Rugs Information

While the art of rug-making started thousands of years ago as a handmade craft, the modern production of rugs does include machine-based manufacturing. Machine-made rugs are manufactured in countries around the world, including Canada, Ireland, Portugal, and the United States to name just a few. The process of making a rug using a machine involves industrial-sized looms, first invented and used in the United States in 1839.
By 1926, textile industrialists in the United States had modified the early electric looms so that they could produce fairly faithful replicas of Oriental rugs. The machine-made rugs were viewed by both the producers and the buying public as a more affordable alternative to the beautiful and elaborate, yet expensive, hand-made rugs that came from exotic lands. The advent of mechanized rug production also greatly increased the availability, range of selection, and sheer quantity of rugs available for local purchase.
These large mechanized looms mimic the process of making rugs by hand. Yarn on enormous spools is fed into the looms, which operate at high speeds, producing an almost-finished rug in a matter of minutes, rather than months. Once the basic rug is produced, it may be sent off for patterning. Again, this process occurs with the use of a machine. In mechanized rug production, the colors are not produced using vegetable, seed, or natural dyes, but rather are chemical mixtures that result in vibrant colors.
The chemical dyes are fed into a large screen-printing machine and a particular pattern or design, whether floral, Oriental, or geometric, is set. The screen-printing machine literally stamps the rug with its particular pattern, and the rug is then sent on for finishing. The finishing process may involve pulling the fibers at the corners of the rug for a fringe or tufted look, or it may involve adding a border
Since the mechanization of rug manufacturing in the 1930s, the rug production process has become increasingly more sophisticated, paralleling the trajectory of the hand-made rugs in a sense. Innovations in machinery and raw products allow the use of new materials, including synthetics, as well as new designs, styles, and shapes. The mechanized production has introduced a certain variety to the rug market, but traditionalists are likely to continue seeking hand-made rugs, and are willing to pay the price for them.
Consumers who are in the market for a new rug are well advised to determine whether the rug they are considering purchasing is hand-made or machine-made. It is widely believed that hand-made rugs last longer and are generally of a better quality. The consumer’s ultimate choice should depend not only on price, but on intended use and personal style preferences.

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