persain-rug

How to look after your Persian or Oriental rug?

January 28, 2019
faride khandero

A handmade Persian rug is very likely one of your major home furnishing purchases and just because it is on the floor does not mean it cannot be looked after very well. Your rug should both reflect your character, your spending power and perfectly suit your room colours and use. It is an artisan product crafted with care and love by weavers in Central Asia and should be cared for so that it mellows with age and becomes a cherished family heirloom.

Ask your rug dealer for his or her advice as the type of rug and the flooring it will be laid on will dictate the type of underlay. The underlay will serve many uses- it will add some comfort to a rug laid on a hard floor, cushioning the weight of feet and thus protecting crushing of the pile; it will also protect the back of the knot from abrasion, lifting the rug off the hard surface and protecting it from heat ( ask for special underlay for underfloor heating )and damp ; it will allow dust and dirt to fall through the rug which will help avoid the build-up of particles which will otherwise act as a sandpaper abrasion mix at the base of the pile; lastly, it will, of course, reduce the movement of the rug, making it safe and perfectly positioned.

Furniture Cups. A larger rug will have furniture on it and if the feet of your sofa, chairs or table have sharp ends you should use furniture cups. These can be bought online and can be plastic, wood, brass or brushed metal. These will stop your rug pile from being crushed and avoid holes forming with many minuscule movements.

Moths! Now consider how the furniture is sitting. If you have a large heavy piece of furniture under which the rug is lying you must ensure that this dark and quiet space is thoroughly vacuumed along with the visible parts. Moths!!! They love dark undisturbed places with a plentiful supply of wool or silk to eat. Ideally, you should also have a pheromone moth trap in the room too – especially with any rug made in Afghanistan. For some reason they go crazy for this wool.

Sunshine. If you are lucky enough to live in a country with abundant strong sunshine you must consider the effects of UV light on your rug- obviously,  a conservatory or a patio windowed room in particular needs clear UV filter screen on the glass. Whatever your vendor tells you, ALL rugs fade- at least all rugs with natural materials.

Turning. Ideally you should also consider turning your rug every year or so so that any fading is evened out – however, this is rarely done as most rugs look best with the pile lying in a certain direction so they are left as is. Turning a rug will also even out feet tread wear patterns – but this only happens in areas of very heavy traffic or over the course of decades, by which time your rug has aged with you and you accept and love it.

Weekly Upkeep. Modern vacuum cleaners are FAR too efficient and all that satisfying fluff and dirt in your viewable bag is mostly bits of your rug being stripped. You do not need to vacuum on a high power with the revolving brush – please just use suction as this will suck out what needs to be removed. Avoid vacuuming the fringes as these are, in a handmade Persian or Oriental rug, integral warp threads and are protection against the knots being damaged or destroyed.

A stitch in time– If you see any signs of the rug having been damaged then you should have it restored immediately. The same goes for discovering that your party guest spilled a glass of red under the sofa. Stains lock in over time and repairs become very pricey!

Cleaning your rug. You go to the dentist and doctor, you service your car, you clean your oven ….but most people think a rug will last forever without a proper service. Whilst they can be miraculously hard wearing items they do need a specialist soaking every 5 years to increase thie longevity and maintain the look for which you bought it. This will remove the build-up of oils ( outside tar and chemicals, human sweat and animal grease ) from the pile and restore it to its former softness and colours. Its also hygienic to remove all that gunk- dead skin from humans and dander from animals in particular.

LOVE YOUR RUG!

persian-rug

What is the persian rug?

January 24, 2019
faride khandero

Persian Rugs

Traditional rugs are always wholly made by hand, each knot tied by the weaver around the warp threads on a vertical or horizontal loom. A handmade rug can have from thousands to millions of knots and can take from 2 weeks to 2 years to make.

The materials are generally wool, silk or cotton, or a mixture. The backing- the longitudinal warp threads and the latitudinal weft threads- of the rug is always either cotton, wool, silk or jute.

The most usual and popular traditional rugs are made in Turkey, Iran (Persia), Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and China. Lesser available rugs are also made in Morocco, Egypt, Eastern Europe and Southern Russia and Turkmenistan.

The Persian carpet (Middle Persian: bōb, Persian: carpet farsh, meaning “to spread”; sometimes Qali carpets) is an essential part of Persian art and culture. Carpet-weaving is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished manifestations of Persian culture and art, and dates back to ancient Persia. In 2008, Iran’s export of hand-woven carpets was $ 420 million or 30% of the world’s market. There is an estimated population of 1.2 million weavers in Iran producing carpets for domestic markets and international exports. Iran exports carpets to more than 100 countries, as hand-woven rugs are one of its main non-oil export items. The country produces about five million square meters of carpets annually-80 percent of which are sold in international markets. In recent times, Iranian carpets have come under fierce competition from other countries producing reproductions of original Iranian designs as well as cheaper substitutes.

The designs of Iranian carpets are also copied by weavers from other countries. Iran is also the world’s largest producer and exporter of handmade carpets, producing three quarters of the world’s total output. Though in recent times, this ancient tradition has come under stiff competition from machine-made products. Iran is also the maker of the largest handmade carpet in history, measuring 60,546 square feet (5,624.9 square meters).

What makes a Persian Rug a Persian Rug?

A Persian rug is one that is produced in Iran and the surrounding areas that once comprised the Persian empire.  Stretching from China to Turkey, the Persian Empire was one of the mightiest in the history of civilisation, and perhaps the most commonly appreciated export of that era is the ubiquitous ‘Persian Rug’.  Some people consider a Persian Rug to be from Iran only (the epicentre of what was once the Persian empire), and rugs from other areas in ex-Persian empire countries such as Afghanistan, Turkey Pakistan or India to be ‘Oriental Rugs’

Persian rugs are highly sought after for their beauty, craftsmanship and durability.  A genuine Persian Rug of the highest quality can command a price tag in the millions of dollars.

Also known as Persian Carpets, these historically significant works of art are made for commercial and residential uses, and also for cultural symbolism.

Usually a Persian Rug is understood to refer to pile-woven textiles, however flat weave Kilim and Soumak rugs, and embroidered Suzani carpets are also threads of the dare we say it, ‘rich tapestry’ of Persian rug making.

The earliest roots of the ancient art of Persian carpet weaving can be traced back to 400BC, when classic Greek author Xenophon describes them as precious works of art worthy of use as diplomatic gifts.

Most Persian rugs use a pile of sheep’s wool with cotton warps and wefts tensioning the foundation of the rug.  Warps are strong thick threads which run the length of the rug.  Wefts pass under and over the warps from each side of the rug.   Sometimes silk is used for warps and in pile, either to highlight elements of design or as the entirety of the pile material, which is most commonly seen in wall hangings.

Weaving a pile rug is an enormously time-consuming and skilled process which can take anywhere from a few months to several years depending on the size and quality of the rug.  A commonly used indication of the quality of a rug is its knot count per square inch.  On average Persian Rugs range from about 30 to 300 knots per square inch.

For more information about Persian Rugs and what to look for when buying them feel free to get in touch with West End Co.’s Daniel Axiak by clicking here.

Traditional Persian Rugs

I define classic rugs as being the traditional medallion, floral and repeating geometric design rugs I grew up with. Traditional rugs are a handmade artisan floor decoration from Central Asia- starting in Turkey and moving through Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal before ending in China. The materials used both for the pile and base are natural and include wool, silk and cotton with the dyes being a mixture of vegetable and mineral and synthetic.

I can source you a classic rug from the finest rug makes in the world in any colour and size, or you also have the option of a bespoke rug created to your exact specifications.