Rugs on the Loom

Greetings Nomad Rugs readers.

Here are a couple of gorgeous shots I wanted to share with you. These came from one of our Afghan rug producers. In recent years, we have been custom ordering certain rugs with our own “bespoke” designs (that word is starting to get a bit over used… sorry.) Anyway, some of these are totally one-of-a-kind modern designs. And some are classic hundred (or hundreds) year old designs.

One of our wonderful producers sent us a couple of pictures so I could share them with you.

This first one shows a 4×6 loom with a Heriz design medallion rug being made. In the foreground you can see the “carton” or “graph” of the rug. In tribal weaves, many of the designs are know by heart and the weaver weaves by memory. But, in modern rug production, we are constantly changing designs and color combinations; always look for new ideas and styles. So, in this case, we provide the weavers with a map or “graph” of the rug so they can weave the appropriate colors with the correct colors.

This next pictures shows a HUGE rug on the loom with a Bidjar Garrus design. These rugs are entirely hand knotted in much the same way as they have been made for thousands of years. For large rugs, several weavers work together side-by-side. In an average weave, it takes one weaver one month to compete on square yard. So, a large rug such as this represents well over 2 years of man hours! (in this case, it is men weaving. But still most of our rugs are woven by women).

In this case, the weavers are using a “ground loom” or “horizontal loom”. This is a more basic and probably older style loom than the vertical loom. Sadly, the art of the hand knotted rug is a dying art. It is unlikely there will be many weavers 20 years from now. Younger generations are preferring to take on different less traditional work. Enjoy these beautiful works of art while you can!

And thanks for reading!

Stop by and say hi and Nomad Rugs San Francisco whenever you are in town. best, Chris