When Bill Indich put his Hawaiian University philosophy degree to the test teaching in Baltimore, he could not have guessed that this move would set the stage for what later became the largest carpet business in the Pacific. Today, what began as a somewhat casual effort to help Tibetan refugees is a flourishing and sophisticated global operation that uses the Internet for daily communication with traditional rug factories in Nepal, India, China and Pakistan.

“I had a small cottage on an estate,” he recalls. “As I trailed around the Maryland countryside with the landlord, I began to learn about old rugs. Later, on a research grant in India with my wife, refugees in a Tibetan camp who ran a carpet factory enlisted our help in selling their rugs.”

Back in Baltimore, Indich met with little success on the rug-saturated East coast, and on good advice headed back to Hawaii in 1979, starting up a relatively successful business selling traditional rugs.

But as he tracked the carpet trends, he noticed a shift in the 1990s. What had traditionally been a conservative trade, run mostly by generations of Persians and Armenians, was now attracting young people with business and art backgrounds. As the culture grew more informal, carpet patterns became larger, less detailed, and more relaxed, recalls Indich.

“I was inspired by this shift and thought about how I might adapt the traditional rug-making art to fit a Hawaiian sense of place,” he says. “The challenge was to make something that was not only authentically Hawaiian but also had meaning for me.”

In 1995 he launched his second (Hawaiian) line. Shortly thereafter, a name change from “tropical design rugs” to “Hawaiian rugs” set this line on a trajectory that has yet to slow down. It now comprises more than half of his stock of 30,000 rugs.

“Hawaiians are a warm and generous people, and I wanted to convey the spirit of Aloha in the rugs,“ says Indich. Drawing on Hawaiian lore and tradition he uses motifs such as the maile leaf, a sweet smelling vine, whose spiritual associations go back to ancient times. Different valleys produced leaves that were sought after for their unique scents and the vines were used for special ceremonies such as house blessings and weddings, or to honor wisdom in the culture. He uses the maile vine woven with the ilima lei flowers to represent a strengthening of bonds between people, a binding together.

“It brings a touch of Aloha into the house and has been very popular,” says Indich. Another popular design, the “lauae” (Monstera leaf) comes from a much-revered plant in Hawai’i known for its medicinal properties. It has a spiritual association because of its purity and upright stature and is used extensively in landscape and floral design. When crushed it adopts the scent of the maile leaf.

The newest design, the Tapa, recalls the bark of this tree, which was pounded flat by the natives who applied vegetable dyes to communicate lineage and ritual. “We’ve taken this ancient symbol of communication and woven it into a wool and silk rug with a range of colors that are radiant,” says Barbara de Franco, manager of the Kona store.
As rugs developed into designer products, Indich began creating custom products. “People bring furniture fabrics into the store,” he says -- creating an inventory of limitless possibilities. “Sometimes the weavers even have to build a special loom to satisfy a customer’s unique order,” adds de Franco.

The Internet enables Indich and de Franco to maintain daily contact with their factories in Nepal, India, China and Pakistan, where the same hand-woven techniques have been passed down for generations, producing some of the finest hand-woven rugs in the world. The rugs are mostly hand-knotted and certain techniques such as tufting ensure an accurate design reproduction. They are all made of high quality wool, silk or a combination with hemp. The wool, which contains a lot of oil, is more stain resistant, easier to clean and lustrous, while the hemp is very durable and resistant to mildew, an asset for homes near the ocean.

“Rug-making is a growing, moving art combining old techniques of rug weaving with contemporary design,” notes Indich. “Keeping up with the design trends is a challenge. People look to us for the trendy, new designs in rugs, and we have to stay on top of the fashion movement on the mainland.”

As fashion has trickled down into the art of rug making, colors have become more diverse and less predictable, he said. “The range of what we need to supply has broadened, too,” he adds. In the last few years, olive greens and golds have been replaced by chocolate and parfait colors such as turquoise, orange, bright yellow.

The third and newest line in the Indich Collection, and one that may particularly resonate with Indich’s east-west philosophy background, is Asian contemporary design, a fusion of east-west aesthetics. “Hawaiian aesthetics are very much influenced by Chinese and Japanese sensitivities to art,” says Indich. Bamboo is one motif used to highlight the Asian simplicity and elegance of design.

De Franco sums up the beauty and uniqueness of this collection: “It feels like I’m working in an art gallery,” she says. “I marvel at the craftsmen, the subtleties created by the dye, the texture and the quality of the materials. We have the most beautiful and diverse collection in the West. Weaving is an ancient form of recording the cultural histories and landscapes, and not only have we brought this ancient industry into the Hawaiian Islands, but we’ve gone the next step, recording the beauty of Hawaii in the rugs. Its art under foot.”

The Collection includes rugs for all budgets ranging from a $38 dhurrie to the $38,000 100% silk Persian Kashan fit for a palace. The Kona store offers customers the opportunity to try out a rug in their home before purchase. The company ships worldwide, and at no extra cost to the Mainland.

Stores are located at Gentry Design Center, 560 Nimitz Hwy, Honolulu; Ward Ave, Honolulu; Maui Mall, Kahului, Maui; and The Old Industrial Park, Luhia St., Kailua-Kona, Big Island.