Rug Origins: Ecuadorian Rugs

The Andes Mountains separate Ecuador into three sections: humid lowlands, temperate highlands, and tropical rainforests. Among the regions, half of the population lives in the coastal lowlands. Typical Industries accounting for Ecuador’s economy are oil, fishing, coffee, bananas, textiles, and metalwork.

Ecuador is not well known for its rug and carpet weaving industry; however, textiles have been present in the Andean Region from the Pre-Columbian era. It was not until the Spanish arrived around the fifteenth century that the region’s rug industry began to grow. With an increased interest in the trade, colonizers from Spain began production in the Andes and thus the beginning of the commercialization of art followed for the region.

Ecuadorians were well-known for their pottery, painting, sculpture, and silverwork. Political and economic reservations make the additional income from handicrafts and the arts crucial. As production of rugs and carpets by local people continued to grow the skills used and learned came to be a significant source for rug production in the province. Specifically, rugs began to take on the regions own folklore and motifs in their designs.

Ecuadorian rugs may be scarce in the market but their absence in quantity is made up for in their beauty and quality.