About
Afghan Interiors started life in a chance meeting on a plane over Uzbekistan, when Michael began talking to a Pathan tribesman from the Tribal Areas of Pakistan. An agreement was made to meet again and talk about exporting carpets to Australia from Peshawar, then the de facto carpet centre of Central Asia. This meeting led to a consignment of nomadic hand-woven kelims arriving on our doorstep in Sydney, which we subsequently sold to our friends and wholesaled to various shops around Sydney. It paid for Michael to return to Pakistan and Afghanistan to buy more.
As Michael ventured further afield and became more immersed in the culture of Central Asia, he discovered the work of more and more craftsmen and women – embroidery from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, hand-blown glass from Herat in Southern Afghanistan, carved furniture and artefacts from the Swat Valley in Northern Pakistan, and the textiles of the Sindh desert.
Over the past 15 years, our product range has grown, although the nomadic rugs and kelims of Afghanistan lie at the centre of our business.
At first the rugs and kelims we bought were mainly older pieces stored by families as a form of wealth, but slowly the carpet industry in Afghanistan has revived and we now also stock new production pieces, some using traditional natural dyes.
All our rugs and kelims are handmade and may contain inconsistencies or faults (some deliberate), all of which add to the depth and uniqueness of the rugs. We are sure you will have noticed how “flat” machine-made carpets seem, where as handmade articles have extra texture and depth.
We believe that trade is the best aid. Your custom at Afghan Interiors helps to support many craftspeople and their families across the region. The owners of Afghan Interiors have helped to establish Frontier Development and Support (FDS), a charity based in the North West of Pakistan. In addition to setting up schemes to provide water to communities in the area, FDS is working to revive local skills in textile and carpet making. For more information, visit www.frontiersupport.org.
