This wonderfully unique pictoral Chinese rug was in our shop recently. I've seen many of these types of rugs before (having grown up around rugs), but have yet to see one quite like this one. We were granted permission to take and post a few pictures up here, since it is such a visually interesting piece. It is not for sale.

Click the pictures to see close-ups.

The borders are full of wonderful touches...

Here is a close-up of the plaza area before the palace gates.

And here are some close-ups of the buildings...

The client that owns this particular piece received a group of American Indian rugs as an inheritance from her grandfather, and is currently having Lesley restore them, one at a time, so they can be displayed/used again, in his honor.

Once the restoration is complete, I will post some "after" photos, so be sure to check back.

EDIT

Here are some "after" photos of the rug (click to enlarge):

If you own an American Indian carpet and it is in need to repair/restoration, you can contact Lesley by calling San Diego Rug Cleaning Co. directly at (858) 566-3833, and we can give you more information.

Normally, moths are attracted to dark, undisturbed places near rugs, usually underneath a piece of furniture - a chest, or cabinet, or entertainment unit, etc. Any place that stays covered and gets no air or direct sunlight. Moths can take root there and begin their perpetual feast. 

Moth casings appear as little tubular spider-web-type residue, as pictured above. If your rug has furniture on it and has been unmoved for a year or longer, you should take time, if possible, to move the furniture and examine the rug beneath. Be sure to check the back side as well, since moths can attack from both sides.

Moth casings on the back side

In the following video clip, Lisa Wagner discusses how to identify moth damage, and some of the structural concerns to be aware of.

The Shiraz featured in the video is a rather extreme example, as Lisa mentioned. The effected corner had also been damaged by mold/dry rot, but there was also extensive moth damage, as demonstrated in the following pictures.

The damage can be repaired in most cases, but at rather substantial cost. 

The best defense against moth damage is frequent inspection, regular wash, and also if possible, avoid having heavy, low-standing furniture on the rug to begin with. 

(Click to Enlarge)

To spare your eyesight, I have trascribed the text here (to the best of my ability to decipher it):

Genuine Peking Rug

Made by one of the leading rug artists of China whose insignia appears on the right-hand lower corner of the rug. This is an allegorical creation by the artist of a group of statuary presented to the Temple of Xwo Yen in the reign of Kwah Ling.

The Fairy Rug

Showing the eight immortals of China. In the center seated on the sacred swan is Lao Tze, founder of the Taoist religion. On either side is an attendant. The other eight are the good people each of whom carries a magic charm in hand by which he is rendered invisible as he goes around the world doing good. Leading from left to right the figures are as follows:

1^st Goddess of the Harvest

2^nd God of Prosperity

3^rd God of Learning and Light

4^th God of Poetry

5^th Animal Attendant Representing Faithfulness

6^th The Venerable Lao Tze

7^th Woman the Help Mate of Man

8^th God of Sculpture and Art

9^th God of Music

10^th God of Joy

11^th Goddess of Fortune

The clouds represent infinitude of space and eternity

It is nice for us to finally have an explanation, as far as the identities of these characters. When similar rugs come in in the future, we will have this on file to give to the rug owners.

Here are clickable thumbnail pictures of each of the characters:

This is a runner we have in here at the moment, with a gaping hole in the field. Patching would be problematic, in that we would need a fragment of a similar rug to pull a patch from... matching the color and texture of that background color would be next to impossible.

And restoring it would not be cost effective. The amount of money that would be needed to do a reweave could easily be spent on simply buying a new rug, since this rug is a contemporary piece. It is hand-woven, true, but it certainly isn't an investment piece. The value of this type of rug rests in its appearance more than anything - and right now, it has a large hole in it!

But it also has a repeating pattern, which makes it a perfect candidate for cutting down. 

This idea is to remove a section and reattach it, matching the pattern as closely as possible, effectively making a shorter version of the same rug.

Here is a shot from the back, which gives an approximate idea of what the results will be. Instead of simply cutting it straight across and reattaching it, it helps visually to cut the borders in different places. This will help minimize drawing the eye to the place where the cut was made.

The center piece is removed, then cuts are plotted out in a staggered pattern for the borders.

Once the cuts are made, and the edges secured properly, the halves are reattached like a puzzle. Every attempt is made to match the design up perfectly; however, often small weaving quirks and variations prevent a perfect match. In this case, the two medallions were each slightly different widths. 

The rug is secured, strong and ready for use. It is about 18 inches shorter, but the big, ragged hole is gone. If you know to look for it, the seam is visible (especially from the back), but people passing by will never know the rug used to be longer!

This strategy won't work in every case, but for some damaged rugs, it is definitely a viable option. 

Behold, another victim in the age-old struggle between puppies and hooked rugs!

