Throughout the Ages Rugs Have Been Part of the History and Culture of a Country --
from the elegant hand-knotted rugs of ancient Persia to the braided rag rugs of the earliest American settlers. Today, because of advancements in weaving technology, rugs have become more available and diversified. Open any decorating magazine, and you will see that area rugs have become a true foundation to any decorating style -- whether formal, traditional, contemporary, or eclectic.
Abingdon Rug is a dealer for several suppliers of all types of rugs, imported and domestic, of all shapes, sizes, colors, materials, weaves, styles, and techniques.
Hand Hooked
Hooked rugs are made by pushing a yarn through the back of a canvas cloth until the design is created. Then it is either left looped (loop or latch hook) or is cut. If a loop should pull out on the surface of the rug, DO NOT pull it. Either cut it off flush at the surface, or darn it back to the underside.
Once the rug is completed, a protective backing cloth is applied. Many times rugs are hand carved to accentuate the the details in the design. Loop-hooked rugs have been popular since Colonial days and are becoming very popular again with country and Victorian style decorating.
Woven/Flatwoven
Woven rugs are woven on a loom, operated either by hand, machine, or computer. Flatweaves are reversible, created when a weft (cloth strips, wool cotton, etc.) is woven across a warp creating a design. The warp later becomes the fringe once the rug is taken off the loom.
Computerized looms now can duplicate patterns once only created by hand, such as Spanish needlepoint rugs (Spanish berbers).
Dhurries are reversible woven rugs that are usually geometric in design because of the relatively coarse yarn used. Kelims use finer denier yarn and capture intricate designs and shadings.
Braided Rugs
The first braided rugs were made from strips torn from blankets and canvas, then made into a braid (such as a girl would braid her hair). The braids were then sewn together.
A new manufacturing process at the turn of the century turned continuous yarn into beautiful braided rugs. Many times these continuous yarns were (and still are) braided around a core, then braided again and sewn into shape. Braided rugs come in oval, round, and rectangular shapes. They have continued to be extremely popular to the present day, such as our Capel collections.
Hand Knotted
Traditionally, hand-knotted Orientals are rugs originating along the ancient trade routes in Persia (Iran), Turkey, and Caucacus (southern Russia). India, China, Pakistan, and Romania are also major contributors.
The intricate designs are usually inspired by surroundings, motifs, and city designs, such as the familiar Kirman medallion, as featured on many Nourison rugs.. Grading hand-knotted rugs is measured in India by the Knot count system (knots per square inch or foot). China uses the Line count system (knots per linear foot combined with pile height). An average Indian weaver ties 6,000 knots per day and takes an entire year to complete a 9x12 rug.
After a rug is woven, it can take from 8-40 hours to complete the "finishing" process. Each rug is washed 1-2 times and rinsed up to 10 times, then stretched and sized.
All rugs are sheared by hand to the uniform pile height. The edges are bound by hand, and fringe is created.
Oriental Reproductions
As copies of classic Oriental rug designs, today's reproductions provide affordability while offering the look and feel of a more costly rug. Many times it is hard to distinguish one from its handmade counterpart.
Two looms, the Wilton and the Axminster, are used to weave three different types: Wilton, Cross-Woven, and Axminster. A straight (Wilton) weave is limited to five colors. Cross-Woven Wiltons allow for more colors to be used. Axminster looms can create the complex hand-knotted rug designs in numerous colors. Quality is measured by pile height and density (points per square meter). An example of these types can be found in our Karastan collection.
Materials
Wool is the premier fiber for area rugs. Natural spiral crimping gives wool its resilience to high traffic areas. Wool is covered by a thin natural stain-proofing protection. The same membrane which is so waterproof still allows the fiber to absorb moisture in vapor form, thus making it resistant to static electricity. Wool is naturally flameproof due to its high moisture content and its protein constituents.
