An incredible amount of time, skill and dedication goes into making a handmade rug from many highly skilled artisans. With this in mind, we decided to create this page.
In the following pictures and videos we aim to offer a basic overview of some of the many processes that go into creating these exquisite traditionally made rugs.
Of course, not all of the processes are shown below, but hopefully the following will serve as an insight for the amount of work involved in creating a handmade rug.
Starts with an idea.
Like all projects that will potentially take months to complete, it all starts with a plan!
This video shows different elements of a carpet merchant’s traditional designs. Look closely and you will see these feature field patterns, medallion details as well as various border themes. The options are endless!
From a commercial point of view, the decisions made at this point are crucial as there will be significant investment ahead.
This picture shows raw, unprepared wool.
The rug making process starts with the wool of the fat tail Karakul sheep.
This wool has historically been used in the making of Afghan rugs.
It has dual fleece properties of a long outer layer along with a softer inner layer.
When combined, it is perfect for carpet making.
Most of the Afghan wool is from Ghazni province, which is one of the coldest places in Afghanistan, so the sheep there grow a great quality fleece.
Hand sorting wool.
The raw wool is meticulously sorted, separating the lighter from the darker shades.
Hand-spinning wool
Not all wool used in making Oriental rugs is hand-spun as there is an economic advantage in using machine-spun wool.
Hand spinning is a labour intensive task, however hand-spun wool is far more suitable for making a handmade rug. Firstly, it can be spun much tighter than machine spun wool. It also produces more natural variance in texture as an effect on the final rug.
Our video here shows spinning with a drop spindle – this is the most common method of hand-spinning.
This short film shows the gathering of spun wool ready for dyeing.
Dyeing wool.
This is one of the most important parts of the rug making journey – after all the majority of rugs are purchased by colour preference!
Dyeing is an expert skill. In recent years there has been a revival of natural dyeing.
Dyed wool drying …
As you can see this image shows purple wool drying in the sun.
This purple shade is made by combining red and blue. Firstly the wool is dyed with indigo and then with madder.
Rug weaving in Afghanistan …
The first part of this video shows these talented Afghan carpet weavers knotting. The length of the rug increases with each row of knots finished.
Look closely and you will see the weavers are following a plan. The other thing that you might notice is that the pile height is rather long … and we will come back to this later in the page …
Weaving takes around two thirds of the total time of the rug production process. Typically, a weaver can tie between 8,000 to 10,000 knots a day. Of course, this amount is lower when making a finer & more complex rug!
So, for example: take a 6ftx4ft rug at a medium fineness of, say, 100 knots per square inch will take approximately 43 days to weave.
The second part of this video shows weft insertion.
After each row of knots are tied, (weft) threads are inserted across the width of the rug. These wefts are beaten down against the knots with a comb with long metal teeth (this also helps to maintain the spacing of the warps). Once this is done, we are ready for the next row of knots!
This video shows Afghan carpet weavers knotting on a vertical loom.
We can see that they are making a Suzani design carpet … you can browse our Suzani rugs from this link!
Looms have not changed much for hundreds of years. Rugs can be woven on either vertical or horizontal looms.
Traditionally horizontal looms are used in more rural/tribal settings, whilst vertical looms are used in more urban environments.
At this stage the rug weaving has been completed, but the rug is still not ready for sale! Thus, we arrive at the finishing processes (which are extensive)!
We noticed earlier in our first rug weaving video that the pile height of the rug was rather long and thus the pattern was visually blurred.
In this video we see next stage is the uniform shearing of the pile. This will sharpen the clarity of the pattern and provide an even pile height for the entire rug.
There are a few more steps (not videoed or photoed here) which include: “dusting” where the wool dust is removed and “burning” where the back of the rug is singed to remove any excess fluff …
These stages are followed by extensive washing processes (view this video). The rug will be washed with shampoo combined with some hard brushing and with plenty of clean, pure water. This washing process is usually repeated three times!
The water is removed from the rugs via a centrifuge – this will get the rug 95% dry. It will finish the drying process under the sun.
In this video we see some of the final finishing touches…
In the first part we see a lovely looking Mamluk carpet post washing in alignment/stretching.
Next, we observe the side cords being perfected.
This is followed by a close-up inspection of a carpet removing any inconsistencies/stray fibres.
Finishing with fringe trimming – short fringes seem to keep much better and look much tidier too!
Rugs en route to Tunbridge Wells, England …
Thank you for taking the time to view this post!
