Why Patusan's Oriental Rugs?

Are you looking for a home furnishing with the following qualities? You can use it rigorously, but it requires minimal maintenance. It is in fashion now, yet your grandparents and your grandchildren will think it's stylish. It will add artistic beauty and charm to your home for more than a lifetime. During its useful life it will be the least expensive but possibly your home's most valuable furnishing. You have found it. It is an oriental rug.

Patusan Trading Company has a mission. Our mission is to let your know that oriental rugs are practical art. As you read this, you will understand why we are so enthusiastic about rugs. We hope you will use this information to become a more confident shopper and owner or oriental rugs.

Definitions

Oriental rug—A hand woven and hand knotted pile fabric whose origins are historically and culturally associated with the East.

Hand woven—The alternate intermeshing of horizontal (weft) and vertical (warp) threads by the human hand.

Hand knotted pile—The surface of the upright yarn created by manually knotting yarn to the fabric's warp strings.

Fringe—The surface which is created as a way of decoratively arranging the ends of the warp threads by knotting, plaiting, or binding. The fringe is therefore the same material as the warp of the carpet and is structurally part of the rug's foundation.

Recommended Books

Oriental Rugs and Their Designs P.R.J. Ford Harry. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. NY 1981

Chinese and Exotic Rugs Murray Eiland. NY Geographical Society, Boston, MA 1979

Oriental Rugs Murray Eiland. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, MA 1981

Knots and Oriental Rug Quality

Generally speaking, the more knots in the rug the higher the price of the rug. Labor is the most expensive component of an oriental rug. The number of knots per square inch indicates the amount of labor consumed in the rug's production. The more knots, the more labor, and the higher the price. However, poorer societies have cheaper labor and weave rugs that cost less. As an example, generally speaking, labor costs less in India than it does in Turkey: so for comparable time spent weaving a rug, your pay less in Indian

Inflating the number of knots in a rug is a favorite deception of rug sellers. It is also the easiest fraud to expose. Use a ruler to count the knots vertically per inch and the number of knots horizontally per inch. Multiply the two measurements together. Compare this number to the rug merchant's claim and you will know if the rug merchant is telling the truth. It takes only a minute.

Occasionally certain intangibles will supercede knot count and its effect on rug values. These intangibles could include sentimental value, the remarkable history of a specific piece, documented age over 100 years or exceptional beauty. Factors which should not supercede knot count in valuing rugs are: country of origin, undocumented age, and unverified histories.

Country of Origin and Rug Quality

A rug's quality is not determined by where or when it was woven. Millions of people practice the art of weaving oriental rugs. For example: just in the city of Faisalabad, Pakistan, over 15,000 looms operate at the hands of 50,000 weavers. No two rug weaver in Faisalabad will perform with exactly the sample, style, or degree of dexterity. Artist everywhere are performing their work at various levels of skill. This is true of every are medium, so it is also true in carpet weaving.

Some rug buyers assume that a rug that is woven in one city is better than a rug woven in another city. And a rug woven in Iran, for example, is better than a rug woven in Pakistan. A particular rug woven in Iran may, or may not, be better than a particular rug woven in Pakistan. A rug's quality has nothing to do with political or national boundaries; it reflects only the level of skill of the weaver. Neither Iran nor Pakistan, nor any other rug producing country or region has a monopoly on rug weaving talent, so a buyer or seller must be able to judge oriental rug quality independent of its country of origin.

The more you learn about oriental rugs the more you will enjoy them. Oriental rugs are preeminent examples of combined art, durability and creativity. Many myths have penetrated rug lore but, from Cleopatra presenting herself, rolled in a rug, to Caesar, to the hand knotted silk saddle blankets of the Tibetan Dali Lama's horse, to Moghul Emperor, Shah Jahan's, carpet factories in the shadows of the Taj Mahal, the history of oriental rugs needs no exaggeration.

Age and Oriental Rug Quality

A rug's quality is judged independently of its age. The fundamental weaving and knotting of oriental rugs has not changed over the past 2,500 years. Various minor aspects of rug production have been modernized, but the basics: tying knots of wool to pairs of warp strings and changing the sheds between each row of knots, have not changed. The oldest know carpets were woven in the methods used today in India, China, Pakistan, Iran and elsewhere.

