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FATHER AND SON CREATE NEXT-GENERATION RUGS: WOOL AND SILK'S DIGITAL MAMLUKS AT RUG SHOW IN L.A.
In the new Snow Leopard rug, Wool and Silk transforms a traditional Mamluk in pure silk into a modern digitalized statement. The design is abstract from up close, the leopard appearing only when the carpet is viewed from a distance.
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LOS ANGELES -- Anka Tezcan went to work for his dad (award-winning Wool and Silk founder and rug designer Erbil Tezcan) on summer break, and transformed the 15th century Mamluk silk carpet tradition into a 21st century digitized menagerie of abstract snow leopards, dragons and more.
"My son started this concept: He worked with me in the summer time and asked me to teach him Photoshop before he went back to college. I taught him to use the program, and the result is the Snow Leopard and Dragon rugs you see here plus four more designs," Erbil Tezcan told RugNews.com at the recent Domotex 2016 in Hannover, Germany.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Anka, 22, is now doing graduate work in engineering according to his proud dad. "He came up with this ingenious concept to take traditional designs and make them into a modern digital experience. The design is actually hidden -- you have to step back for the leopard to come into view," Tezcan explains.
A series of digital rugs created by father and son Erbil and Anka Tezcan include a show-stopping Snow Leopard and Dragon on view at Wool and Silk stand at The Rug Show in L.A. at the L.A. Convention Center, April 3-5.
Pointing to the second rug, he says, "This this one is also a digitally-designed Mamluk in 100 percent silk. It is an abstract dragon, and he is breathing fire everywhere. This rug is creating a lot of excitement because it is the opposite of what everyone else has done with dragons."
Handmade in India, the new designs have used modern digital design techniques to refresh a weaving art created during the Mamluk Dynasty which ruled Egypt and Syria from the 13th through the 16th century.
Erbil Tezcan, founder and award-winning designer for Wool and Silk, stands in front of a Mamluk dragon rug digitally designed by his son Anka, which is an abstract digital design and "the opposite of what everyone else has done with dragons."