The structure of a wool fiber is made up of overlapping scales. These keep dust and dirt near the surface of the pile, where it can be easily released by vacuuming. The chemical structure of wool draws the dye color and creates a molecular bond. Thus its colors are truly permanent and vivid.
Wool substitutes (modacrylic yarns) are "modified" to have similar characteristics to wool in feel, fire retardability, and soil resistance. Many people with wool allergies can use modacrylic rugs. The overall cost can be decreased without sacrificing on design and color.
Cleaning
The frequency of cleaning will vary according to the traffic that the rug receives. Hand-hooked rugs with latex backings should never be cleaned using a petroleum based solvent. Reversible rugs should be turned over, then around regularly.
Vacuum rugs often to prevent dirt and grit from building up and underneath. In the event of a spill, blot the affect area (DON'T RUB!) with a soft absorbent cloth. To remove dirt spots, use a dry powder rug cleaner.
The safest recommendation is to have the rugs professionally cleaned.
Fuzzing of a new wool rug is a normal process. In most instances it is recommended that you vacuum your new rug two or three times a week during the first year of use.
Sizes
There are essentially no rules for rug sizes, only guidelines. Placing pieces of newspaper on the floor can help you visualize how much of the floor will be covered.
A room size rug should be kept 18" to 24" away from the walls of a room to allow for a border floor or carpet to show around the rug. Measure the room, then subtract 3 feet from the width and length to allow for a border. Consider the traffic patterns, sitting arrangements, fireplace, and other details of the room.
Dining Rooms: Add 4' to the length and width of the table (at least 2' of rug is needed beyond the edges of the table) to prevent the chairs from falling off the rug.
Hallways: 2" to 4" narrower and about 18" to 24" shorter than the hallway.
Scatter Rugs: 2'x3' and 4'x6' are used in high traffic areas.
Room sizes: 6'x9' (the most popular size). This is the "in front of the couch rug." Other sizes include 8'x10', 9'x12', and 10'x14'.
Now more rugs are available in square and round shapes.
Padding
Padding is recommended for every rug, no matter what type of backing the rug has or what type of floor it is going to be used on. Padding provides 1) Safety, especially important with scatter sizes; 2) Durability, because it cushions the impact of traffic; and 3) Comfort under foot.
Area Rug Fibers & Looms
Fibers can either originate from plants such as flax, cotton, jute, sea grass, or spun from the fleece of sheep, alpaca, llama and goats. Rayon, a man-made fiber, is synthesized from trees. Nylon and polypropylene are synthesized from petroleum and natural gas.
A few terms....
Acrylic: Man-made fiber with wool-like appearance. Does not dye as well as nylon and is less durable. Hand-tufted acrylic rugs in accent sizes have been introduced in the U.S. during the past five years. Rugs over 20 sq. ft.
BCF:Bulked continuous filament yarns are synthetic yarns processed by a mechanical means to fluff them out before tufting or weaving
Continuous Filament:Nylon or polypropylene yarn made in one long strand that can be tufted or woven without the need for further processing.
Faux silk: "False silk" is usually a synthetic, such as polyester, or cellulosic fiber such as viscose/rayon. Mercerized cotton is also used as a silk look-alike. Also called art silk, faux silk is usually used as small accents or in a short, dense pile constructions.
Heatset:Twisted yarns are treated with heat to retain their "permanent wave" for better performance and appearance retention.
Nylon: Durable synthetic fiber which also has good dyeing characteristics. Nylon yarns can be solution dyed, skein dyed and/or space dyed. Nylon is a manufactured fiber that is extremely strong, elastic, abrasion resistant and lustrous.
Polyester: Synthetic fiber most often used in staple spun yarns.
Polypropylene/Olefin: Synthetic fiber used extensively in machine made rugs. This low-cost fiber is colored in the pellet phase of production. Performs best when heatset and/or used in a dense construction. The polypropylene fiber is characterized by its resistance to moisture.
