Rural Carpet Weaver's Access to Silk Carpet Designs: A Case Study in the Zanjan Township

Carpet design and decoration are the fundamental elements for producing carpet and they are important factors determining material and artistic values of a carpet. The access and use of innovative and demand driven designs are the crucial issues that carpet weavers face with, affecting their production, productivity and income. The purpose of this paper is to explore the supply sources and methods of access to silk carpet designs by rural weavers. The data were collected using a case study methodology through focus groups, semi-structured interviews, participatory mapping, document analysis and observation. The study was conducted with 90 rural silk carpet weaving households in 23 villages of the Zanjan Township and market actors in the cities of Zanjan, Qom and Kashan. Rural weavers produced carpet and received designs through two production approaches: a) self-employed production and b) contractual employed production for external entrepreneurs or dealers. In the self-employed approach, rural weavers got accessed to designs through two mediating chains including local and urban dealers. Access to designs in this approach was mostly indirect, in that rural weavers demanded and received designs from local dealers who in turn received the designs through the silk carpet market in the Zanjan City. In the contractual employed approach, rural weavers accessed their required designs through three mediating chains, comprising local dealers, urban dealers and urban entrepreneurs. The most frequent contact of rural weavers was related to their direct visit to their entrepreneurs or employers who were not carpet designers. In both production approaches, the provincial rural carpet :union: acted as a dealer rather than a community based organization supporting rural weavers, so it did not reflect the weavers’ interest.