house Sotheby's, company founder Adam Gilchrist left the oriental
carpet department and spent a decade trading in antique Persian
and other Oriental carpets.
He says, "I did not like "modern production" partly
as I found some of the labour issue abhorrent and partly because
I felt that it was just in the main, producing corrupted versions
of the original pure aesthetic."
During this period he became more interested in the synopsis of
developing something really wonderful now, both in quality and in
the way "his" products were made.
Looking closely at the carpets he was selling, Adam realised quite
clearly that someone had to start producing the heirlooms quality
"antiques of the future". However there were a lot of
negative aspects to the contemporary carpet industry and issues
that need to be addressed.
The correct belief was that by leading by example he may be able
to lift the quality of production within the market as a whole.
Top quality production, which also encompassed new standards of
welfare for his workforce as well; after all a happy workforce is
also a productive one.
He continues,
"Issues which needed to be addressed were manifold. Firstly
of course, the quality of wool, and that must involve hand carding
and spinning. The dyes must be colourfast, which do not fade out
to horrid degraded colours and do not run.
There must be enough hand tied knots per square inch to last generations
and to replicate intricate designs to their best, and the delivery
must be reliable and we must give realistic lead times.
Finally, no child labour should be employed and the responsibility
for the private education of the weavers' children would be taken
in hand and paid for by us."
He had a fortuitous encounter in Nepal in which he met a man who
ran a monastic carpet factory there, and this led to him establishing
the production line there.
"At that time I had no idea of just how wonderful the people
of Nepal were. My classical training had made me look to Iran or
India to set up looms and establish my atelier. "
However, the benefits of finding a compassionate and ever trustworthy
managing director, combined with a ready supply of fine hand carded
and spun Tibetan wool - the best in the world - meant that this
was the place to be.
The only problem then was quality. The industry in Nepal as a whole,
made carpets and mainly rugs generally using a knot count of only
60 knots (really 54) per square inch. This was not good enough for
Veedon Fleece.
"After a considerably trial period we developed 100 knots
per inch using only pure Tibetan wool.
Also from day one the child education programme was up in place,
paying the weavers' families' financial compensation for the fact
that their children would not weave carpets. The local industry
said we were mad - ...nobody either wanted or would understand the
difference!" he says.
However, the leading world wild life artist David Shepherd did,
and his first design was a contemporary Tiger rug with profits from
the project aiding the Tibetan refugees and the David Shepherd Conservation
Foundation for endangered Mammals.
There were problems - with a small portfolio of finished designs
Veedon Fleece exhibited in both London and New York, only to be
told by the market makers of the time that there was no market for
Tibetan/Nepalese rugs in either country!
These people by and large just could not recognise the quality.
What to do?
"Fortunately having been blessed with dyslexia, I knew from
a young age that I was probably right and that there would always
be people interested in the best quality, so I turned to those people
who know and who specify for the rich and famous."
Architects, artists and interior designers became interested, and
business started booming.
The next step was to build one of the largest looms in the World,
allowing Veedon Fleece to build carpets up to the gigantic size
of 80ft by 26ft (24m x 8m) and they currently have an even larger
loom under construction.
"Our next breakthrough was to start weaving carpets using pashmina
wool. We believe that we are the only company to be hand knotting
pashmina and have been the only company to do so since the early
18th Century. The development time to re-invent this highly costly
process was 1 year!
"Our latest discovery has been silk, not the silk usually used
in the industry but a very special type which we have developed
to look like the highly prized antique Heriz rugs of the past. Unsurprisingly
it can also look incredibly contemporary."
And the rest as they say is just more history. Enjoy.
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