Blog
Washing
(Posted on 02/10/13)After the rug has been clipped, it is washed to remove any dirt that may have been collected during the weaving process and to give the pile its particular 'finish'. Some-times the rug is simply washed in water and then left out in the...
Fineness of the Knotting
(Posted on 28/09/13)This refers to the number of knots that have been tide per sq inch of pile. The higher the number of knots, the finer the weave. There are no hard and fast rules determining the exact knot-count required to justify a rug being referred to...
Knotted, or pile rugs
(Posted on 24/09/13)In oriental rugs the pile is created by tying a short length of yarn around two adjacent warp strands so that the ends of the yarn protrude upwards to form the surface (or pile) of the rug. This process is referred to as 'knotting', because...
Flat-weaves, or kelims
(Posted on 12/09/13)Flat-woven rugs are generally referred to as kelims (or gelims), which is a Turkish word meaning prayer rug. They are made by tightly interweaving the warp and weft strands to create a flat, pileless surface. The design is produced by threading...
Dyeing and Colours
(Posted on 07/09/13)The dyer is an extremely important, and often somewhat mysterious figure in rug-making. In nomadic and village cultures, the master dyer - almost invariably male - often acts as the tribal wise man, whose advice is sought on a whole range of subjects...
Materials
(Posted on 03/09/13)Oriental rugs always use natural fibers, and any rug containing synthetic material will invariably have been machine made. The only exception to this rule is the occasional use of very small quantities of gold or metallic thread in some workshop and...
How Oriental rugs are made
(Posted on 27/08/13)All oriental rugs are made in one of two ways: they are either hand-woven (kelims) or hand-knotted (pile rugs). individual weaving groups may adopt slightly varying methods of construction, particularly in the type of knot used to form the pile, and...
Famous Carpets and Carpet Collections
(Posted on 02/08/13)Apart from the Pazyryk carpet (in the Hermitage, Leningrad), probably the most important, and certainly the best known specimen in existence is the Ardebil carpet which is now housing in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. This masterpiece...
A brief history
(Posted on 31/07/13)It is impossible to say with any degree of certainty exactly when, where or by whom the first pile rugs were made. The materials of rug-making are considerably more perishable than those of other types of artefact and consequently very few examples...
Master-workshop Rugs
(Posted on 29/07/13)The most prestigious and expensive of all contemporary examples of oriental textile art. The term is often loosely applied to any workshop rug of outstanding calibre, but more specifically refers to items produced in a handful of exceptional...