The Iran Solo Exhibition held at the Oman International Exhibition Centre, ending on Saturday. Carpets of different range, designs, material and sizes was the main attraction of the show as visitors crowded the stall of Azimzadeh Carpets to see high-end, hand-made Tabriz carpets.

One of their star attractions was a big wool and silk carpet with intricate floral designs costing 90,000 rials which took them five years to weave.

It’s all hand-woven using fabric with natural dyes and that is why it is so costly, said Ahad Azimzadeh of Azimzadeh Carpets, adding that there were carpets that cost more than 90,000 rials and their smallest piece measured 3.5 feet by 3.5 feet while the larger ones on display were being observed with interest by the visitors.

The threadwork and designs are done by craftsmen sporting magnifying glasses. It is a painstaking process. There was a good response in this expo as customers were willing to shell out any amount of money for carpets of excellent craftsmanship.

Ahad’s company has to its credit, one of the world’s costliest carpets. They have a carpet, which is worth 1.46 million rials made of silk with 180 knots, it took four craftsmen seven years to make the carpet, which was exhibited in London, said Ahad.

All throughout the expo, visitors crowded Ahad’s stall to click pictures of the ‘bling carpets’. The patterns were really cool. In fact, they are replicas of sixteenth century designs.

Stalls selling machine-made carpets of polyester and artificial silk also did brisk business as the items were affordably priced between one rial and 500 rials, said Mehrdad of Kabir Carpets: whose products are made of acrylic and synthetic silk and they sold very well during the expo. There was also a huge demand for their mini rugs, which were priced at 1 rial.