Edgar and Kelly Podzemny have always loved Persian carpets. Sixteen years ago, when they decided to transform their passion for beautiful rugs into a business, they took to the road, hosting rug shows throughout Texas. Some 13 years later, those trunk shows have been transformed into a 6,000-square foot gallery uniquely laid out into separate areas for contemporary, antique and traditional rugs. The Podzemnys are proud of their collection of antique, contemporary and traditional rugs from around the world, and even prouder of their alliance with RugMark. According to Edgar Podzemny, Stephanie Odegard, of RugMark licensed importer Odegard Inc., was instrumental in the company's decision to sign on. "She presented the humanitarian option, one that involved no child labor. To us that was clearly the right idea." More >

Service to the community is a must for Stacy Weiss of Weisshouse, a Pittsburgh home furnishing and interior design company, so joining RugMark was a perfect fit. “We have always given rugs to charities supporting a variety of causes and it felt important to support the rug weavers too,” says Weiss. Her clients seem to be pleased as well. Weiss thinks the affiliation with RugMark is a selling point. “People are thrilled to know they’re buying something that is not made at the expense of children.  I am a firm believer that people just don’t want rugs in their homes made by kids, and that’s what RugMark fights for,” she says. More >

Emmett Eiland and his brother Murray founded the Oriental Rug Company in 1969 in Berkeley, California. From the beginning, the Eilands made buying and research trips to Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus. Through newsletters, books, exhibitions, seminars, films and public talks, the Eilands helped create the fertile Oriental rug scene in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Their intimate knowledge of the industry helps them ensure that child labor is not used in the production of the rugs they sell, and Eiland is especially proud of his work with RugMark. More >

Stephen Miller Gallery in Menlo Park, California has been offering its clients some of the most beautiful rugs for the past fifteen years. Stephen personally selects his carpets, drawing from the looms of the world’s most creative weavers. In addition to many traditional, antique and vegetable-dyed carpets, the gallery features an extensive Tibetan rug collection, including RugMark certified brands Lapchi and Odegard, Inc. According to Stephen, the RugMark certified carpets’ child-labor-free assurance appeals to his socially conscious clients. More >

“When I travel to find a rug,” says Christiane Millinger, partner in Madison Millinger Rugs showroom, “I look for the ones that really talk, the absolutely fabulous ones that go deeper than any one style.” Carrying brands that treat weavers equitably, do not use child labor and pay fair wages are also important criteria that Millinger looks for when selecting rugs. The RugMark label is one tool that helps her convey this to clients. More >

Someone once said that "buying a rug is like buying a camel, and just about as often." When choosing fine floor coverings for the home or office environment, it's important to work with someone you trust at the point of sale and beyond.  A premier San Francisco designer showroom since 1979, Floordesign is committed to doing everything possible to end child labor in the rug industry, and partnering with RugMark is a positive step toward achieving that goal. More >

Portland, Ore.-based Kush Hand-Knotted Carpets, the creation of Rebecca and Brian Robins, offers an array of RugMark certified rugs, and appreciates the opportunity to educate and promote fair labor practices. Rebecca feels that "RugMark gives our gallery a voice when we purchase rugs. Much like our clients we are voting with our dollars to encourage producers to uphold the RugMark standard." More >

Drew Carlson may be the new owner of the Rug Source, a nearly three-decades-old showroom in Denver, Colo., but he is in no way new to the industry or to the field of interior design. His mother’s work as an interior designer fascinated him, and he says he remembers watching her and being “amazed at how she almost magically put colors together.” More >

Steven King, Inc. is New England’s leading showroom for new and antique carpets with a focus on exclusive offerings of intrinsic beauty. King is known throughout the rug community for his fine eye and extensive knowledge. Collectors, connoisseurs and a range of noted designers seek his opinion. King views hand-woven rugs as works of art and by partnering with RugMark he is able to support the weaving communities where the rugs are made. More >

Driscoll Robbins Fine Oriental Carpets opened its doors in Seattle in 1997. Having grown up with parents in the antique carpet business, Driscoll Robbins has strived to create his own vision. By focusing on the most creative producers in the business, Driscoll's mission has always been to elevate the art of weaving. Emphasizing the weaver as artist is partly what drew Driscoll to RugMark. Many consumers have no idea how much time and work goes into creating a hand woven carpet, and are disconnected to the people involved in the process. By ensuring that certified rugs are made by skilled adult artisans, RugMark reminds us not to take the weaver for granted. More >

More than 25 years ago, a mother and two daughters with a flair for design and a penchant for rearranging furniture started an antiques and decorating business in a tiny shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Today, daughters Beth Hughes Sachse and Sallie Hughes continue at SR Hughes, the thriving interiors business they helped found and named after their mother, the late Sara Rogers Hughes. In 2000, their nephew and Sara’s grandson, Brian Hughes, became the third-generation partner at SR Hughes. Other Hughes family members also work and help out at “the shop.”  SR Hughes’ membership in RugMark guarantees the responsible, child-labor-free manufacture of the rugs in their showroom, which is a selling point with today’s socially conscious consumers.  More >

The story of Ghiordes Knot reads like a “rags to riches” tale. In 1921, escaping Turkish persecution of Armenians, Haroutun Hagopian fled to the U.S. Though trained as a pharmacist, Hagopian worked as a dishwasher, factory worker and perfume maker until, using his training in chemistry, he created compounds to clean carpets. Over the years carpet cleaning became carpet retailing and today Detroit-based Ghiordes Knot (GK) is owned by his grandchildren Edmond, Suzanne, and Angela.

GK has a large collection of rugs from around the world and a family ethic shaped by the founder’s early experiences of hardship. The family stories of those experiences made the Ghiordes’ choice to join RugMark a natural one. “We want to know that the people making the rugs we buy and sell are paid properly, taken care of and that there are no children involved,” Edmond explains. More >

When Michael Pourvakil, the Iranian-born founder of Weavers Art, got his first "real job" at 26, it was a fluke that it was in the rug business. He was a "people person," and figured he would be a good salesman, but had no idea he would fall in love with rugs. Pourvakil is fascinated with the industry and with the weavers who have the most difficult task in the creation of carpets. “They spend their lives tying millions of knots day after day, and they and their families need to be taken care of, “ he says with conviction. From the beginning Michael Pourvakil has tried to do his part to help the workshops where the rugs are made, but joining RugMark, he says, is “a very direct way to give back.” More >

When Dallas-based Interior Resources opened 33 years ago, it was solely a commercial contract flooring company. Eight years later, owners Jack and Merikay Green restructured their business into a designer "To The Trade" flooring supplier. With their daughter Paige Sowden managing the showroom, the family business has further progressed to represent high-end, exclusive carpets and rugs. Along with a passion for supporting the design trade with quality products is a commitment to the people who make them and a desire to support the industry. “Joining RugMark”, explains Paige, “helps us feel like we’re doing more than just business. We are contributing to important changes in South Asia, like child-free labor.” More >