The Journey of Oriental Rugs
Jonathan Gooch frequently travels to India, Pakistan and Turkey to meet
the skilled artisans who create these ageless pieces, inspects each individual carpet
one by one, to select the very best pieces to shipped back to our warehouse.
There is many stages of producing a beautiful handmade rug. This all starts
with the sheep wool being sheared, it’s spun and then washed.
Once the wool is dyed using a mix of dyes, (predominantly vegetable dye),
the wool is washed again and then dried.
The wool is now ready for the weavers!
Weavers will follow mapping if it is a programmed rug, meaning the design is the same, for example Ziegler, but colours and certain elements will change.
This can be styles of trees, symbols, animals and tribe specifics. Each weaver will have their own flair meaning no two handmade rugs are the same.
Each weaver will physically knot the pile of the carpet onto a warp and a weft. This is the base of the rug and is usually made of cotton or wool.
The knot-count is related to how many individual knots are in one square meter of rug. A 2.40X1.70m rug has 4.08 square meters. In the Supreme Kazak design there is approx. 160,000 knots per square meter meaning the rug of this size, has approx. 652,800 knots. Each rug can take between 3-6 months to make.
Once made, the entire rug is washed, dried and stretched. It is then finished and ready for inspection. Each rug will go through clipping, tassel finishing and quality inspection which is all undertaken by hand.
Produced in the cottage industry in Afghanistan, these rugs are then transported to Pakistan for expert finishing including washing and trimming.
These rugs will then start their long journey to the UK.
The production of handmade rugs creates a huge amount of employment and a
very important export for countries such as Pakistan.
Gooch is dedicated to ensuring the manufacturers we work with are treated fairly and with dignity. We are so proud to say that all of our factories in India and Pakistan employ women weavers from surrounding villages and a number of tribes.
Jonathan will travel to each factory numerous times a year. From January 2022-July 2022, Jonathan has already travelled three times to Pakistan with another two already planned for the remainder of the year.
Each piece is carefully selected by Jonathan Gooch to ensure it's authenticity, quality and
finish.
