In this article, we are going to share the rug buying guide with you. First of all, it is better to know exactly what the carpet is. The rug, which is also called “plus”, belongs to the category of products such as carpets and underlays, whose warp and weft are woven together, and its distinctive feature is that it does not have any lint or fiber shedding.
Carpet is one of Iran’s handicrafts and arts, the weaving of which is usually done in rural and nomadic areas and is sold all over Iran. In the weaving of this type of carpet, the wefts pass through the threads. There are different types of rugs, each of which has its own beauty and characteristics.
The weaving of some rugs is very time-consuming due to the designs and fibers used in them, and naturally their prices are higher. Also, some rugs are woven in simple designs and materials, which is why their cost is lower than other types.
The type of carpet fibers
Usually, the fibers used in the warp and weft of carpets and rugs are silk, wool, and cotton.
A carpet woven from silk usually has a softer and better quality than other fibers and has a higher price.
For the weaving of wool rugs, wool of a special breed of goat, cow and sheep is usually used, which are very high quality and resistant. In some carpets, the combination of the wool of these animals is used.
Carpet buying guide video
Types of carpets Carpet buying guide
Simple rugs : Simple rugs are also called flat or double-sided rugs. Simple rugs are less thick compared to other rugs. The important thing about simple rugs is that you can use both of them.
Sumac rugs : Sumac rugs are also called one-sided rugs. Sumac rugs are thicker than simple rugs. But they are one-sided and the back of the rug cannot be used. An interesting point is that due to the knots caused by the weaving of the threads on the back of the sumac rug, it is recommended that if you plan to use these authentic handicrafts in the reception hall or somewhere Choose this type of carpet if there is a lot of traffic on it. Because these knots cause the rug to slip less on the floor and ceramic surface.
Carpet rug : This type of rug is called carpet rug for this reason, because its texture is a combination of sumac rug texture and carpet. Some parts of the rug are embossed and have piles.
Types of Iranian handwoven rugs
The types of carpets in Iran are divided according to the region, which we have discussed in detail in the history of carpet weaving and the introduction of Iranian carpet types based on the geographical regions of their weaving. Here we mention each of them.
- Gilim Il Shahson
- Khumsa rug
- Lori’s hand-woven carpet rug
- Turkmen handwoven rug
- Seneh rug
- Baloch rug
- Zarand hand-woven carpet
- Qashqai rug
- Harsin rug
- Anbaran rug
- Afshari rug
Il Shahson hand-woven carpet rug
Il Shahson carpet has a special and famous texture, which is called “verni” in the local language. This name is from the local language, and in the rest of Iran, the rug is called “sumak”. Shahson’s carpet design mostly includes broken geometric shapes.
Khumsa rug
Khamse rug, which is woven by 5 tribes in Shiraz city, is one of the famous Iranian rugs. The design of the Khamsa rug has a dark background with stars that are placed on top of each other in the form of several rhombuses.
Lori’s hand-woven carpet rug
One of the best Iranian rugs is a rug that is woven in the Lorestan region. Black, white, green, and blue colors are mostly used in the texture of the Lori rug, and its design mostly includes geometric shapes and animals.
Turkmen handwoven rug
Turkmen rugs have a wide variety of colors. The colors used in the texture of this type of rug mostly include red, yellow, green, blue and light shade, which gives a lot of charm to the Turkmen rug.
Seneh rug
In the distant past, the modern city of Sanandaj was called “Sane”. Seneh rugs are very elegant. The Saneh rug has very beautiful colors and usually has a bergamot design in the middle.
Baloch handwoven rug
One of the most beautiful types of Iranian hand-woven rugs belongs to the Baloch people. The people of Balochistan are very fond of nature and water, and the design of Baloch rugs is also taken from these elements. The design of Baloch rug is mostly striped and dark colors such as brown and red, camel and garlic blue are used in it.
Zarand hand-woven carpet rug
Zarand rug is very similar to Shahson rug; Because the weavers of this type of carpet are residents of Shahson region. One of the characteristics of Zarand rug is its length and narrowness.
