You have just bought yourself a few pieces of handmade rugs, which, according to the lady at the store is “specially made”. Then you started thinking “how are these floor rugs made?”. All you know is that each and every rug has a distinct design and color scheme, that each floor décor has various sizes and shapes, and that they can be in plain or multi-colored. Also, you are just made aware of how you should clean and maintain your area rugs and, other than that you know nothing else.

Technically, everything on this earth has its own history to tell as well as how they became visible. The same story goes with your precious area rugs. They may have transformed the different rooms in your home into their respective personalities, yet the way they were made is something you are not really aware of. Well, not all area rug owners know how their floor covers were made – perhaps “machine-made” and  “man-made” are the only two things they know. True enough, but wait, there’s more.

MACHINE MADE AND MAN MADE AREA RUGS

The way how area rugs are being made is something that every homeowner should know too because it will give you a better understanding of its value and how it can affect its costs.

Machine Made are:

• Much affordable.
• Not valued as an investment.
• It has more variety and is more flexible.
• More distinct design because of the various yarn colors that are placed on the weaving machine.

Man Made are:

• Also known as handmade or hand-knotted rugs.
• Customized and personalized.
• Unique in design and one of a kind.
• More artistic when it comes to its color and design.
• Exceptional when it comes to rug details because of the makers country, village, or city.
• Made with natural dyes for the rug color to stay longer and almost ageless.
• Deemed to be a great investment.
• Considered as heirlooms due to its high value.
• Historical because of its production process.

The Various Rug Elements

WEAVE

• Handmade rugs are made using the weaving technique.

The three Major Weave techniques:

• The Pile Weave
  • A weaving method used in making most area rugs.
  • Knots are being created first before a rug is woven.
  • There are various weaving groups that also use and creates diversified knot types.
  • The knots that you see on handmade rugs are tied by hands.
  • A skilled weaver can tie a knot in less than 10 seconds.
  • The production of rugs speeds up through a large number of skilled weavers.
• The Flat Weave
  • Does not use any knots.
  • It uses warp strands as its weave foundation.
  • It was called flat because there are no knots visible during the weaving process and the surface literally is flat.
• The Hand Tufted
  • It can be made without tying any knots on its foundation.
  • Much faster to be assembled compared to rugs with hand-tying knots.
  • Needs an expert level of weaving skills.
  • Much fasted to be made.
  • Is less expensive than the hand-knotted rugs.
  • More sturdy.

KNOT

There are Two Kinds of Knots:

• The Asymmetrical Knot (Persian or Senneh knot)
  • A kind still being used in Egypt, China, Turkey, Iran, and India.
  • In creating this knot, you have to wrap a yarn around a warp strand before you pass it under another warp strand beside it and pull it up back into the surface.
  • The weaves are finer compared to the other rugs.
• The Symmetrical Knot (Turkish or Ghiorde knot)
  • Still being used the Turkish and Kurdish tribes.

The density of a knot depends on how many knots are there per square inch. So, the higher the quality of the knot is on a rug is also where its price depends.

DYES

• It’s the process where the natural color of the material used in the rug is changing which applies to cotton, wool, or silk.

The Two Types of Dyes:

• The Natural dye
  • This dye basically comes from all natural elements such as plants and minerals.
• The Synthetic dye
  • Artificially made and is much more affordable than the natural dye.

Final Thoughts

Now you know that even your area rugs have its own story. The rug stores Virginia can also justify that the rugs being sold there has its own history and meaning. This is why you just don’t buy an area rug without finding out how and what it is made of so that you can also justify the value and the price of it. The more will you also respect the skilled weavers that keep on using the traditional process of rug making as well as the modern way of creating it through a machine.  Either way, the outcome is still remarkable.