One tug in the right place will start the rug unraveling. Even though dogs tend to have brief attention spans by nature, it doesn’t take too long before substantial damage can be done. Thankfully, it usually looks worse than it actually is. The repair itself is pretty straightforward.

Who could stay mad at that face?

If the loose wool is sent in with the rug, this is ideal. It then becomes a matter of properly reattaching the wool. However, if the wool is missing (say, in the puppy's tummy!), then we will try and match the wool as close as possible, from the vast collection we have on hand.

Unfortunately, I cannot offer any sage advice for preventing this sort of damage, aside from keeping your rugs and pets apart (hardly practical). This is just one of those occasional “pet accidents” you’ll have to endure as part of the choice you made to combine your love for pets with your love for rugs.

Good as new!

We’ll be here to help, when it’s needed!

If you live outside the San Diego area, you can ship these rugs to us for repair, if you’d like, or you can drop us a quick email at rugcarecentral@gmail.com and we’ll try to locate a reputable rug repair facility in your area.

Uh oh...

The culprit?

A Potted Plant!

Potted plants may seem like a good idea, and add just the right touch to compliment the décor in your living room, but usually, moisture associated with the upkeep of the plant will find its way from the pot into the rug underneath. Left undisturbed long enough, this will permanently damage the rug. Often, the damage is not discovered until it is way too late to prevent.

Let's say it’s been a year or two, the time has come to get your rug cleaned, and so the furniture is moved out of the way – and there it is… an ugly hole, perhaps smelling of mold.

Usually, the problem area is larger than the hole itself. As you can see in the picture, there is the hole, and then there is the extended, discolored area surrounding the hole that is weak, and won’t “hold” onto any type of repair. All of that weak area needs to be removed. Once the rug has been washed and sanitized, the weakened area is removed and secured. The rug can then be repaired (since leaving a big hole is not normally a very palatable option!).

Options

The hole can be rewoven and restored to its original condition – though this route is time-consuming and costly, and normally only reserved for highly collectible pieces that need restoration in order to maintain their investment value. Normally, we wouldn’t do this type of restoration, but rather refer them to reweaving houses overseas that specialize in the type of rug in need of reweaving.

The more typical route we go with in our shop (and the option that normally makes the most sense for our clients) is to patch the area with a fragment of a similar type of rug.

In the case of a Karastan we repaired recently, reweaving certainly wasn’t a logical choice, so we patched it. There were two problem areas: a large area about 1 foot square, and a smaller area in another corner, about 2 inches by 5 inches.

The weakened area was removed and the perimeter secured.The weakened areas were removed and secured. A piece from a separate Karastan fragment is prepared and secured, shaped to precisely fit into the gap in the rug.

a patch from a different Karastan is prepared for use. 

The weak, rotten area has been trimmed away and the perimeter secured.

Once the fragment is shaped and secured properly, it is secured into the rug itself. No glues are used.

Close-up view of patch seam, from back sideIf you know to look for it, a patch will usually be apparent.The most important thing we focus on is strength. If the patch is strong and secured properly, then the rug is useable again, and does not need to be babied or avoided when walking. Getting the design to match nicely is a plus, but is not the top priority. The design can often be modified with dyes to better blend, but if the color scheme and general look/feel of the patch matches that of the rug, then a person walking into the room and looking at the rug will never know that it has been patched. Upon close examination, a patch is normally noticeable. But the idea is to patch the damaged area in such a way as to not draw the eye, like a big hole would.

Upon entering the room, the patch is practically invisible. But the important thing is it is strong and the rug can be used without fear.This repair is relatively inexpensive, and is effective, making the rug useable again, while at the same time done in such a way that if, in the future, the rug owner wanted to have the area rewoven, it could be easily be done. If the patches were lathered with latex on the backside (as we see some rug repair shops do) then reweaving would be much more difficult, since the latex is impossible to remove.

If you have a potted plant as part of your interior décor, the best defense is to not put it on your rug at all. Place it nearby, or on an elevated stand that allows plenty of air to get between the rug and the underside of the plant. Of course, artificial plants could be considered as well.

 Every handmade rug has something in common – extra “knots” that are not pile.

When a rug loom is set up, the warps are strung up first. Then, a row of knots is tied on, and a weft (or more than one) is added between each row of knots. These wefts serve to hold the rows of pile knots in place.

When the end of a weft is reached, a new one is tied onto it and the weaving continues. Or if the weft breaks, the pieces are tied back together and the weaving continues. Thus, every rug has these knots, where two wefts have been joined together during weaving. Usually, the knots go unseen and unnoticed, for a number of reasons:

• If the foundation is wool, the natural color of the wool makes the knots blend into the pile, making them virtually unnoticeable.
• With cotton-foundation rugs, when the rug is newer, the pile is nice and long, effectively burying the knots, hiding them from view. Cotton wears much more slowly than the wool pile around it. As the years pass, and the rug gets some wear, the wool pile slowly shortens and the white knots start to poke out, becoming visible.
• When a rug is soiled, the cotton knots are dirty, blending into the pile better, making them far less noticeable. When the rug gets a good bath, the cotton knots shine nice and white (like clean cotton is supposed to). The effect can be jarring, if you aren’t expecting it.

