The authentic oriental rugs are handmade carpet that is either knotted from piles or woven. Only hand-knotting or hand-weaving rugs are considered authentic oriental rugs. These rugs primarily are from broad geographical region that include China, Vietnam. Turkey, Maghreb countries and Iran and also India. The Oriental rugs are organised by origin, there are Persian rugs, Anatolian rugs, Kurdish rugs, Caucasian rugs, Central Asian rugs, Turkestanian rugs, Chinese rugs, and Tibetan rugs.

Traditional hand knotted carpets are still product today although there are significant decrease in the scale of production. They are of a higher price to that of the machine made, due to the work of arts that are incorporated in the designs.

Materials used in carpets weaving, including wool, silk and cotton and the foundation are silk and wool pile with a knotted density of between 300-350 knots per square inch. Wool is the most common material in the production of oriental rugs and carpets, although cotton is frequently employed as the foundation of city and workshop pieces. Wool types employed in weaving include Kork wool, Manchester wool, and from time to time Camel Hair wool. Silk rugs and carpets has been in existence since the sixteenth century

Persian Rugs And Carpets

Persian carpet is an intricate part of Persian/Iranian art and creative culture, and weaving in this particular region goes way back to pre-Islamic to ancient Persia. It is a fact to say carpet weaving in Persia/Iran dated in excess of 2,500 years. Record has shown that Iran exported in excess of £290 million of hand-woven carpets in 2008, and the number of people in Iran who are weavers is estimated to 1.2 million. Prior to this record shows that Iran exported in excess of £350 million of hand woven carpets in 2002 and in excess of £430 million in 2005

The Persian rugs consist of a layout and a design that incorporates one or a number of motifs. It is said that there is approximately 19 pattern groups within the various Persian designs, this include Islamic buildings, historic monuments, Shah Abbassi, spiral, all-over, derivative, interconnected, paisley, tree, Turkoman, hunting ground, panel, European flower, vase, intertwined fish, Mehrab, striped, geometric, tribal, and composites. The designs are described by the organisations of the field within the rugs.

The Persian rugs and Carpet design employ one of three patterns, they are of either all-over, central medallion and one-sided. Persian and Oriental rugs pattern are known as motifs, each designs meanings are different and base on the region that the rugs are knotted. Areas with weaving history, the weavers tend to work from memory passed down through their family heritage.

The weaving rugs tend to be tedious and difficult process, based on the quality and size producing a rug/carpet may take anywhere from between a few months to several years.

The Weaving Process

Weaving of a rug/carpet is done by passing numerous wefts through a bottom warp that form a base of which to start. Piled knots of dyed wool or silk that are loose then tied around consecutive groups of parallel warps to form various patterns in the design.

Numerous rows are knotted in the foundation that becomes the rug pile. For every knotted rows a number of weft are pushed through and tightly pack down and secure the rows. The knots per square inch count can be anywhere between 16 to 550 kpsi, this being dependant on the fineness of the weave, the quality and the knowledge of the weavers

The most common Oriental Weavers are Abadeh, Afghan/Yomut (Turkmen) , Ahar, Afshar, Arak, Ardabil, Ardestan, Bakhtiari, Balouch, Bidjar, Birjand, Brujerd, Chelaberd, Dorokhsh, Farahan, Ferdos, Ghayen, Gonabad, Gonbad Ghaboos, Gorgan, heart, Heriz, Isfahan, Joshghan, Jozan, Kashan, Kashmar, Kerman, Lilian, Mahan, Mahalat, Maku, Mamasani, Marand, Mashhad, Mazlaghan, Meshkin Shahr, Moshk Abad, Mood, Naiem, Nishaboor, Rafsanjan, Ravar, Saraband, Sarab, Saraband, Sarukh, Semnan, Shahsavan, Shahre Kord, Shiraz, Shahr Reza, Qazvin, Qashgai, Qum, Tabriz, Tehran, Torghabeh, Veramin, Yalameh, Yazd, Zanjan, Zabol