Rug fibers range from wool and silk to plant and synthetic materials, each shaping texture, durability, and visual character.
A procedure that changes or tones down colors and antiques rugs by using any combination of techniques including but not limited to the sun, tea or chemicals or simply laying them on the floor of the bazaar for people and animals to walk on. Antique finishing techniques are highly guarded by weavers as trade secrets.
Binding is a method of wrapping the lengthwise edges of a rug in a variety of methods to prevent them from unraveling.
Blocking is a process by which a carpet is stretched in width or length to remove wrinkles or to adjust its shape.
The border is a frame that surrounds the main field of a rug. There are two types of borders, the main border and the guard border. The main border is usually a wide single frame while the guard border is a set of two to three smaller frames, each of which may or may not contain designs.
Carding is a process by which raw fibers are prepared for spinning. The process involves drawing the raw fibers across small metal teeth in order to break up clumps, remove contaminates and align the fibers. This process can either be performed mechanically or by hand. During the carding process, different fibers can be introduced in order to achieve a desired fiber characteristic or color.
A map or design on graph paper that shows the location and color of each knot. Cartoons are not universally used in rug weaving and depending on where the rug was made a cartoon may or may not have been used.
These modern synthetic dyes are often used in Oriental rugs woven after the late nineteenth century. During the very early stages of chemical dye development, chemical dyes were prone to fading and running and only a limited array of colors were available. Chemical dyes produced after 1960 are available in a near infinite palette of colors that are very precise, consistent, sunfast and colorfast. Carpets produced with chemical dyes will hardly ever develop abrash and will stay vibrant for many years. However, the color permanency and the vibrancy of chemical dyes can be seen as a drawback, as the colors in chemically dyed rugs will not mellow or tone down overtime to acquire the often desired patina of antique rugs.
A technique in which rugs are washed with chemicals such as lime, chlorine, caustic soda or wood ash in order to soften or change the colors of the rug and to increase the sheen of the wool pile. A chemical wash can have some undesirable effects, such as reducing the durability of the rug or creating an irreversible removal of color.
Chrome dyes are a class of synthetic mordant dyes that are used primarily in the dying of wool. Chrome dyes use a chromium compound as the mordant. They are simpler to prepare, cheaper to use and easier to match than natural dyes. They are also colorfast, resistant to sun fading and offered in a wide range of color hues. Chrome dyes help preserve the natural lanolin in wool fibers so that the durability of the wool is not reduced. The only drawback to using chrome dyes is that a rug dyed with them will not develop the often desired patina of an antique rug as it ages.
The rug field is the main body of the rug. It is the canvas where designs and patterns are presented. The field is often framed by a border and may contain an infinite array of designs, patterns, and colors. The rug field may be a completely solid color or it may contain medallions. The field may contain curvilinear floral or stylistic geometric patterns or it may feature an all-over repeated design.
The fringe on hand-knotted rugs is created by knotting the extended warps into a decorative edging that serves to stop the rug from unraveling. In machine-made and hand-tufted rugs, a readymade trim (fake fringe) is sewn onto the ends of the rug in order to mimic the look of hand-knotted rugs.
The combination of warps and wefts in piled or flat-woven rugs.
Hand-hooked rugs are crafted by punching or latching loops of fabric, wool strips or rug yarns through a mesh using a crochet-type hook. With the mesh stretched across a frame a craftsman executes a design by following a pattern drawn on the surface of the mesh. The edges of the rug are finished using a whip stitch and occasionally liquid latex is applied to the back of the mesh to lock the strips in place.
Starting with the ancient Pazyryk Carpet found buried in a frozen Siberian burial mound some 2500 years ago, the method of creating a hand-knotted rug has changed little over time. The true art of a hand-knotted rug is in the way it’s constructed, as it is by far the most difficult method used in the creation of handmade rugs. Without the aid of glues or machinery, a hand-knotted rug is painstakingly created by a weaver following a design, knotting tufts of yarn to warp threads and cutting them one at a time by hand. Once a row of knots is completed one or more wefts are interwoven between every other warp. They are then beaten down using a metal or wooden comb to lock them in place and after the knotting is complete, the warp ends (fringes) are then tied off to prevent the rug from unraveling. A hand-knotted rug may have anywhere between 25 to over 1000 knots per square inch and as a skilled weaver is generally able to tie around 300 knots per hour, a group of weavers, each of whom working on three foot sections at a time, may take up to a year or more to complete a single rug depending on its size, the number of knots per square inch and the intricacy of the rug’s design. All things being equal, the more knots per square inch a carpet has the more valuable it is. (Also See Horizontal Loom)
Handle’ is a term used in trade to describe the flexibility, weight or the density of a rug. Depending on what materials are used and the way in which it’s constructed, the rugs handle might be described in terms such as stiff, heavy, coarse, flexible, light or soft.
Hand-loomed refers to any of the many rugs and textiles that are produced on looms operated by hand without the use of any mechanical power. This should not be confused with ‘hand-knotted’ carpets.
All hand-knotted, hand-loomed, hand-tufted, hand-hooked, needlepoint, kilim and Aubusson type rugs are considered to be handmade.
