Wall-to-wall in lambskin

Press, 17 September 1980, Page 25

Wall-to-wall in lambskin

After taking the Japanese market by storm, a New Zealand-made sheepskin product is now being released on the home market. Very large lambskin rugs — or area rugs as they have become known overseas — are now being made large enough to cover the floor of a room approximately 4m by 3m. The rugs literally grew to meet a demand. The manufacturers, G. L. Bowron and Company, Ltd, in Christchurch, found people asking for single skin rugs, then doubles, fours, eights — and so on to the area rugs, which are made of 24 to 38 skins. “Trips to Japan showed there was a real market for sheepskin rugs large enough to carpet the family rooms — the room in

which families sit on the floor around a low table,” says Nigel Bowron, the company marketing director.

“When more and more tourists were inquiring after rugs larger than we made, we realised there was a demand there to meet.”

It was not all as easy as that. When production of the rugs started last May, the company dis-, covered the machine used to sew the smaller rugs could not handle the large ones. A specially designed machine then had to be made to sew the larger rugs and, more importantly hold the weight of the rug as it is being sewn together. The weight of the rugs also poses problems with

distribution. A 38-skin rug, retailing at approximately $2700 in a Japanese store, weighs about 40kg, so is very expensive to transport. The skins used in the rugs are of a very high standard, and are especially chosen for their long silky wool, which looks and wears better than the shorter wools. The rugs are processed through 26 separate operations before they reach the final quality control inspection. The raw skins are trimmed, machined, and washed before beginning the tanning operation which preserves and stabilises the skin to keep the fibres soft and pliable. Finally, the lambskin is dyed and dried, machine and hand combed, sprayed, and finally polished.