For a rug that hasn’t been washed in years, the “appearance” of the white knots after wash can be a cause for concern among some owners who have never had this common phenomenon explained to them. We try to explain it ahead of time, pointing out the “knots” before the wash, letting rug owners know what to expect with their nice, clean rugs. The knots aren't caused by the wash, but rather they've been there all along, and the wash has simply revealed them.

If you look closely at any hand-made rug, you'll see the knots.

Even though it is common, there are some things that can (or shouldn’t!) be done to address the knots.

Some can be trimmed down a bit. Not too close to the foundation, or the knots may come undone, and the rug start to unravel! Remember, the knots are there because foundation threads are tied together.

Sometimes, the white knots can be dyed with permanent dye, using fine-tipped paint brushes. Dyes are hand-mixed to match the color as closely as possible. One must be very careful to *only* touch the cotton and not the surrounding wool pile. If dye gets on the wool, it will dye the wool even darker, making a different version of the same problem – only having dark spots instead of white knots!

If the knots don’t bother you, then given enough time and foot traffic, the knots will blend themselves away again, as they slowly become soiled.

Even rugs with wool foundations will have the knots.

While the design is hardly unique, it certain did intrigue me. Not just the horsemen, but the animals throughout the border. I thought I'd post close-ups of a few of the designs here, just to share. First, a couple of the horsemen from the field...

Hunting with the bow certainly makes sense... not sure how effective hunting with a sword from horseback would be...

And here are a couple shots from the borders...

It's proving difficult to find good articles to link to, as far as pictoral rugs for you to look at if you wanted more info. HERE is a pretty good one. Most other pages are to sites that are selling rugs, and I don't want you to think we're endorsing these other sites by linking to them.

The most common issue when dealing with round/oval rugs is keeping the rounded parts from unraveling. Normally, a round rug needs to be woven on a traditional square loom, like any other rug...

The main problem comes from dealing with the excessive warps and wefts that will need to be removed when the weaving is complete. In some cases, like the large black and gold India rug at the top of this post, the warps and wefts are simply cut off and the perimeter wrapped with a nice, thick wool...

This may seem like a good solution, but usually, it is a manufacturing short cut that will need to be dealt with sooner or later, since the rug was not secured at all before the edge was wrapped. Basically, when this round rug came off the loom and the loose foundation cords cut off, it looked something like this...

There is nothing keeping those wool knots from sliding right off. Just wrapping the cut edge with wool does nothing. The solution should be to do extensive overcasting with unbreakable thread, then attaching a sidecord around the perimeter, and then wrapping that cord in the dark wool. The end result, as far as appearance, will be very similar... but the rug will be strong and will not unravel.

On a traditional loom, the loom is strung with vertical warps first. During the weaving, as the horizontal wefts are added one at a time (with rows of wool knots between them), the wefts loop around the sidecords and head back in the other direction. This looping of the wefts around the warps means that the sides are secure, and the rug won't unravel. This step is missing in most round rug production.

Look at this rug, which came in recently.

This was a square rug initially, which was then cut into a round rug well after it was alive. However, the perimeter was not secured, but rather just wrapped in that light-blue wool. It is beginning to pull apart as a result. The owner has left it here for us to properly repair, so he can use it without fear.

You can see the loose foundation threads here in this close-up (pardon my thumb), and the fact that it has no sidecord at all. Left undealt-with, the rug will lose a couple rows of knots all the way around. There is simply nothing holding the rug together around the perimeter.

The Right Way

Older Chinese rugs (Nichols, Fetti, etc.) had it down right when it came to round/rounded rugs.

Their solution was to simply add a "base" around the entire rounded edge, thus locking the knots in place. Most handmade rugs have fringes, and most of those fringed ends have a fringe base - which is basically a continuation of the warps/wefts, only without the rows of knots, as in the body of the rug. Adding a few extra wefts at the ends of rugs keeps the knots in place.

As you can see, the rows of knots taper off into a nice, rounded edge, and the "fringe base" follows suit. In this next picture of an oval Chinese rug from the 20s, you can see this illustrated as well.

 Newer scuplted Chinese rugs also tend to have the additional fringe base around the curves, to help the rug hold onto both its shape and its knots, but many other countries do not. If you are in the market for a new or used round rug, take a good look at the way the rounded edges are finished. Ask if the rug has simply been cut off the loom and wrapped, or if it has been properly secured. If you can address the issue before you buy the rug, it can save you an expensive repair in the future.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email us at rugcarecentral@gmail.com.

Dave Wagner