Preparing wool by hand and spinning wool into threads without the aid of machinery is still practiced today in many parts of the world. The first step involves shearing sheep. Often these sheep are locally raised and the shearing is done using simple hand shears. Most sheep have different shades of fleece, so the next step involves sorting the sheared wool into piles of different colors. The sorted wool is then washed by hand in a nearby river or a tub and let to dry in the sun. Once dry, the wool is then carded by hand. This is done to remove any remaining contaminates and to also align the wool fibers for spinning. The last step involves finally spinning the wool into long threads using a simple spindle or spinning wheel. Rugs woven with hand-spun wool threads are generally more costly than rugs made with machine spun wool due to of the labor involved.
Hand-spun yarn is naturally inconsistent in diameter and when dyed, tightly spun sections will absorb less dye and loosely spun sections will absorb more. This creates variability in the thread colors. When woven into a rug or carpet the variegation in the colors of the threads provide softer designs, outlines and aesthetics—vital attributes of antique rugs.
Although some may prefer the perfection in appearance that a carpet constructed with machine-spun wool offers, there is a growing demand for rugs made in the same fashion as those produced centuries ago. The only way to achieve the look and feel of an antique rug today is by applying the same methods, employing the same materials and utilizing the same dyes used in the construction of authentic antique rugs.
Following a pattern stenciled on a canvas backing consisting of small squares, a craftsman inserts different color yarns into each square using a handheld gun or single-needle tufting tool. After the tufting is completed, latex adhesive glue followed by a cotton sheet is applied to the back of the canvas to keep the yarns secure. This cotton sheet conceals the rug design on the back. In some cases a readymade fringe is attached to the ends of the rug for decoration.
Hand-woven refers to the many different types of fabrics, carpets, rugs and textiles that are woven using any number of techniques and devices operated by hand.
A knot is formed when carpet weaving material such as wool, cotton or silk yarn is looped to form a binding, permanent anchor around the warp threads. When the two ends of the knot are cut, this makes the pile of the rug. There are different types of knots used in the construction of carpets and rugs, some of which include Persian, Turkish, Spanish and Tibetan knots.
All things being equal, rugs with more KPSI have a tighter weave density and are considered to be higher quality. A hand-knotted rug’s KPSI is just one of the many factors that determine its quality and worth. KPSI is calculated by multiplying the knots in the width and length of one square inch of the carpet.
The most durable and time-consuming weaving method in which tufts of wool, cotton or silk are knotted individually, one row at a time around one or more warps and cut to form the pile.
Lazy lines are noticeable diagonal lines found on both sides of Navajo rugs, on some kilim weavings and on the backs of large Oriental rugs. On large Oriental rugs it is customary that a team of weavers work together to create one rug. Often, with each weaver working on a single section of three to four feet at a time, weavers will work at different paces. In this case, wefts are not passed completely through an entire set of warps. The weaver passes the wefts through the sets of warp that he is working on only. Subsequently, when the weaver that was behind catches up with the other weavers, he puts the weft through his section only. Where these separate sections intersect on successive rows of weft threads, they create 'lazy lines'. On Navajo rugs, even though there is only one weaver working on the rug, the weaver works on different sections at a time. Between these sections, lazy lines are created in the same fashion, had there been a team of weavers working on the weaving.
A wood or metal structure that pile and or flat-woven rugs are weaved on. (Also See Axminster and Horizontal Loom)
The main border is dominant band that surrounds a traditional Oriental rug on all sides. It frames the field and can either contain a multitude of designs or a solid field of color. (Also see Border, Guard Border)
A medallion can be a large design that can be found in the center of Oriental rugs. Typically, medallions are diamond, circular, hexagonal or octagonal in shape. Medallions can also be small in size and repeated throughout a carpet’s field.
The palmette is an ornamental design that is shaped like the palm of a hand, hence the name. The design has been used in Persian rugs since the sixteenth century and was probably derived from Egyptian or Chinese lotus flowers.
The selvage of a rug usually involves two or more sets of warps that are secured to the body of a rug with the wefts woven through them to prevent the edges from becoming unraveled.
Warps are the threads in weavings that run perpendicular to the wefts and run lengthwise. In hand-knotted rugs, knots are tied to the warps and then cut to form a pile. The fringe of hand-knotted rugs is created by knotting the warps that extend from the ends of the rug. This is not only decorative but practical in securing the edges to prevent them from unraveling. In flat-woven rugs the wefts are often manipulated using a variety of different methods when crossing the warps to create a design to give the weave a specific characteristic.
Wefts are the threads weavers pass alternately between warps. In hand-knotted rugs, weft threads are used to secure knots. In Soumac rugs, Navajo rugs and kilims, wefts are used to render designs by changing the weft thread’s color.
A diverse range of weaving traditions reveals how geography, culture, and technique shape the character and identity of handwoven rugs.
Rug fibers range from wool and silk to plant and synthetic materials, each shaping texture, durability, and visual character.
Common assumptions overlook the complexity of handwoven rugs. Technique, condition, and context better define their significance and worth.
