To read about the history behind the carpet and the peoples that produced it, go to the article HERE.

by D. Wagner, RugCareCentral

I recently stumbled on a random travelogue online where the writer described a trip to China back in 2001, and two stops that they made, in a silk factory, and in a silk rug weaving plant. I thought it was a fun, quick read, and had some nice photos, good basic info, and a personal touch.

Here's a quick quote:

Apparently silkworms prefer certain trees on which to build their cocoons. There are farms in China whose sole existence is dependent on raising silkworms so they can harvest the cocoons. What's amazing about the process is that the silkworm creates its cocoon out of a single silk thread that is continuous for approximately 3,600 feet.

Once the cocoons have been spun by the silkworm they are hand-picked and placed in an oven. The heat of the oven is enough to kill the silkworm inside but not damage the silk in the cocoon.

Once the silkworm is killed the cocoons are soaked in water. Soaking them in water allows the workers to easily locate the end of the silk thread, necessary to unravel the silk thread from the cocoon.

If you'd like to read the whole article, follow This Link.

Anyway, it got me thinking about the fascinating topic of silk production in general, and how it continues to impact the production of silk rugs in China. On Silk-Road.com, they have a terrific article on the history of silk production, and how it was the most closely guarded secret in China, punishable by death if revealed to outsiders, who for centuries sought to break the Chinese silk monopoly by finding out exactly how they did it.

Sericulture (or silk production) has a long and colorful history unknown to most people. For centuries the West knew very little about silk and the people who made it. Pliny, the Roman historian, wrote in his Natural History in 70 BC "Silk was obtained by removing the down from the leaves with the help of water…". For more than two thousand years the Chinese kept the secret of silk altogether to themselves. It was the most zealously guarded secret in history.

You can read the rest of that article, and see the pictures, at This Link.

Here at our Rug Shop in San Diego, we see a lot of Chinese Silk rugs pass through for wash and repair. Here is a good example of a high-quality room-sized piece in here at the moment.

It is a 9x12, and is in terrific shape.  EDIT: Actually, the owner would be interested in selling this piece, if it strikes your fancy. Contact us if you'd like more info rugcarecentral@gmail.com. It is a 300-line Chinese Silk, priced at $10,000)

Here are a couple other close-up pics (click to enlarge).

Handmade Chinese silk rugs vary in quality, depending on knots per square inch.

Additional Links of Interest:

Silk Production in Thailand

Good basic info at the Macclesfield Silk Museum site

Chinese Silk Rugs at Through the Collector's Eye.

Sericulture or silk production has a long and colorful history unknown to most people. For centuries the West knew very little about silk and the people who made it. Pliny, the Roman historian,

Dealing with insecurity issues is not something limited to people... handwoven rugs have security issues as well! More specifically, they often have a tendency to wear down and start to unravel. In collectible pieces, this can lead to rapid devaluation... every knot that comes loose represents dollars pulling away from the rug value...

But rugs don't have to be valuable and/or collectible to be worthy of securing. It only makes sense that a rug that is falling apart will be better served by securing the ends rather than allowing them to unravel.

That having been said, there are many ways this problem is addresses in the rug repair world - and some methods are definitely better than others. Here are a few examples that we see frequently.

This is a common solution to unraveling ends, but in this case, it merely appears that it is secure, rather than providing a good, long-term solution. This simple stitch really only serves to link together the first two rows of knots... with enough foot traffic, those two rows will slide off as a unit. Really, the securing stitching needs to go deeper into the rug, and be varied in depth, to distribute the tension across a larger area. The tension of the stitching itself needs to be in direct proportion to the way in which the rug was made - in other words, if the stitching is too tight or too loose, it will cause another set of problems.

This stitching above is appropriate, however, for flatwoven pieces, such as the red flatweave in this small thumbnail. In this particular piece, the ends are secure because the fringes (warps) themselves have been knotted. But if the fringes were not knotted, and the rug was unraveling, the simple basting stitch above would be good to hold the rug wefts in place - though we would usually make two passes instead of the one above, so that the stitching looked like a series of X's instead of the parallel lines leaning in one direction. Again, the stitching is most effective when the fringes of the flatweave are nice and long. A flatweave has no pile (individual knots) but rather are made up only of warps and wefts, so it works.

Here is another method of securing ends, which is effective in very specific cases. The fringes are tied together using a continuous thread, rather than adding a stitching that secures the wefts and knots to the rug itself. If the fringes are too short, this method will not work. Eventually, with foot traffic, the securing thread on the fringe will slide off. With longer fringe, the method works better... so as long as the fringes are long, this securing will hold. If the fringe is damaged (say by a vacuum, or excessive foot traffic), then be sure to watch for signs of the tied thread pulling loose.

This rug has had the fringes tied off, but the fringes are way too short, as you can see. The blue thread that was used to tied the ends off has broken in this corner, and is coming loose. It won't be long before knots start to slide free.

Again, some flatweaves are repaired in this way in our repair facility, using a thick, wax-coated thread, which is then steamed and pressed after the tying is finished, to add additional strength and permanence to the repair. So in some cases, it is the preferred method.

