How rugs are made - World of Rugs & Furniture

This page will give you a good idea about how rugs are created from start to end.
You can choose between a text and illustrated version or you can choose to watch the videos.

How rugs are made - Text and illustrated
Here you see a chart that shows you the line with all the steps taken when a rug is made.

Click on any subject within this chart to get more details and pictures about that subject.

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The Loom

A Loom is a frame that is used for weaving.
The warp threads are tight and neat attached to the loom, to ensure that the rug will be straight when finished.

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Cotton

The cotton is grown on big cotton fields and harvest. Then the sharp thorns are removed out of the cotton balls.
After this process, it's ready for the spinning.

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Raising the Sheep

The sheep are raised till the adult state and sheared for their wool.
Since their wool grows pretty much like our hair (it comes back!), this process can be done twice a year under normal conditions.

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Making the Dyes

Dyes that are used for rugs are either Natural or Synthetic.
Natural dyes are coming from either plants or animal sources. These dyes are preferred with a lot of people, since their colors are harmonious then the synthetic colors and they also fade evenly and consistently.
Synthetic dyes are made via a chemical process.
Since they were developed and therefore used much later then natural dyes, you can see a slight change of designs and colors in rugs in some regions.

This picture shows a few Natural resources that are used for the dye.

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Design the Rug

In this fase, the rug is drawn out on paper.
Here is decided what colors the rug is going to have, what size and what motive or pattern the rug is going to get.
Mostly in this stage it's also already decided what material the rug is going to be made from and what technique is going to be used.
The original way of creating a design was done by hand, but now-a-days, people are using more and more the computer to create a design.

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Spinning the wool or cotton with a spinning wheel

The most common and most well known tool to spin wool or cotton, is the spinning wheel.
However it is not used in factories, where they use machines to do the spinning, they are still popular in a lot of countries and in homes.
The big wheel is turned by a food pedal or by hand. The big wheel is turning the spindle via a belt.
The spinner attaches the wool to this spindle and because it is turning, the wool will twist into a thread, winding itself up around the spindle. When the spindle is full of wool tread, it is called a yarn, which will be used to make a rug (or other products).

Spinning the wool or cotton with a drop spindle

Before the spinning wheel, the most common way to spin wool, was by using a drop spindle. The process is actually the same, with the difference that this spindle is not turned by a bigger wheel but turns itself by letting it drop in the air.
The benefit of this drop spindle, is that is light weighted and easy to carry around.

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Shearing the Sheep

When it is time for the sheep to get a "hair-cut", a razor is used to shave the sheep. This process is done for two reasons:
Of course to get the wool for the rugs, but also to relieve the sheep from it's warm coat.
A long, long time ago, sheep shed their wool (hair) just like a cat or a dog would now-a-days, but humans have bred the sheep in such a way that it would produce more wool (and meat). The shedding stopped and now humans have to sheer the sheep, so their winter or summer coat can grow.

Washing, sorting and carding the wool

When the shearing is done, the wool is washed to get the dirt and oily substance out that a sheep produces when growing the wool.
Then the wool is sorted by color and quality.
When the sorting is done, there is one more step to be taken, before the spinning can start. It is called "Carding".
Hand carders look similar to for example a dog brush.
They are used two at the time, to brush the wool between them. This removes any debris that did not came out during the wash (like tiny branches that got stuck), but more important it aligns the fiber in one direction, making the wool soft and puffy without any knots.
When this step is completed, the spinning can begin.

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Mount the cotton (warp) to the loom

Before the weaving can begin, a base needs to be made where the wool can be woven into.
This is called the Warp.
The warp is mostly made out of cotton because of it strength.

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Dye the Yarn

When the spinning / the yarn is complete, it is time to dye the yarn to give it a color.
The wool is dropped in a hot kettle that contains the dye, where it is left to soak.
This process can be repeated until the right color is reached.

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Making a Chart

The finished design is split into several parts, and these parts will be "translated" to a Chart.
A chart is actually a fine grid with the design over it and each little square in this grid represent one knot.
Many times it will also have one row with all the colors listed that will be used in the rug.
This chart is also called a Cartoon.

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Weaving the Rug

There are two ways a rug is made: by machine and by hand.

Hand Made rugs
know 4 techniques that are being used:
- Hand Knotted
- Hand Hooked & Tufted
- Flat Woven

Machine Made rugs

The Hand Knotted technique

With this technique, each knot in the rug is individualy done by hand.
The knots are strings of yarn that are looped around 2 warp threads.
There are several knots that are used when making rugs. What knot is used, depends mostly on the area and/or what kind of rug is being made.
Examples of knots are:
- Persian knot
- Turkish knot
- Jufti knot

The Persian Knot

The Persian knot is often used in Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal and Pakistan.
It is an a-symmetrical knot, that is open on one side. The benefit of this technique is that it does not leave any gaps.
This knot is often used for floral designs and rugs that have a curvy pattern.
Another name that is used for the Persian knot is Senneth knot.