Rayon is made of cellulose, which is in the walls of all plant cells, and is the main substance of wood.
Solution Dyed: A method of dyeing synthetic fiber in which pigment is added to the nylon or polypropylene chip before it is extruded as filament yarn.
Space Dyed: Yarn colored in sections of different colors before being tufted or woven into a rug. Abrash effects can be created with space dyed yarns. Space dyeing is frequently applied to nylon fibers.
Wool: There are many grades of wool. Long staple wool from New Zealand is considered to be most effective for rug manufacturing. One of the oldest textile fibers known, it has survived the test of time because of its unique natural properties. The basic characteristics wool possessed in the Stone Age era, for instance, are still the fundamental qualities that make wool unique in this century. Today there are many other textile fibers, but as yet science has not been able to produce another fiber containing all the natural properties of wool. Wool remains unique; a masterpiece of design.
Worsted: An extra step in wool processing that combs out shorter fibers resulting in durable and lustrous yarns.
A short history of rug-making
Until the mid 19th Century, only extremely wealthy Americans could afford beautiful rugs. Ordinary people covered their floors with hand-loomed or braided “rag” rugs or floor cloths made from painted sailcloth. Rich people bought hand knotted Persian rugs that came to the U.S. via England.
That changed with the Industrial Revolution when machine woven decorative rugs became affordable for middle class people. Further developments in both tufting and weaving in the 20th Century made rugs available to virtually everyone.
19th Century Looms
In the 1840’s, Erastus Brigham Bigelow patented the first steam-driven weaving looms in Lowell, MA, and the American carpet and rug industry was born.
Bigelow’s steam-powered loom was followed in the 1870’s by the Axminster power loom. Halcyon Skinner invented the patterning technology for Alexander Smith & Sons in Yonkers, NY.
Axminster technology dominated the rug and carpet business until after World War II.
Bigelow and Alexander Smith have gone through various incarnations, but still exist. Although neither company currently makes rugs, both are part of today's Mohawk Industries.
Until the early 1990's, the American carpet and rug business was considered a single entity, with the emphasis on carpet.
By the mid- 20th Century, tufting emerged as the dominant manufacturing technology and broadloom carpeting was the dominant product.
Machine made rugs took a back seat. Tufted rugs were relegated largely to inexpensive machine-washable products for the bath room or kitchen.
Axminster woven rugs from Karastan and a few others were fairly costly. Hand knotted rugs from Persia and later China were extremely expensive.
In the late 20th Century, weaving re-emerged as the dominant rug making technology and beautiful, decorative rugs became available to the middle and mass the u.s. machine made rug industry
THE TUFTING REVOLUTION
In 1895, Catherine Evans Whitener, a young Georgia farm girl, made a hand-tufted bedspread for her cousin’s wedding. It was the beginning of the tufting revolution.
Whitener's revival of this hand craft came only 50 years after Bigelow's steam-powered loom. It took another 50 years for tufting to become the dominant form of manufacture in the carpet business.
By the mid-1930's, tufted bedspreads were no longer made by hand. They were made on multi-needle machines that operated much like sewing machines.
Area rugs were fairly immune to the tufted revolution. Machine tufting had technical limitations in terms of patterns and colors. As a result, the tufted rug business has been largely confined to the washable small rug business.
Printing technology, however, has been making inroads into the tufted room size rug industry over the past decade.
Milliken introduced its Millitron jet-injection system of printing in the mid 1970’s. It is now in its fifth generation. Millitron uses its system for both rugs and carpeting.
Other patterning processes such as Chromajet printing have come on-stream in the past ten years. They use computer-controlled jets of color to achieve virtually unlimited color and pattern effects on a tufted carpet base.
Beginning in 1999, Mohawk and Shaw have introduced rugs made with computerized injection-dyed technology. These products have been developed primarily for value-oriented markets with such applications as the juvenile, accent rug and washable rug categories.
