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Oriental rugs come in many different colors, styles, and shapes. There are also several different ways to make these beautiful floor coverings.  Some constructions are preferred over others, but the end product should still be something suitable to adorn your home.

Oriental rugs can be divided into two categories: handmade and machine made. Handmade rugs can be sectioned further into four types: hand knotted, hand tufted, hand hooked, and flat woven.  Machine made rugs are also called “power loomed” rugs.

 

The piles of hand tufted and hand hooked rugs are constructed by injecting a  "U" shaped loop of yarn loaded onto a tufting gun through the back of a canvas backing to form the pile, instead of tying an actual knot around warp and weft fibers.  Tufted and hooked rugs differ because tufted rugs are sheared or cut to look more like carpet, whereas hooked rugs are left unshorn with the “U,” or hook shape, to form the pile. The height of the pile is determined during the making of the rug.

There are 3 qualities of hand hooked rugs based on the density and size of the loop. Gross Point rugs, known in the industry simply as “hooked” rugs, have large loops (1/2 inch high) forming the pile.  Petit Point rugs have piles made of smaller loops (1/4 inch high), and a Micro Point rug’s pile has very tiny loops (1/8 inch high). As loop size decreases, the amount of detail in a rug’s design will increase, thus one can achieve a much more intricate design by using the micro point hook than by using a petit point hook or gross point hook.

Hand tufted and hand hooked rugs are affordable alternatives to authentic hand knotted rugs. The pile side of hand tufted rugs often looks and feels just like that of an authentic hand knotted rug.  The fast tufting technique enables the manufacturer to produce these rugs more quickly and with less labor, enabling faster delivery to the market. It is for these reasons that hand tufted rugs can easily cost 10 times less than a hand knotted Oriental rug of the exact same size.

Flat woven rugs are pileless rugs. Some common flat weaves are Kelims, Dhurries, Soumaks, Needlepoints and Aubussons. Aubussons are woven on looms. The cartoon is placed directly behind the loom so the weaver can look through the warp strings at the diagram.  Unlike pile rugs, the weft in Aubusson rugs is actually what forms the designs in the rug.  Aubussons are made using a slit tapestry weave, which means that the colors in the rug are physically separate from each other and must be sewn together once the rug has been removed from the loom.

Hand knotted rugs are by far higher in quality than machine made rugs. These investments, possessing a high resale value, will last through generations.  The construction of these rugs is much stronger than hand tufted, hand hooked, flat woven, or machine made rugs.

The fringe in a handmade rug is actually the warp thread of the rug, running through the rug from end to end. The pile is tied into the warp threads using one of two traditional knots, the Persian knot or the Turkish knot. A weft thread is then woven in between each row of knots to secure them even more tightly into the rug.  All this is compacted tightly to form a very dense and strong structure that can withstand many years of hard use.

Once the design for a Needlepoint rug is complete, it is placed underneath the canvas that will serve as the rug's foundation. Workers peer through the canvas to follow the design, which is spread out flat underneath it. Using a stitch similar to a cross-stitch, workers stitch directly onto the canvas. Flat weaves are backed around their borders with a durable fabric to ensure that the finished products will lay flat and have a prolonged life.

Machine made rugs are woven on power looms operated either by hand, machine, or computer, hence their alternate name-- “power loomed.” The design and colors are determined, and a computer card is created which tells the computer which size and color rug it needs to produce. The loom is strung with a warp of jute, or sometimes cotton. The rug is then woven using wool, nylon, polypropylene, olefin, or another suitable yarn.  Some common synthetic materials are olefin, which is resilient and if heat set, is not as shiny as many others; polypropylene, which tends to flatten more readily; and nylon which is generally less durable. There are two types of looms used to create three different categories of Oriental reproductions: Wilton, Cross-woven Wilton, and Axminster.  Each of these can be designed to achieve various pile heights, densities, finishes, and qualities.

Even though some machine made rugs are poor imitations of their handmade counterparts, many of the rugs produced today rival the look and feel of new handmade pieces.  One drawback to power loomed rugs is that once they get damaged, there is very little that can be done to repair them.  Handmade rugs on the other hand can be professionally repaired and remain in use for many years. But overall, power loomed rugs are an excellent value and can be a wonderful addition to your décor.

Carving or sculpturing is a highly skilled art. It involves carefully cropping the pile around the edges of motifs and patterns to enhance the definition. This produces a three-dimensional effect and is a widely used technique in Chinese and Indian deep pile carpets. When custom carpets are made with a combination of color and carpet carving, the design possibilities are greatly extended and the artistry of the rug is immensely magnified.