The Turkish Knot

The Turkish knot is often used in Armenia, Iran and Turkey.
It is a symmetrical knot, that closed on both sides.
This knot leaves little gaps, but the benefit of this knot is that it is more fluffy.
Another name that is used for the Turkish knot is Ghiordes knot.

The Jufti Knot

The Jufti knot is a variant to the Persian or the Turkish knot. The difference is that the weaver does not use the knot around 2 warps, but around 4 warps. This has the result that an area and therefore the rug can be finished twice as fast, but it will be of less quality and will be less durable.

The Hand Hooked and Hand Tufted technique

The hand hooked and the hand tufted techniques are very similar.
With a tufting gun that looks and works like an oversized sewing needle, the thread is pushed and pulled through a pre-woven grid base.
The hooks are then cut, leaving a softer and plusher pile.
With the hand hooked technique that uses a hook instead of a tufting gun, the hooks are left in tact, to form a knobby pile.
When this process is done, a scrim and a layer of latex are placed on the back. Then a cloth is sewed onto the scrim and latex, leave a softer surface that also has the benefit that it protects your floor.

The Flat Weave technique

Flat woven rugs do not have knots / no piles. The weft is passed through the warps, creating the unique weave effect.
The benefits that this technique has, is that it is much faster to make a rug (do less expensive) and the rug is reversible.
The top of the rug is identical to the back of the rug.

Machine Made rugs

Now-a-days, a lot of rugs are made by machine.
The techniques used by these machines are very similar to the hand made methods.
The advantage of using a machine to make rugs, is that it is a lot faster and can produce almost the same quality rug. This makes the rug a lot cheaper for purchase, but there is however a huge down-side to this.
With a machine made rug there is no such thing as an unique rug. Chances are that if you buy one of these rugs, there will be hundreds or thousands (if not more!) other people that will have the exact same rug. Because these rugs are made by hand and each knot is checked by the weaver, the quality mostly outstands the machine made rug and gives each rug its own character.
Since the hand made rug is unique, it maintains (or even increases) its' value over time.
For these reasons, rug lovers prefer to buy a hand made rug and people with a smaller budget who like to have a rug, tend to buy the machine made rug.

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Cut the rug from the loom

When the weaving is done, the rug can be taken off the loom. The warp is cut above and below the rug, resulting in the rug being detached from the loom.

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Finishing the Ends & Sides

When the rug is cut from the loom, the warps are hanging loose on the rug.
There are several ways rug makers deal with this:
They turn them into Fringes or turned underneath the rug and covered with a cotton cloth for a smooth border.

Fringes

Fringes are actually the warps hanging from the rug after it has been cut from the loom.
There are typically 3 types of fringes that are used on a rug:
Twisted, Knotted and Braided.
Each style has a separate technique that is shown in the drawings.


Twisted Fringe	Knotted Fringe	Braided Fringe

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Shearing the Rug

When the end and sides of the rug are finished, the rug goes through the next step: Shearing

The rug makers take a sharp blade and even out the wool on top of the rug, making sure that the loops are cut to equal size, creating the pile. This process makes sure that the rug has an even thickness all over the rug area.
In the picture the rug makers have the rug laying flat on the ground, but there are multiple techniques to do this. Another much used technique is to lay the rug over a metal pipe and cut it on one side with the blade.
Both techniques require very good skills and it can take years for some one to become a master in shearing a rug.

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Washing the Rug

When the shearing is done, the rug needs to be washed. This is done with a chemical and is done for a few reasons: - It removes loose fibers and dirt that came into the rug while it was made. - It makes the rug more soil and stain resistant. - It softens the colors and prevents the colors from fading. - It makes the rug moth proof.
After the rug is washed and rinsed, the rug is hung to dry, until it is completely dry.

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Sculpturing the rug

Sculpturing (also called hand carving or embossing) is done to give the rug a more 3D effect.
It brings more relief to the rug and is often done to accent parts of the designs.
What is actually done, is that they shear the rug on targeted areas.
This process is extremely difficult and is only done by the highly trained professionals.

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Inspection of the rug

When the rug is completely finished, the rug will be inspected, to see if the total process of making the rug has been successful.
They will look at every aspect of the process and to see if they have created a perfect rug that then can be sold.
If there is a part on the rug that does not pass the inspection, they will see if that part can be fixed or not.
If it can, it will go back to the step where this process took place and follow the line again till it comes back for inspection.

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The rug is completed!

Once the rug passed its final inspection and therefore is completed, it is ready to be sold on the market.
The rug can be sold locally or it will be shipped for example to the USA to end up in the store of World of Rugs & Furniture, where you will be able to choose from thousands in store rugs, to finally end up in your house.

Since you have followed the line on How a Rug is Made, you now will know that when you buy a rug, you just do not have a piece of cloth laying on the floor, but you will have:
A unique piece of art !

How rugs are made - Video

Have a look on how rugs are being made from the start.
After seeing all the chapters (or the complete movie) you will have a nice idea about the complete process of rug making!
Open the video by clicking on the desired chapter.

Tip:
Hold the mouse pointer on a chapter and wait for the tooltip to show for more info about the video.