Many oriental rugs survive generations of use. The degree and rigor of this use varies. Rugs that are little used by their owners and thus survive to be passed down to another generation, may not fare so well in heavier traffic or without careful attention in new surroundings. Likewise, a coarsely woven, thread bare old rug whose history is long forgotten may bear heavy use and show its beauty for yet another generation. But do not assume that because a rug is old, it is also good.

How does one tell the difference between a hand made and a machine made oriental rug? It is easy to see the difference by looking at the fringe and the back of the rug. The fringe on a hand make rug is the warp of the rug, onto which the individual knots are hand tied. The fringe of a machine make piece is optional and is usually sewn on to imitate the look of a hand make rug. The back of a hand make rug has obvious inconsistencies in the bumps knots. The back and sides of a machine made rug are more perfect and uniform looking.

Oriental Rugs as Art

Rugs are art, and they also happen to be useful as floor covering. Buy an oriental rug because you appreciate its art, using the same criteria that you would use to buy a painting. Do not buy an oriental rug just to match your decor, lest the rug outlast the decor and you will be stuck with a decorative white elephant. Colors and fashion change but fine art, fine jewelry, and fine rugs are always in style.

The name or type by which an oriental rug is sold tell little about where the rug was woven, how old it is, or its quality. Tabriz...Heriz, Kerman...Kashan, Beluchi...Serapi, Bokhara...Bergama—none of these names define quality. They are name that throughout history have been associated with rug waving, either geographically or commercially, but these terms are not specifically defined through oriental rug weaving. Rug dealers have attached them to their products to legitimize their claims about their rugs; but the name are irrelevant to the value of the rugs, unless they are accompanied by information, such as knot count, pile fiber, condition, etc., which defines the quality of the specific rug in questions.

Commonly Used Design Names

The names associated with oriental rugs are more suited to describing rug design than rug quality. We acknowledge that agreement on definitions for oriental rug design name is elusive. The following definitions are necessarily brief:

Oriental Rug Colors and Fibers

Regardless of fiber or quality of construction, some colors and designs show soil and wear more than others. Bright oranges, golds, and yellows show the most soil, and medium shades of browns, blues reds and greens show the least soil. Rugs with thick or high pile are more likely to show shading from footprints and furniture placement as a result of the pile lying in different directions. All rugs show shade differences depending on where you are standing. This results from the knotted pile sloping one direction or the other.

All rugs will shed loose fibers. New rugs shed more than older pieces. These loose fibers will appear in your vacuum and on the surface of the rug, but their frequency will lessen as time goes on. This shedding will not affect either the life of the value of the rug.

Gradations of color shades are common on oriental rugs. Under typical circumstances the yarn used in oriental rugs is hand spun, hand washed, and hand dyed; though the extent of manual processing of wool and silk varies greatly from one weaving center to another. Shade gradation, called abrash, is characteristic of greater manual involvement in pile fiber processing and dying. Abrash is so typical of hand made rugs that manufacturers of machine woven, imitation rugs to great lengths to reproduce the look in their products.

Warp, Web and Fringe

The warp strings, an oriental rug's foundation upon which the knots of pile yarn are tied, run the length of the rug. The ends of these strings become the rug's fringe. The fringe is usually decoratively knotted, plaited, or bound. Often, depending upon the whim of the weaver, the finishing of the fringe will differ from one end of the rug to the other. This is the nature of the rug weaving art medium.

Three fibers are commonly used in oriental rug warps: cotton, wool, and silk. Cotton, because of its availability, its uniformity in spinning, and its tensile strength is by far the most common fiber used as oriental rug warp. Wool is favored among tribal areas because these weavers are usually shepherds. Wool is valued for its unsurpassed durability. A common characteristic of wool warped rugs is their uneven edges. Silk is used when fine knotting requires carefully spun, string, uniform warp. The expense of the silk limits its use.