Qashqai rug
Qashqai rugs are woven in Fars province, but it is interesting to know that they are also called Turkish rugs. Among the most prominent features of Qashqai rugs is the use of happy colors and geometric shapes and designs. The geometrical designs of Qashqai carpet mostly include 8-pointed star, goat, peacock, deer and octagonal design.
Harsin hand-woven carpet
Harsin rug is woven in the Kurdish areas of Iran, especially in the city of Harsin. This style of Iranian rug has busy designs, and for this reason, few empty spaces are seen in it.
Most of the colors you see in this Harsin rug include navy blue and magenta. The most famous Hersin style rug is woven in Kermanshah, which has outstanding designs and is called “Telis”.
Anbaran rug
Musnad Anbaran carpet is one of the types of Iranian handwoven carpets that is woven in the Anbaran region of Ardabil. These carpets have few bergamots in the middle, but in contrast to the Shah Abbasi flower design, the design of a pair of flowers with a border, the design of a heather flower, and the flower of Khara are its characteristics.
Afshari rug
Another type of Iranian hand-woven rug is the Afshari rug, which has a dark background and the main designs on it include stars and flowers and are woven very closely together.
The most famous designs of machine carpet rugs :
The most famous designs of machine carpet rugs :- frame design (brick)
- Simple floor plan
- Striped design
- Kurdish design (table)
- screw screw design
- Shamlu design
- Afshari design or Mahramat (linear)
The difference between a carpet and a rug :
Carpets have piles, but rugs do not have piles. The living carpet is softer and more comfortable, but the rug is a bit drier. The price of the rug is a bit cheaper compared to the carpet, that’s why it is used more.
Handwoven rugs
1- All-wool rug: All-wool hand-woven rug is a rug whose thread, weft and pile are made of wool. These types of rugs have a coarse texture due to the type of piles. All-wool rugs usually have a lot of weight and are cheaper in terms of price, and you can rarely find the artistic type with high texture in them.
2- Chale wool rug : This type of rugs is made of wool, but its piles are not only made of wool, and other materials may also be used in its texture.
3- All-silk carpet: A carpet whose thread, weft and pile are made of silk. This type of rugs is usually very finely woven and has a high artistic value as well as a high price.
4- Silk floor carpet: A carpet whose chelae is made of warp thread (chelae) is made of wool, but the entire background is woven of silk.
5- Silk flower rug: The hem of this rug is made of wool, but the flowers and sometimes the leaves in the map are woven from silk thread and the rest of the piles are woven from wool. These types of rugs may have a lower price than all-silk rugs, but they have a higher artistic value.
How to recognize a high-quality carpet
One of the ways to distinguish a quality rug from a low-quality one is to pay attention to the color of the rug .
Note that the rug you are going to buy has a natural color. Because if its color is not natural, it will react against sunlight and get damaged.
Now, how do you know if the carpet you have chosen is treated with natural or chemical dyes?
There are two ways:
The first way is to look at the color itself. Chemical colors are very bright and so-called screaming and nasty. If the natural colors, like the colors used in other traditional works, have their own maturity and softness.
The second way , if the seller allows you to do it, is to take a damp cloth and rub it on the carpet. If the colors are absorbed by the napkin, it means that they are chemical and if you want to use that rug for a long time, consider saving money on buying this type.
Another thing that you should pay attention to when buying a rug is the density of the rug texture .
As a rule, a rug with a higher texture density is more valuable.
Now, how to find out the density of the rug in its texture?
The best thing to do is to hold the chosen rug and pull it slowly from the sides. If the carpet has sufficient density and is full of texture, it is resistant to this tension and assures you that you have chosen the right carpet to buy. But if the carpet does not have a dense texture, when You pull it from the sides, the rug is stretched, and the white cotton threads used as the warp are visible through the wefts of the rug, which is not a good look for a hand-woven rug.
The third thing is the weight of the rug, which should be taken into consideration when buying it .
The lighter and lighter the rug you have chosen, the higher the quality and artistic quality. Because this lightness of the rug shows that the threads and weaves used in it are more delicate and finally woven with great patience and precision.
Another interesting point that you should pay attention to when buying a rug is the asymmetry of patterns and the difference in their colors in the rug .
