Wool Recently Dyed In The Curing Stages The following article was written by Lisa Wagner, a second-generation rug care expert, NIRC Certified Rug Specialist and an owner of K. Blatchford”s San Diego Rug Cleaning Company. She was recognized as the 2006 Cleanfax magazine Person of the Year for her industry contributions. Rugs should be regularly cleaned. But not cleaned in the home. “Why not? There are two main reasons. The first is that you are not getting the rug thoroughly cleaned, and the second is that — in most cases — you are causing long-term damage to those woven textiles. I receive, on a weekly basis, technical help requests from cleaners or insurance case help requests from adjusters regarding damaged rugs. The rugs involved range in value from $100 to [...]

Oriental Rug Salon Is Certified By The Carpet & Rug Institute Different Persian, Turkish and Oriental carpets need many different approaches to cleaning and restoration and as such, can be tricky to the untrained professional. A misstep in the cleaning process could mean a valuable investment destroyed. We’ve seen all too often, an investment grade Oriental or Persian area rug devastated by a well-intentioned but uneducated rug or carpet cleaners. Recently a client presented us with an antique Persian Mashad area rug with an appraised value of $26,000.  The area rug was bled because she allowed someone else to clean it instead of the Eco Clean Solutions service, who we work with usually. The cleaning company was there initially to clean four rooms of wall-to-wall carpeting.  The technician asked the [...]

Hand Woven Silk Fringe Repair Fringes are almost always the first area on a Persian, Turkish or other wool or silk hand-knotted rug that will show signs of wear. The fringe is merely an extension of the foundation's area rug and runs through the entire carpet.  This extension is known as the “warp” and is used to weave each wool or silk knot around when creating the area rug. Upon completing of the weaving process, the rug is cut from the loom, and the excess warp strands are knotted and finished – creating the fringe or ‘tassel’ as it is commonly known. When fringes begin to fray, often they come loose from the stopping stitch used to hold the knots to the rug. Once the stopping stitch loosens, the knots [...]

When thinking of Persian or Turkish rugs, it’s not uncommon for people to think of the Islamic faith based on where these rugs are made and the dominant religion of the region. When thinking about beautiful hand-woven rugs, did you know that in addition to Muslim, other religions have also used rugs as part of their worship? Most rugs on today’s market are not used for religious purposes and are featured in homes throughout the world as a textile that brings a room together.  If you look closely at the motifs on many hand-woven rugs, you’ll see religious themes and secular subjects in their design and construction.  Persian, Turkish and other rugs that come from Muslim countries may feature stem Islamic motifs, rugs from Asia and European nations may highlight [...]

A Hand-Tufted Area Rug  The process for creating a hand-tufted rug is drastically different than hand weaving an Oriental, Persian or Turkish area rug. Hand-Tufted area rugs are made by punching strands of wool into a canvas or “cartoon” that is stretched on a frame with the help of a hand-operated tool. This process is not very time-intensive and does not require the same level of skill that hand-knotting does. After piling with wool, the rug is removed from the frame, and glue is applied to the back of the rug to keep the wool pile in place.  A scrim fabric is then applied to hide the glue backing. To complete the rug, a fringe is added by either sewing or gluing it on. Difference in Cost A hand-tufted rug [...]

As we’ve pointed out in previous blog posts, hand-woven rugs are works of art and should be treated as such. These beautiful, hand-woven textiles are unique and the result of many hours of labor and generations of knowledge and skills, and it is, for this reason, they are so highly valued, both in monetary terms and for sentimental reasons. Many rugs are in areas of heavy traffic, so it is essential that they are cleaned every couple of years to preserve them. One of the most important reasons for getting your area rug hand-washed by a specialist rug company such as Oriental Rug Salon is so that a thorough dusting takes place. Rug dusting is one of the essential steps to having a clean rug. Dust, dirt, and grit gather [...]

View our video on the advantages of applying a quality wool protector to your cherished area rug by following the below link: www.orientalrugsalon.com/videos/what-is-protector/ If your beautiful area rugs are positioned in an area that makes them susceptible to spills or high traffic, it makes sense to protect them with a quality fiber protector. Liquids such as wine, tea, coffee, Kool-Aid, and urine can cause severe and sometimes permanent damage to rug fibers which is why we recommend a stain protector treatment for peace of mind. Our specialist textile treatment seals the area rug fibers and creates an invisible bond that acts as a repellent by changing the surface energy. When either water or oil based liquids come into contact with the treated fibers, the spill is repelled instead of soaking [...]

Before the advent of “chemical” or “chrome” dyes, the Persian dyeing technique of wool was performed by villagers who were experts in producing the colors required by weavers to create the beautiful vegetable dyed rugs seen today. When sheared from sheep, wool may either be a light off-white ivory color, or a dark brown to black. Both may be used in Persian rug weaving, but it is the ivory wool that is easiest to alter through the process of dying to produce beautiful textiles and rugs. The earliest traditional dyes were those made from various vegetable sources. Vegetables, plants, and yes even bugs were mixed with water in a liquid form to allow the wool to soak and transform to just about any color you can imagine. Madder plants yield [...]

Hand-washing of rugs in Tabriz, Iran. In many parts of the world, Oriental, Persian, Turkish and other beautiful wool rugs are washed by hand in a stream. This “full-immersion” method uses the cold and running water of a stream coupled with natural hand-made “soaps” and has been used since the time of Moses. At Oriental Rug Salon, we too use natural cleaning agents coupled with full immersion cleaning in cold water.  Instead of submerging client’s rugs in a stream, we have a specialized bath where rugs are washed one at a time, by hand, by experienced rug cleaning professionals who love caring for wool and silk textiles. As each area rug is washed and moved to an air table for drying, the bath is drained, refilled with pH adjusted cold [...]

                    Oriental Rug Salon has an unrivaled reputation throughout the State of Florida for Oriental and Persian carpet and rug cleaning, repair and restoration. Our highly experienced rug weavers specialize in a traditional hand rug repair service for Persian, Afghan, Kilim, Turkish, Silk and Antique rugs, carpets, and runners.  From small rug repairs to a full Persian carpet restoration service, we offer a full range of services such as: Specialist Oriental rug cleaning Rug re-fringing and securing fraying sides Threadbare area and hole repair Carpet splits and tears repaired Moth rug damage correction – re-weaving and re-building Antique rug and carpet restoration specialists Pet/pest damage correction – including dog and cat urine removal service Carpet moth prevention treatment Non-slip/creep rug underlay [...]