One of the best decisions we ever made was paying our weavers more than the industry standard.

It costs us more on every single project.
And I would make the same decision again without hesitation.

Here is why.
The rugs we make are not easy to weave. They have intricate designs, complex colours, high knot counts that very few craftsmen in this industry can produce correctly.

You cannot make what we make without the best weavers.
And you cannot keep the best weavers if the economics do not work for them.
I have watched weavers leave this craft my whole life.

When the profession stops paying well enough, they move on. Their children choose something else. The knowledge that took a lifetime to build disappears quietly with them.

My family has been working with the same weavers for generations.
These are not people we hire for a project.

So beyond wages we try to keep them working through everything – slow periods, market disruptions, difficult years.
We help with bank accounts. Children’s education. Medical needs when they arise.
Nothing formal about it. Just the way we have always worked.

I say it because I genuinely believe if you want this craft to survive another generation, you have to make it worth choosing.

Understorey