Machine surging is absoluetly the worst possible way to have the ends and/or sides secured, as in this picture (and the one below). The steady drilling with the machine needle will weaken and perforate your rug. When a rug is secured by hand, the securing thread is secured around weft threads, whereas the machine just drills right through the wefts, causing damage that is not repairable. In many cases, latex or other glue is also added along the back side, which is also impossible to remove. In every case, such a "repair" devalues rugs, and we are always grieved when we see rugs come in - especially nice rugs - that have been so butchered.

On top of it all, it is a jarring, ugly-looking repair, from both the front and the back.

The Best Way

The way we secure unraveling rugs is with a button-hole type of stitch, using "unbreakable" thread.

Visible only from the back, varying in depth bewteen 3 and 5 rows of knots, and secured at a tension matching that of the rug itself, it is what we feel to be the best long-term solution for handmade, piled rugs. The rug does not need to be babied - use it as you normally would. Plus, our overcast repair work is guaranteed for the life of the rug. If at any time in the future, now matter how distant or for whatever reason, the securing stitch breaks and the rug begins to unravel again, we will repair it again at no charge.

If you have any more questions about securing the ends of your rugs - or of any other repair for that matter - you can email us at rugcarecentral@gmail.com, or start a thread in our "Discussions" area.

Keep in mind, they both were the same size initially. The unaffected one is on the right, the washed flokati on the left. The piece shrank from the original size of 5' x 2' down to 3' 7" x 1' 10 ". As you can see, there is quite a bit of yellowing as well.

Here is the view from the back side. As you can imagine, with the backing shrinking so dramatically, all of the pile is now packed tightly together, making the piece very stiff and much harder to roll. The unaffected piece on the right is still nice and soft and loose.

Here is a close-up of the two rugs side-by-side, so you can see the difference in both the color and texture of the pile.

The pile on the affected piece is still white down at the very base, but the tips are quite yellowed.

It is uncertain how far we'll be able to reverse the damage, if at all. The yellowing is likely reversible to a great extent, but whether we'll be able to stretch the piece back toward its original size, or restore the softness to the pile is another issue.

Once the work is done, I will post more pictures at the end of this entry. Look for it soon! And try to avoid putting your rugs in the washing machine!

On Monday, January 11, Kate and Lisa both spoke in San Diego at a gathering of the Palomar Handweaver's Guild, on the campus of Trinity Episcopal Church in Escondido. They spoke on the basics of rug care, and fielded many questions from the attentive and quizzical Guild member's in attendance. Topics of discussion ranged from cleaning methods and materials, to different repair approaches, to the benefits and drawbacks of natural vs synthetic dyes, and much more.

Here is Kate in the post-presentation hands-on Q&A time.

Here is Lisa, likewise answering questions on rug construction in the Q&A time.

This chart of Navajo dye materials was featured on one of the handouts for the event. Click to enlarge.

If you have any further questions, email us a rugcarecentral@gmail.com.

For more detail, click HERE for Lisa's article on her Rug Chick Blog.

This tapestry came into our shop this week, and though we have yet to obtain information on its age and origin as of yet, I still felt it was interesting enough to post pictures of.

It is about 12' by 10', and is in very good condition. It has an interesting little Colosseum in the background, with a pair of dueling gladiators in it.

It had been prepared for hanging using Velcro at some point in the past, and now the Velcro is being removed, and a sleeve added so it can be hung on the wall with a decorative rod. Each method has its advantages.

Here are some more close-up pictures. Click to enlarge.

That meant patching.

We have collected many scraps of old rugs that we keep on hand for just this purpose. We had some scraps from another old Peking rug in our archive, the color and texture of which matched well enough for this purpose.

As you can see, the patches aren't exactly invisible, but they definitely serve the purpose, which was to stabilize and secure the rug, plugging the holes and making the area able to handle foot traffic again. They are certainly less eye-catching than the gaping, torn holes.

While we had it in our shop, we also did some touch-up dyeing in the field where the wear was the most noticeable. Selective dyeing can do wonders, as far as making the wear more aesthetically pleasing. 

This is a photo of the patches from the back side.

If you have a torn rug and wonder if perhaps it can be patched to allow you to use it again, by all means, email us photos and we can discuss options. rugcarecentral@gmail.com.

Here are some close-ups of parts of it, which you can click to enlarge.

Below, I will be adding hi-res pics of all 5 rugs, for comparison's sake...

This is the smallest - and oldest - of the 5 examples from the video clip. Below are pics of the border, the back corner, and a field element. Click to enlarge.

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The next is this room-sized Serapi, that has had extensive reweaving done at several points in the past. It is still a striking piece to look at.

Below are pics of the border, back corner and a field element, for comparison. Click to enlarge.

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Next is this room-sized piece from the turn of the last cetury. The colors are more muted, really, than this picture portrays - I got a bit carried away with the saturation levels when preparing this picture. The video shows more accurately the color levels.

Still, it's a good design, and is in good condition, but you can see the field is busier than the previous examples, as far as the design.

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 Next is another room-sized piece from the early 1900's. The colors are stronger, the design busier, the pile fuller. I'm sure you're noticing the pattern...

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And finally, we end with the Serapi from the 1930's, which carries the pattern to its logical conclusion.

Much busier, stronger colors, sharper lines, fuller pile. Definitely has the "mass production" feel to it... rugs made to be sold rather than made for use by those that create/commission them.

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And finally, here are the medallions in the four room-sized pieces, for comparison.