Weaving has been a lively tradition all over Albania for centuries. Each region has its specific patterns and techniques, geometrical in the south, naive and colorful in the mountainous regions of the North. At the beginning of the 1990s during the democratic transition from the collectivist economy, all the state workshops closed and weaving became a domestic based activity.

In the isolated hamlets of Dukagjin, a mounainous region in the north of Albania possibly the cradle of Albania’s national culture, women have been weaving knotted pile rugs for centuries, bringing warmth and color to their households during the long and cold winters.
Our rugs are still woven one by one on the same looms. Two different piles techniques are used: a thick pile made with a twisted yarn, or a pile made with one or more non twisted yarn. The warp is in cotton, the weft is in wool from local Ruud breed sheep, harvested in the beautiful valleys around Mount Korab.
As the workshop produces the yarn and colours, any size and colour combination can be made.

Po! Paris is now mobilising this talent by working closely with a local organisation of women and bringing designers from Paris while patiently re-creating the yarn production from the best local wool. Today three different workshops weave our rugs, each one with its own specific know-how.
The collaboration led to the creation of a new community based workshop where ancestral traditions and very qualified craftsmanship contribute significantly to the revenue for many households, capacity building and training for the new generations.
We use a wide range of techniques, from flat woven to hand knotted, an original mix of both and embroidered on flat woven, as shown in the picture above. Three to four weavers working side by side weave our large rugs one by one by hand on a vertical loom.