The Carpet Project: Alexandra Copeland

Hand-knotted Woollen Carpets

designed by Alexandra Copeland

Twenty years ago, when the Taliban first took over Afghanistan, I was asked by Afghan friends to design carpets to be woven by weavers displaced by the fighting. The project has been disrupted repeatedly but I am now able to employ 18 weavers who are living in the north of Afghanistan.

When I first visited Afghanistan in 1972, the country had a King, who had reigned peacefully for 40 years. My husband Leigh and I were able to travel freely, visiting old market towns and villages as well as the Valley of Bamiyan, home of the giant Buddha, later destroyed by the Taliban.

My carpet designs incorporate motifs that will be meaningful for the weavers – pomegranates, lilies, poppies, grapevine leaves.

For the weavers, the project gives them not only an income, but social contact in a society that has become closed to women.

The carpets are knotted in pure wool on wooden looms, using the methods traditional to Afghanistan. The prices of the carpets have been kept as low as possible so that we can provide continuous employment for the weavers.