Seven Rug Companies Join RugMark To Fight Child Labor

Furniture World Magazine

Seven North American rug companies recently joined RugMark to help put an end to exploitive child labor in the handmade rug industry. NIBA Rug Collections and The Rug Studio, along with Apeiron, Custom Cool, Dai Living, Layne Goldsmith, and Sara Schneidman, are now licensees of RugMark, an independent inspection and monitoring program that confirms rugs are manufactured without the use of child labor and provides educational opportunities for children in India and Nepal. New RugMark licensee NIBA Rug Collections produces hand-knotted, hand-tufted rugs from Nepal, India and Thailand, offered in eight showrooms around the country in addition to the NIBA showroom in Miami's hip Design District. NIBA rugs, a favorite of celebs like Matt Damon and Lianne Rimes, can be seen in luxury hotels such as the Singapore Ritz and Trump Taj. But for NIBA owner Beth Arrowood it isn't just where the rugs end up that is important, but where they begin. “I love helping to keep the tradition of rug making alive, keeping people employed and doing something good in another part of the world,” she says. “There is just no way we would work with a factory that is not inspected by RugMark.” The Rug Studio, a high-end brand of prominent Canadian manufacturer The Lanart Rug Company, sells machine-made and handmade, customizable wool, sisal, seagrass, and synthetic area rugs. Co-owner Linda Alexanian, whose parents own Lanart, got into the family rug business determined to improve industry working conditions. “I traveled around making surprise visits to the weavers, and when I discovered child labor, I simply cut out those suppliers. I was my own RugMark.” Becoming a RugMark licensee was thus a natural decision for Alexanian and her husband and partner Derek Galbraith, who launched The Rug Studio two years ago. Other companies recently joining RugMark: · Philadelphia-based Aperion Design llc, offering unique hand made area rugs of Tibetan/New Zealand wool blend and Chinese silk. “I design something, but the weavers translate it. Their craft is as important as what I am doing. I am reaching across the world in partnership,” says owner Charles Livingston. “And RugMark is the very best way to effect change in the industry.” · Custom Cool, based in Oyster Bay, NY, specializes in custom woven and tufted rugs made in India and Nepal. Founder Eliza Gatfield, an architect who has also studied fine arts and textiles, says, “Woven into any RugMark certified rug is human dignity. A client can see that.” · Irvington, Va.-based Dai Living offers luxurious hand-knotted Tibetan pashmina wool rugs handmade in Nepal using only vegetable dyes. “Restoring childhood to the children of the world is possible and we all can help purchasing certified rugs,” says owner Brad Grinnen. · For nearly a decade, Culpepper, Va.-based artist Sara Schneidman – who is perhaps best known for her successful line of greeting cards -- licensed her designs to other RugMark members. Recently she decided to start making her own Tibetan rugs in Nepal, and immediately joined RugMark herself. “We have always been concerned about the working conditions of the weavers,” said Schneidman. ·Textile artist and University of Washington professor Layne Goldsmith not only designs her own rugs, which are hand-knotted in certified factories in Nepal, but teaches her students how to do the same. "I’ve always favored situations that provide equally to all concerned, and organizations like RugMark that are trying to do that are worth supporting," Goldsmith says. RugMark’s new industry partners brings the number of licensees to 62, whose RugMark certified rugs currently account for more than 3% of the handmade rugs sold in the U.S. According to RugMark’s U.S. executive director, Nina Smith, each new company brings RugMark ever closer to its goal of certifying 15% of all handmade rugs, the estimated tipping point to end child labor in the industry. “Our success hinges on the rug industry committing to responsible production practices and consumers using their purchasing power to demand child-labor-free products,” said Smith. “We applaud our new partners for being a part of that change.” About RugMark: RugMark is an international nonprofit organization working to end exploitative child labor in the carpet industry and give educational opportunities to children in South Asia. The RugMark label offers the best assurance that no illegal child labor was used in the manufacture of a carpet or rug. Profiles of the above companies, as well as a complete list of importers and retailers that sell RugMark certified rugs, is available at www.RugMark.org.