Jute
March 19th, 2007 by James Homet
My daughter is a teenager and we have a lot of fun together. We share a lot of interests, but one area I am not allowed input is fashion.
She’s allowed to comment on mine at will, and has shown a certain fondness for doing so. In fact, she’s hone it down to such a skill that what once took two to three disparaging remarks has now been concentrated into an arched eyebrow accompanied with a slight frown. In this regard, she has become a true artist.
Imagine my surprise the other day when she asked me to look at a purse she found on the web. The bag was the Prada Jute bag with snakeskin trim being sold at Saks Fifth Avenue for $1,890…I know now why she doesn’t ask for my advice.
Jute traditionally has been a working fiber used in ropes, bags, and carpet backing material. In recent years, though, appreciation for the jute fiber has grown, and designers have taken notice.
My daughter fell in love with the jute handbag on the same day that we received a letter from a customer in Northern California that she absolutely loved the new jute rug she had just received. I thought it might be time, therefore, to look into how we market these weaves.
I searched on Google for the term “jute rugs”. Today we are in position #75. No one who is looking for this type of rug is finding us in the search engines. Instead it seems that people who come to our site looking for another type of rug, stumble across the jute and fall in love.
So let me tell you a little about our Jute rugs. Jute has warm, honey tones that blend well with just about any interior style. We carry four weaves in jute which are woven in India. Our jute rugs are big, chunky weaves which, to me, are visually very interesting. I like big, bold weaves, and I think they make a design statement which you don’t get with a knockoff oriental. They are definitely eye-catching.
One of the areas where we excel is in our border collections, and jute definitely looks its best with an elegant frame. The customer that wrote in today had hers bound in our pigskin suede collection. The picture above is our boardwalk braid weave in a soft cotton twill border. There are over 120 borders available in seven collections of cotton, wool, linen, suede and leather bindings- enough to fit most styles.
Give us a call if you want to know more about this fiber, or its suitability for a particular location in your home.