The Basics Of Chinese Oriental Rugs
You've always admired those beautifully designed area rugs, but how do you know if it is truly an Oriental rug worth the price tag. Even if you ask the rug dealer, you may not being getting accurate information because oftentimes the dealer doesn't even know the difference because so many handmade and machine-made rugs are great imitations. The Chinese are great at making hand-tufted Oriental rugs, but these are not the same as the original antique Oriental rugs that you may have in mind. The handmade tufts are just poked through a canvas backing with a fabric glued on the back to hold the tufts in. Yes, it is all done by hand, but it will not be as sturdy as a real Oriental rug made by skilled weavers. The glue becomes hard, the wool used is often not high quality, and the fringe is only glued on; so the handmade rug is not going to last as long as the real thing. Besides the quality, the value is no more than a machine-made rug, although the dealer may try to charge more because the label of "handmade" sounds so labor intensive. A rug that covers an area of 9' X 12' would take only a few days compared to the months that it takes to weave a rug that large in the true Oriental rug fashion.
Real Oriental rugs like the antiques we admire are hand knotted. The process starts with strings of cotton attached to pegs on opposite sides of the loom. These tight strings are called the warp, and they can run up and down on a vertical loom or side to side on a horizontal loom. If the rug is a flat rug, the weaver will use a weft, strings that are woven in and out of the warp creating the design. If the rug is to have a pile, the design is made of the woof, or hand knotted strings of wool that are tied to the warp individually. Obviously, tying all those little strings is quite labor intensive. A typical productive day would be five weavers completing 6,000 knots each day. You can see how this would add up to months before completion. Once all the knots are in, they would be trimmed to create an even pile. The final step is cutting the warp from the pegs and tying the loose ends, which then create the fringe we are so familiar with in Oriental rugs. Before it would be sold, cleaning the rug and shaping it is necessary to give it the final beautiful look you see in the dealer's. True Oriental rugs are not only beautiful, but also amazing in the skill and effort that goes into making such intricate patterns. Don't be fooled into paying real Oriental rug prices for cheaper made hand-tufted or machine made rugs. Look at the back of the rug to see if you can find the individual knots or if it's held together by glue. Even though machine made rugs look extremely similar, there are no knots, only weaves between the warp. If you can't afford the real thing just yet, look for quality materials in the rug to make sure that the imitation will at least hold its color and last longer than some of the cheaper made rugs. |
