Persian rugs are the most famous in the entire world; it takes a lot of passion and skill to weave a rug by hand. It also takes a lot of patience, some of these rugs (carpet) take months to several years to complete. Weaving piles of rugs and knotting carpet is a very difficult and repetitive process, its very labor intensive and requires the weaver to have a great skill and craftsmanship.

That is why they are so sort after and some rugs can command a hefty price tag. These carpets contain the most beautiful and intricate designs. To begin the process of making a rug, you need a foundation. The foundation consists of strong warps, thick threads of cotton, wool or silk. These run the length of the rug and wefts. These wefts are passed under and over the warps from one side to the next. The warps on either side of the rug are combined most of the time into one or more cables of varying thickness that are overcast to form the selvedge.

Weavers start the weaving process by passing a various quantity of wefts through the bottom warp; this forms a base in which to start from. Once the base is complete, loosely piled knots of wool or silk that has been dyed are tied around successive sets of neighboring warps to create the intricate patterns in the rug. As more and more rows are tied to the foundation or base, these knots then become the pile of the rug. Between each row of knots, one or more pieces of weft are passed, this is done to tightly compact and secure the rows.
The knot count varies on each rug; this is depended upon the fineness of the weave, the quality of the materials used and most importantly the expertise of the weavers. A skilled weaver can tie almost 10,000 knot per day. The knot count of a hand made rug can vary anywhere from 16 to 550 knots per square inch. When the rug is completed, the warp ends form the fringes that may be weft-faced, braided, tasseled, or it maybe secured in another manner.

The designs of these carpets or rugs vary most contain geometric floral or curvilinear designs. The geometric designs are repeated vertically, horizontally or diagonally. These geometric designs symbolize sacred icons of different designs. The Floral and Curvilinear designs consist of Plants, flowers, animals or other natural elements. Finally each carpet or rug always has a central medallion. The medallion is the heart of the Persian Carpet, with this being said no two medallions are completely alike. The design of the medallion is usually spiritual in nature and the inspiration generally comes from the domes of the Mosques.

As you can see carpet weaving is a time staking task that can take months and years to complete, the skills of these weavers are unprecedented. Persian and Oriental rugs are worth every penny spent as they can last and be enjoyed by generations to come!