Rugs Procese

Weaving a pile rug is one of the most time consuming tasks one can imagine. The time it takes depends on the quality and the size and the materials, but the process can take from months to years of work to finish.

To start, rugmakers use thick, strong wool, silk, or cotton threads that are wrapped together into cables of varying thickness. A number of these are strung between two frames, to create the starting based. Then, loose-piled knots of the material (let’s say wool, here) are tied around sequential sets of these bases to form the rug. Which dyed wools ones uses forms the basis of the pattern. As more and more rows get added, the knots eventually become the ‘pile’ of the rug, and are tickly packed down and secured to the rows.

Weaves vary in fineness, and also in the quality of the materials and the expertise of the rugmakers. The knot count per square inch can vary from just sixteen to more than five hundred. When the rug is finally complete, the ends left dangling are used to create fringes, which can be braided, tasseled, or woven together, a la “Carpet”, the magic carpet in Aladdin. And just like that, you have a new antique rug.

Most carpetmaking follows this basic format. Most rugmakers use looms, which also vary in size and strength and quality. The loom is necessary to string the rows across and create the right tension to be able to actually do the weaving and tying of the knots. Horizontal looms are simple, and can just be staked inot the ground. It’s more transportable and easily made, but horizontal looms tend not to be able to make huge rugs. Vertical looms, on the other hand, are much more comfortable to operate, but are huge and non-movable. These are more for city weavers and industrial production, and they do not limit the size of rug you can make.