A hand grenade border, with a map of Afghanistan in the field, accompanied by tanks, jet fighters, an assault rifle and what looks like a troop transport helicopter of some kind.

These rugs are always fascinating to me. They are widely collected, and have been woven since the Russian invasion/occupation of Afghanistan ~1980-1990. These pictoral rugs feature images of weaponry, vehicles and other war-related items. It is believed that they started weaving these rugs for no more complex a reason than it was what they saw around them. Sort of the rug weaving equivalent of the old axiom "write what you know." Their lives were war, so they wove their lives into their rugs - and continue to do so today.

Here are more close-ups of this particular rug: (click to enlarge)

There are many articles available online on Afghan War Rugs, including this article at Oriental Rug Review and this article from SFGate.com.

by Dave Wagner at Rug Care Central

This piece had an interesting tag on the back with “care instructions” from the manufacturer.

Here’s the tag, with our commentary: Click to make larger.

In case it’s hard to read for you, I have copied the text here.

--------------------

No 1 -- When using rug pad with RAISED design under this rug, be sure that the raised design of the pad faces DOWN against the floor, with the smooth side UP. Otherwise the uneven surface design of the pad will in time cause uneven wear on the surface of the rug.

Our Thoughts:  Having handled thousands of rugs in our lifetime here, we have NEVER seen a pad with a raised design ever cause any uneven wear. It may be this is an old care label, because this is certainly outdated information.

The purpose of a pad is to hold a rug in place and keep it from sliding around on the floor, and also to be a shock absorber for foot traffic to lessen rug wear over time. The pad manufacturers (we use Durahold – the best pad in the industry) design the pads to be placed “raised” side up. They certainly would not be designing these to harm the rugs, especially since the developers of Durahold (the No-Muv corporation) is owned by an oriental rug gallery family that has been around since the late 1800’s. They know rugs, and they know rug pads. 

No 2 -- Use an electric vacuum cleaner as often as necessary to keep your rug clean and free from dirt and grit. Vacuuming helps prevent the pile from packing down.

Our Thoughts: Regular vacuuming is the most important habit you can have to protect your rug from wear. The dry grit and contaminants work their way into the base of the wool fibers and cause abrasion and breaking.

A wool rug can hold a full pound of dry soil in several square feet before it will look dirty, because wool fibers hide the soil so well.  It’s one of the pluses of wool, because it looks cleaner longer...but one of the minuses because this often means people wait too long before they clean it.

We recommend weekly vacuuming of rugs in high traffic areas, but we suggest that you use a canister vacuum, or other vacuum or attachment that has no brushes that create weekly agitation to the rug. You basically want to “dust” the rug and pick up the dry particulates from the top of the fibers.

If all you own is a beater bar vacuum, then we suggest you keep your bar setting on the highest level (to lessen abrasion). We also suggest training your family, or your cleaning company, to vacuum from SIDE to SIDE rather than along the length so that they do not suck up the fringe tassels into the beater bar.

Once or twice a year, it’s good to lay your wool rugs fuzzy side down, and vacuum the BACK of the rug with a beater bar to shake the grit out from the base of the fibers. You can then flip the rug over and sweep up the soil, as well as vacuum the top side.  See THIS PAGE for more information on at-home dusting. Otherwise, when your rug is cleaned by a professional, the rug cleaner will (hopefully) include both pre- and post-wash dusting as part of the cleaning process.

No 3 -- Long ends may work to surface after use or vacuuming. Never pull them out -- clip them off even with the rug surface.

Our Thoughts:  Because wool is spun with staple fibers, as opposed to one long filament as silk is, this means there are always some potential fibers that can work their way loose. This is especially true on new rugs that have not been properly washed yet (a wash will remove many of these).

Sometimes, in the final shearing of a wool rug, some longer fibers can get tucked down and then pop up when the rug is walked on.

In both cases, the best thing to do is what they suggest – clip it off. 

No 4 -- Remove spots promptly. Liquid spillage: sponge or flush with cold water and blot dry. Greasy or gummy spots: use solvent-type cleaner.

Our Thoughts: It used to be that Karastan rugs had some of the strongest, highest-quality dyes in the machine woven rug industry. On the older rugs you could in fact take cold water and attack a spill with few repercussions.

Today, as Karastan has subcontracted more product to China, and has chosen some horrible blended rug designs using rayon (aka viscose), you need to be careful with how you respond to spills.

The best step is blotting. And if you see ANY dye color transfer into the white cotton towel, then you need to blot as much as you can and get that rug to a professional to help alleviate any permanent damage.

For some more details on proper spill techniques on wool rugs, see THIS PAGE for a spill video and information on handling accidents on rugs. You can of course give us a call and we can help you as well (858-566-3833).

No 5 -- This rug may be cleaned by washing. When the rug becomes soiled, do not attempt any makeshift cleaning at home. Send your rug to an experienced rug cleaner who is familiar with cleaning a washed, luster rug such as this is.

Our Thoughts: If you have a quality rug, especially a natural fiber rug (wool, silk, cotton), then of course you send it to a professional for cleaning. There are risks to cleaning anything at home – fiber loss, dye loss, construction issues (curling, buckling, delamination), and drying issues (if you do not dry the inner fibers completely you can create a mildew problem).

