40th anniversary of The Nomads Tent, 1983 to 2023
In 1983 Out Of The Nomads Tent was launched by Rufus Reade. A few years later he began exploring with groups the regions which supplied his shop, such as Turkey, Persia, and Central, South and South East Asia. From the very beginning this in depth approach to the business continued and was combined with exhibitions, talks and music. The first exhibition was in a Qashqai 'black tent' set up in the grounds of Edinburgh College of Art, with rugs and kilims spilling out over the grass around it. During 2023 we will put on two major exhibitions: Iconic Iran and India...
The making of The Kincardine Carpet
An article by Andrew Haughton reflects on the ambitious plan to make a classical Garden Carpet in the Safavid tradition, with a completely contemporary design. The weaving took 2 years longer than expected due to the pandemic, which is reflected in a surprise detail in the carpet.
Nomads News Spring 2022
Upcoming events, the story of the Kincardine Castle Garden Carpet and some musings on boujaads...
Boujaad Rugs
Find out which art movement inspired Moroccan weavers to create these painterly abstract Boujaad Rugs.
Al's Sights and Sounds of India.
Read Alastair's Indian travel blog from his time on the so called Hippy Trail of the 1970s whilst listening to his selection of 'sounds' from the same era. Some of Al's photographs are also on display in our August Tales of Travel and Trade exhibition.
Spring/Summer Newsletter 2021
Read about Rufus Reade's travels that led to him starting what became Out of The Nomads Tent and an article Remember Aleppo by Philip Mansel who will be launching our first event of 2021 on Thursday 6th May via Zoom.
Words about Words; ‘Kazak’.
Do Kazak rugs originate in Kazakhstan? Very few! Some words about the origin of a word...
The Italian Connection
Discover the story of Luigi Arditi’s Ottoman cantata, “Inno Turco”, which was sung before Sultan Abdülaziz at London’s Crystal Palace in 1867.
Winter/Spring Newsletter
Read our latest newsletter featuring a fascinating article by Rufus Reade and an essay on Gabbeh rugs of the Fars province by Andrew Haughton.
Persian Gabbeh Rugs
The word "gabbeh" translates from the Persian, meaning raw, natural, uncut. The tale told by gabbeh rugs is as simple as their appearance...
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand
My text here has only 2 illustrations but each shows powerfully the links created by The Silk Road..
