Jan Kath’s Erased Heritage collection pays homage to the traditional oriental carpet, taking inspiration from historic patterns, techniques and standards of quality. The range is brought to life knot-by-knot by master weavers and comprises hand produced Egyptian Mamluks, Iranian Bidjars and Turkinsh Konyas, all incorporating original colours through a specially developed antique finishing technique.

Kath explains: “Just like every Bavarian village has its own traditional dress, every community, region, and cultural group in the East has developed a particular style of carpet. It’s fascinating how, over the centuries, different areas have developed such different signature features and styles. With the Erased Heritage collection, we are helping to make sure that these ideas survive into the modern age.”

Where most carpet weavers around the world read the pattern from a drawing, directions for pieces in the Erased Heritage collection are spoken aloud. The loom master, head of the carpet weavers, sits with a drawing of the knotting instructions opposite the workers. From this position, he reads out commands then translates this information into a chant for weavers to follow.

“This unorthodox process is used by small family businesses,” concludes Kath. “It’s extremely labor intensive, and not at all straightforward to apply these old production methods to my designs. But the effort is definitely worthwhile. The results are carpets with a revolutionary look that combine old and new in a way that has never been done before.”

www.jan-kath.de