We’ve seen some valuable rugs ruined by well-intended owners, or their housekeepers. Valuable American Indian weavings tossed in the washing machine as if it were a blanket. Silk rugs taken to the local dry cleaner as if it were a blouse. Antique rugs given to their in-home carpet cleaning company for steam cleaning, because they did not realize how valuable the rug was (and that heat on wool and the strong chemicals they use for nylon can ruin a valuable wool rug).

We’ve seen it all. Heart breaking damage that we many times cannot fix. Damage that with just a little education could have been avoided.

If you own a not very valuable rug, and want to see if there is a way for you to clean it on your own, then send some photos (front and back) of the rug, along with what part of the country you are in, and we can give you our thoughts on what to be wary of. Quality rugs need a proper washing, which can’t be done at home, and should never be done IN your home (we just had a frantic call from a woman whose cleaning company took her SILK rug out on her driveway to clean it – can you imagine that?).

If you email your photos and details (size, whether you are in a sunny area, and how you were going to attempt to clean it) – we will let you know if you are setting yourself up for a disaster. The best email to send that to is Lisa’s, and she is at rugchick@gmail.com.

It’s not a surprise that manufacturers of rugs would not know how exactly to clean their product properly. If you ruin the rug...you will then have to buy a NEW one. :)

By Lisa Wagner

At first glance it may seem fine, but if you look a bit closer, you'll notice that in the center of the rug, on both ends, the rug pulls in somewhat. Here is a closer look, for comparison.

As I mentioned, this is a frequent issue with these types of rugs. The problem traces all the way back to when the loom was first set up, at the very beginning of the weaving process. When the wool warps are strung up, it is difficult to get universal tension across the loom, usually because the wool warps have been spun at different tensions during the spinning process. So the warps appear to be the same tension at the beginning, and even when cut off the loom during the finishing process, but the first time the rug is washed and the warps "relax", they end up shifting and pulling the rug out of shape, often with drastic results.

This is a concern for our rug washing shop in particular, because it is a manufacturing characteristic, and has nothing to do with a wash-related mistake. When a client brings a new rug in and it lays fairly flat before the wash, and then after the wash exhibits pronounced waviness (even though it was washed correctly), it can be hard to explain.

Even on rugs that have been washed before, the problem might increase with subsequent washes. It cannot be corrected in most cases. While some of these rugs can be stretched back into a more uniform shape, the rug itself will usually slowly pull itself back out of shape when off the stretching floor for any length of time. So they will look great immediately after stretching, but it won't last long.

Here is another runner that came in for wash recently.

You can readily see that the rug is crooked, which is much more noticeable in its natural habitat (a hallway!), as distances between the rug and the walls make the misshapen state evident. But what is not as evident is the buckling along the length. Look at this rug from another angle.

From this angle, you can see the waviness along the left side. In extreme cases, this can be a tripping hazard, even with a good pad underneath the rug. Again, stretching the rug is not an option... in this case because the sides already lay nice and flat, their sidecords wrapped and secured at a proper tension.

The sides lay flat already. Stretching the rug to correct the waviness in the field would cause problems - possibly damaging the rug - along the sides.

Bottom line, this is a manufacturing characteristic, which in some cases will slightly worsen with wash, and is normally not correctible. It's just something you'll need to know about your Afghan rugs, if you have any in your collection.

Over at Dr. Sobhe's RugMaster Blog, he has an interesting article up on some of the history behind Edward Fields Rugs which you might find fun to read. Here's a snippet:

The creation of Edward Field’s rugs began in 1935. Edward fields created a carpet that was like none other; he also single handedly created and coined the term “area rug”. These rugs are known for their high quality and the fact that they are like hand tufted. Edward Fields created a tufting gun that was used for his floor coverings. This gun allowed for varying thicknesses and different designs throughout the Edward Fields carpet.

To read the rest of the artcile, as well as see more pictures, click THIS LINK, to go to the RugMaster Blog.

Dave

Here is a picture of one such rug that came into our shop this week.

From the front, it looks like any other tufted & latexed rug - most of which we can clean just fine. But in this particular case, the latex that is used is water-soluable. Our wash process is a full-immersion wet wash. This means if we were to clean this rug, it would dissolve the latex that is holding the rug together, and it would disintegrate and fall apart - this is not repairable.

The latex is weak to begin with, and will even begin to break down on its own, with general use. When I unrolled this rug to photograph it, the latex dust that puffed into the air was a little shocking. It wouldn't photograph well enough to take a picture to post here, otherwise I would have shown it. The disturbing part of it (to me) is that this dust is easily made airborn in the home, and will be breathed by the residents there.

I will show the edge of the rug here, which is cracking and crumbling all around the perimeter of the rug.

The sidecord is attached after the rug is woven, and is holding onto a very weak foundation to begin with. Notice how it is simply pulling right off. To attempt to sew this back on is pointless, since again, we would be reattaching it to a weak and crumbling foundation. It will just pull off again.

These types of rugs are usually easily spotted by both the use of the distinctive loose cloth backing (to catch the latex dust, primarly)... which is attached to the rug only by the cord wrapping along the perimeter of the rug...

... and also by the tags on the back of each piece, noting that they were woven in India.

If you have a similar rug in your possession, realize that these are basically disposable rugs, which will likely last a few years tops, and then need to be thrown away. They cannot be thoroughly, safely cleaned.

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.