1. Your rug design idea
The first step is to receive the idea(s) you have for your custom handmade rug.
Shown here, an artwork made by a child to be woven as a Tibetan custom rug.
Maybe you have a photograph of a pattern you like, a painting, a piece of cloth or any other image or images that you love and want to have as a rug. Send it to us!
2. Selecting the best dye colours
From our more than 1750 yarn dye colours, we select the ones that match your design or your the colour preferences you told us. We also work with Pantone.
If you like and have the time, we can prepare a few dyed yarn samples for you and send them to you to review and decide.
3. Composing your rug design
From your design idea or ideas, we prepare a custom rug design in the size and shape you need and review this with you. Two editions of the design are always included.
Several images may also be combined into one rug layout and design. Let your imagination rule!
4. Weaving graph
Here is a small portion of the weaving graph. Each coloured square represents one pixel on the design and will become one knot on the rug.
The numbers represent the assigned and selected dye colours.
Each row on this graph will be woven following it closely.
5. Dyeing the yarn for your rug
Our average number of colours for one rug is 20. This means some rugs have 2 colours and some over 50. Sometimes we need 18 Kg yarn in one colour and sometimes only 30 g of many colours. Depending on the amount needed, we dye the yarn in small pots or in big tubs. Always by hand, as everything else.
6. Weaving graph and dyed yarn ready
An average-sized rug is made of between one and two million handwoven knots! The weaving graph shows all the many knots necessary as small squares. They are coloured in shades that are easy to differentiate from each other, not necessarily the actual rug colours.
7. Setting up the loom and the warp
The wooden weaving loom is set up and the (often more than 1000) warp threads stretched from top to bottom around the loom.
On these threads each knot will be woven and attached.
8. Weaving your rug
The weavers follow attentively the scheme shown on the weaving graph with your design. They tie each knot around a metallic rod and around two warp threads, so that each knot is half of the previous knot and half of the next one. Each pixel from the weaving graph becomes one knot on the rug.
9. Rug taking form
As you rug is being woven, you will love receive images of how it is being created and row after row become the most special rug you ever had.
Here you see the metal rod with the yarn tyed around. This willk be inserted in the weft.
Each knot is carefully counted and lovingly woven.
10. Separating the yarns
The rug has just left the loom and is fully woven. Now the yarns are separated by hand.
As you can see, the weft threads are still showing at the bottom and top of the rug. These will be cut and serged later on.
11. Adding definition
Skilled hands of expert and dedicated weavers trace your whole design by hand on the rug. This step adds definition and clarity to your design.
12. Serging around the rug
After washing the rug, it is let to dry flat and be stretched out to balance out the knots that have slightly loosened when cutting the rug off the loom and slightly tightened when washing it.
Afterwards, if no fringes are desired, the remains of the warp threads are cut, and a resistant thread is tigthly and evenly sewn by hand all around the edges of the rug. This is often called binding as well.
13. Clipping, cleaning, finishing
Now the yarn is cut to the even level you requested, or some carving and sculpting in different piles is created, if this is what you want.
This is the finishing step, the one the rounds up all the previous ones and brings the rug to its full shine before we send it to you.
14. Your rug comes home
This has been your rug all the way. Now it finally has come home where it belongs. Who knows what memories it will become the background of in all the years to come!
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