Today was Tuesday and the second day of our Certified Rug Specialist class. After having breakfast, I met with other participants in the lobby of our hotel and then we all took the shuttle to the Oriental Rug Cleaning Company where our class is held.
It was a very interesting day and we had tons of discussions about Heriz, Bidjar, Sarouk, Mahal, Farahan, Kashan, Kerman and many other types of rugs. As always, the instructors, Ellen Amirkhan and Aaron Groseclose were wonderful. They complement each other pretty well and make the learning process enjoyable.
Today was an important day in the American and I better say in the world history. It was the inauguration of the 44th U.S. president, so we took a short break from the class to go down stairs to watch the oath of the office of President Obama on TV. After that, we all returned to our class and continued the work.
Ellen formed 4 groups and gave each group a rug to identify with all the technical details. Each group had a secretary who was responsible to write down and report the findings. Ours was a beautiful antique Tabriz rug. Rick (from Nevada) and Jim (from Atlanta) were in my group. We discussed and reached an agreement on why our designated piece was a Tabriz rug. It was fun and a good practice. Then all the groups submitted their findings to the class and we discussed the matters inm ore details.
We have been bombarded with rug stuff (and I love that) since yesterday when the class started. There is lady among the participants who is the president of a big rug cleaning company based in Albama. They have been in rug cleaning for almost 20 years. We have students from all over the country. This course has been in existence since 12 years ago with roughly 60 certified specialistswho have graduated. This course is conducted every two years and those who participate in the 3-day prerequisite course and participate in the advanced level course and pass the written exam as well as the rug ID exam and complete a project, a dissertation type of work can be certified by the Restoration Association Industry (RIA) organization. RIA is a professional association comprising more than 1,300 member organizations, representing over 20,000 cleaning and restoration professionals.
Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085
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