A handmade rug is not just floor covering, it is a piece of handcrafted art. Working by hand,these experienced artisans dedicate months and sometimes years to each handmade rug. Every strand of a handmade rug has been tied individually for greater combined strength and consistency. To give you an idea of what skill and patience is involved in creating a handmade rug, depending on the size, it can consist of 25 to over 1,000 knots per square inch. A very experienced handmade rug weaver can tie a knot in approximately ten seconds. Therefore it would take him/her two and a half years, working eight hours a day to complete a 9 x 12 foot handmade rug with a density of 150 knots per square inch.
When selecting the right handmade rug for your décor, you must take the
layout, pattern, and design into careful consideration. The layout is
the overall arrangement of motifs woven into a rug. Every handmade rug
will have an all-over layout, medallion layout, or a one-sided layout.
The patterns on a handmade rug are curvilinear, geometric, or
pictorial. Curvilinear, meaning curving lines, and geometric, meaning
straight lines, are conventional motifs. Pictorial patterns are far
less common and portray people and/or animals. Frequently a handmade
rug may feature more than one pattern. In order to avoid confusion, it
is always categorized by its most dominant characteristics. The
traditional inherited designs found on a village or nomadic handmade
rug generally are reproduced from memory. They often have totemic or
symbolic associations, although over the years the designs do change as
memories fade. The most sophisticated town rugs are curvilinear designs
reproduced from paintings.
Just as you would frame a painting, your handmade rug needs to be
framed as well. Always leave at least one to two feet of space between
the rug and the wall in order to achieve the full effect of its beauty.
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