Area rugs create a frame to place your furniture on and serve as a decorative piece. You can find them in three variants such as hand knotted, hand tufted and machine weave. Each of these types have different features. However, hand knotted and hand tufted ones are usually. This blog post discusses their fabrication and structures.
Hand Knotted Area Rugs
A time intensive and costly variant, hand knotted area rugs are made on a specialized loom requiring a lot of skill by the individually trained and experienced artisans. An average weaver can tie about ten thousand knots daily and a large area rug takes around 4 months to create in total. If the design is complex, it might even take years to complete. Known to be durable enough to outlive its owner, they can be overdyed once faded. Make sure you keep your pets away from the rug as animal urine can cause them permanent damage. Also, avoid going for dry and steam cleaning. An interesting point to note is that they are original and available as a single piece creation. No two oriental rugs are the same.
One look at the fringe would tell you if it is a hand knotted area rug or not. Acting as a warp thread, the fringes are knotted by hand and looks uneven. If you check the backside of the hand knotted rug, it would exactly imitate the top portion and you will be able to use it reverse as well. Every knot that is weaved to create the rug is countable on hand knotted ones.
The price of the rug is determined by knots per square inch (KPSI) and the type of fibre used. Other factors factored into the price are:
• Higher knot count
• Tighter knots
• Quality and availability of the fibre
• Density of the knots
• Shape and size of the rug in general
• Time taken to complete it
• Intricacy of the design
• Finishing
Hand Tufted Area Rugs
This rug is built with the help of a hand operated tufting gun. It is made by punching strands of coloured wool into a canvas stretched on a frame that has the design printed on it. Once one pile is created, the rug is removed from the frame and the carpet is secured with a coarse fabric lining. These are usually mass manufactured with a lot of craftsmen working simultaneously and easily available because of its low production time. It is very useful in living rooms and hallways.
The fringe of a hand tufted rug is separately made using a different fabric and then attached to the rug. If you turn it to its canvas back, you will see the canvas part is artificially glued to hold the rug together. Heavy pressure on the rugs might disrupt its shape, cause wrinkles and break the backing. The knots cannot be counted. In fact, not all of them are knotted. Since they don’t require a lot of time to make, they are affordable as well. Curated according to the different trends of the period, one rug serves a lifetime of fifteen years with proper maintenance.
Hope this post has been able to help you understand the difference between hand-knotted and hand tufted area rugs. Now that you know the distinct features of these two types of area rugs, you can choose what you need for your home.