Plastic or Nylon in Afghan Rugs

Plastic or Nylon in Afghan Rugs

Plastic or Nylon in Afghan Rugs
On Turkotek two separate threads brought up Afghan Rugs with plastic mixed in the wool. No one answered so I thought I may as well comment. My experience is that bits of plastic get mixed in with the wool and make their way into Afghan Rugs. I wrote about the rug to the left in an article that I wrote last century called Afghan War Rugs. My bother Jim who is now a photographer in Tokyo theorized that the fiber was from nylon rice bags. It sounds reasonable to me, tribal and village weavers use nylon bags to hold wool. The rug to the left is from low-end war rug dealer Andy Hale of Anahita Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.