Oriental Rug Weaving

The Making of Persian Rugs

Oriental Loom Rug Weaving

Oriental weavers need many months, sometimes years, to produce a handmade wool rug. The basic techniques for making a handknotted persian rug (knotted pile carpet) haven't substantially changed since thousands of years. Every hand-knotted rug has a foundation consisting of two sets of threads (yarn) made of natural fiber called the warp and weft of the loom. The material of the yarn is usually cotton or wool, sometimes also silk or - in tribal rugs - goat's hair or camel's hair.
To make the pile of the rug, loosely piled knots of dyed wool and/or silk are then tied around consecutive sets of adjacent warps to create the viewable patterns of the rug. Between each row of knots, one or more shots of weft are passed through the warp to pack down and secure the knotted rows. The supplementary weft that forms the pile is attached to the yarn by different knot types. Mostly used in Oriental carpets are the Persian and the Turkish knot: The asymmetrical Persian knot (also called Senneh knot after this persian town) is well suited for accurate and symmetrical rug designs, it is commonly used in masterworkshops and villages throughout Iran, India, Turkey, Pakistan, and China. The symmetrical Turkish knot (also called Ghiordes knot) is especially popular with tribal rugs and used in Turkey, the Caucasus, East Turkmenistan, and areas in Iran with a Turkish or Kurdish population. Other knots used for rug making are the Spanish knot and the Jufti knot.