This asymmetry is due to the fact that rugs are considered among rural and nomadic handicrafts in Iran. The carpet weavers do not use any kind of plan while weaving it, and all the motifs woven in the carpet are based on imaginations and inspired by the nature and surrounding environment of their nomads. For this reason, it sometimes happens that a pattern is woven with several colors in different parts of the rug. Because they have used their imaginations and imaginations while weaving and they don’t consider specific principles and harmony.
Therefore, the asymmetry of the rug’s motifs, in addition to adding to its value, shows the originality of its rural handicrafts.
Of course, keep in mind that with the progress made in recent years, some rugs are also woven according to a plan, and this issue does not diminish the value of this traditional art.
When buying a rug, pay attention to the border between different colors .
When the carpet weaver intends to change the color of the motifs, the so-called creams should be completely mixed and there should be no gap between the colors. Because this distance shows itself as a groove or a hole that reduces the quality and beauty of the rug.
Be sure to check that the carpet you choose does not have a head .
When buying a rug, bring the upper part to the lower part or fold it in the middle. Does the upper part completely fit over the lower part of the rug and cover it? If so, the carpet you have chosen is very high quality and has a lot of value because it is carefully woven. But if the upper part overlaps very little with the lower part and is uneven with the lower part, this means that your selected rug has a “head” and this is one of the problems of this traditional and nomadic handwoven type. Of course, if this inequality is very small, you can ignore it and pay attention to other points.
It is also important to pay attention to the type of carpet .
Rugs woven from silk or wool are more resistant to rotting and wear out later. So you can enjoy these beautiful handicrafts for a longer time.
However, rugs woven from cotton thread react sooner to decay factors such as wear and tear due to walking on it or sunlight.
Important and practical tips when buying a rug :
- The price of a machine-made carpet : The first factor when buying a carpet is its price. Before doing anything, determine how much you are going to spend on buying a rug. When the amount of the budget is determined, many models that are not in your price range will automatically be removed and the choice will be easy for you.
- Carpet Design : As mentioned in the previous section, carpet design has different designs that you can choose according to your taste. Some of its designs have geometric shapes and some of them have the shape of flowers, plants or animals, so paying attention to the design of the rug is the second point that you should pay attention to.
- Carpet size : Carpets are woven in different sizes. It starts from a two-meter carpet and leads to 4-meter, 6-meter, 9-meter, and 12-meter carpets. Of course, there is also a type of rug that is woven in a roll that you cut into the size you want, which is called a roll rug . So, determine the size of the rug based on your size.
- Quality of texture : To understand the quality of the texture of the rug, it is better to take a look at the back of it. The defects of the carpet and the rug are always found behind it. The back of the rug should not have big knots, scratches or tears. The smaller and larger the size of its knots, the higher the quality of the texture in that rug. Finally, its root should not be made of low quality thread.
- Yarn quality : pay attention to the quality of the yarn used in the production of the rug, especially the way the yarn is dyed, if the dyeing stage of the yarn is not done well, the color of the yarn may get mixed together after a while and your carpet rug will look If it is not good, this issue shows itself mostly when you wash the carpet you want.
- Warranty : Usually, reputable brands guarantee their products. A company that is not sure of the quality of its product will never guarantee it because it will cost the company a lot, so when a company guarantees its product, you can be certain of the quality of that product.
The important points that you should pay attention to in the maintenance of machine carpets are :
– Not washing the carpet:
Avoid folding the rug, because this will cause your rug to get tangled and torn. The best way to collect and store the rug is to roll or tube it.
– How to wash:
Be sure to use cold water and standard and approved detergents to wash the carpet.
– Avoiding direct sunlight:
Avoid placing the rug in direct sunlight. Because this causes decay and color change in the carpet carpet.
– Not placing heavy objects:
Avoid placing sharp and heavy objects such as cupboards or furniture on the rug. If you need to do this, be sure to use the legs under the sofa.
In this article, we mentioned the history, advantages, and how to maintain and choose a machine-made carpet rug. Be sure to pay attention to the points mentioned when buying a carpet.