A rug's weft, also called woof, is the mat of horizontal strings woven between the rows of hand tied knots. Usually the weft material is the same as the warp. Since it is concealed by the rug's pile, it is necessary to separate the pile fiber to examine the weft. Mori style weaving, as seen in many Bokhara rugs, use one weft per row of knots; these are called single wefted. Most other oriental rugs are double wefted with two stings between each row of knots.

The Wool Fiber

Wool is the ideal oriental rug pile fiber. Wool resists soiling, cleans easily, and is thousands of times more flexible and durable than synthetic fibers. Wool does not burn, it insulates, and it absorbs sound. Rugs made of wool have lasted for hundreds of years of continuous use and, during their use, they have remained beautiful examples of art.

Tests conducted by the Philadelphia College of Textiles have shown that wool can be subject to bending 20,000 times without breaking. By contrast rayon and nylon break after as few as 75 bends. When used on the floor, a wool carpet will withstand far more traffic than any other fiber.

Wool fibers are covered with layers of protein arranged much like shingles on a roof. This layering keeps dirt from penetrating the outer cover of the fiber thus preventing soiling and staining. Spot cleaning wool can be done easily before the stain is set. Vacuuming is all that is required for daily care. Clean-ability makes wool livable.

The moth threat is easily overcome. The washing process that Patusan's carpets undergo before being exported include treatment to prevent moth infestation. As an extra precaution you should spray the back of the rug yearly with a household insecticide that kills moth larvae.

How to Maintain Wool Oriental Rugs

1. Vacuum regularly; at least once a week. You should empty vacuum bag when half full.
2. Web clean as required; generally not more than once every two years, preferably by a professional carpet cleaner.
3. Cope with stains immediately. Move quickly. The sooner the stain is properly treated, the less the chance of permanent damage.

Tips: Do it quickly Blot up excess moisture. Do not rub. Apply antidote from the following list with a clean dry cloth, working from edges to center. Do no soak. Blot up excess antidote with a clean dry cloth. Dry with a fan or hair dryer. Restore direction of pile with a soft brush.

Silk Fiber

Relative to its weight silk is the strongest natural fiber known. Silk's strength has allowed it to be woven into fabrics which are so light weight that they are virtually transparent. However, producing silk oriental rugs requires much larger quantities of silk than producing light weight silk fabric; and the increase in silk fiber makes a silk carpet a curable commodity as well as a beautiful art form.

Silk is produced by processing the cocoons of the silk moth. Cocoons are unraveled and their fibers combined into one strand. Several strands are processed together for increased thickness and strength. The result is the naturally shiny, smooth fiber we recognize as silk. Silk's ability to brilliantly enhance dye results in rich, radiant, and fluid colors. Silk fabric was so desirable that for a thousand years it was the primary focus or world trade.

How does one confirm a rug is real silk? chemical analysis is best, but the simplest way is to conduct a burn test. With a pin or tweezers remove a few threads of pile material from the rug's back. Twist the threads into a short yarn. Carefully ignite the end of the yarn and observe its burning. Silk burns like hair, smells like hair burning, and leaves a black lumpy ash.

Rayon, a cellulose based compound like cotton, is the most common substitute for silk in oriental rugs. Rayon burns with a yellow flame like cotton, smells like cotton burning, and leaves a gray, powdery ash. Compare burn test results by carefully igniting threads known to be rayon, cotton, or silk, such as those from an old shirt or tie.

Fine worsted wool because of its smooth texture, can be mistaken for silk. No simple test exists to distinguish, silk from fine wool. Except in the case of Pakistani Bokharas, few wool carpets are misrepresented as silk.

Silk Maintenance

Protect your silk carpet from heavy use and soiling. A silk carpet is a luxury item and should be treated accordingly.
Lightly vacuum as needed. Avoid sucking the fringe into the vacuum.
Inspect your carpet regularly for wear and damage. Regulate the carpet's use to evenly distribute its wear.
If the carpet has sustained structural damage such as holes through the carpet, worn pile or tattered fringes and edges contact an oriental rug repair specialist.
If your carpet becomes stained follow these instructions:

Work fast. Blot up excess spill using paper towels or a clean cloth. Do not rub the affected area. If the area is not stained, dry it with a fan or hair blower. Restore the pile's direction with a soft brush. If the area has a becomes stained follow these instructions: