Rug Making

The art of weaving a rug is a gift passed down over many years from generation to generation. The masters of this art come from places such as Iran, India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Caucus, Turkey, Armenia, Romania and Russia.

Rug designs are inspired by the world around the artisan. Most designs are taken from nature such as animals, gardens, mountains, or shrubs. They may also include everyday tasks and war scenes in their more contemporary designs. Some designs are done from memory and are passed down through the generations, but today the designs are done to scale on a graph of paper called a "Cartoon". The weaver constructs the rug one knot at a time by following the cartoon.

The finest sheep’s wool is sheared, washed and bleached. Then the fibers are straighten and spun. Once this process is finished, it is dyed by one of the master dyers. The dyes are provided by nature, which hold it’s own store of colors. Everything from soil to flowers to fruit can be used to make these colorful dyes. The wool is dipped into large vats of color and then hung unrung to dry evenly.

Wool or cotton is stretched vertically across the loom, this is called the "warp thread" and the weaver begins the tedious job of taking the dyed wool and knotting it around each of the warp threads. After the completion of each row, a thread called the "weft thread" is inserted horizontally and then the process is repeated row after row. A metal comb is used after several rows have been completed to beat down the knots. Due to the fact that the rugs are knotted by hand the pile tend to be very uneven and scissors are used to trim the pile before it is cut from the loom and washed. The excess warp threads at each end form what we commonly refer to as the fringe. Once the rug has been washed, it is shaved evenly one more time and now you have a wonderful new piece of art and history. It all sounds very simple, but this process can take even the most masterful artesian months and sometimes years to create.