Machine Made or Hand Made

Oriental Rugs - An authentic oriental rug is a handmade carpet that is either knotted with pile or woven without pile. Oriental-design rugs made by machine or any method other than hand knotting or hand weaving are not considered authentic oriental rugs.

These rugs normally come from a broad geographical region extending from China and Vietnam in the east to Turkey and Iran in the west and the Caucasus in the north to India in the south. People from different cultures, countries, racial groups and religious faiths are involved in the production of oriental rugs.

Oriental rugs are organized by origin: Persian rugs, Anatolian rugs, Kurdish rugs, Caucasian rugs, Central Asian rugs, Turkestan rugs, Chinese rugs, and Tibetan rugs.

Braided - Braided rugs are made by using three or more strips of fabric, usually wool, folding the raw edges to the middle and braiding them together. For an oval rug the center braid should be one inch longer than the width-length in feet. example 2' x 4' rug center strip would be 2'2" long. The center braid is laced together and new strips are sewn on to make the braid longer as lacing continues.

Hooking - Traditional rug hooking is a craft where rugs are made by pulling loops of yarn or fabric through a stiff woven base such as burlap, linen, rug warp or monks cloth. The loops are pulled through the backing material by using a crochet-type hook mounted in a handle (usually wood) for leverage.

Rag Rugs - Rag rugs were commonly made in households up to the middle of the 20th century by using odd scraps of fabric on a background of old sacking.

Needlepunch - Using either yarn or strips of cloth, you work with the punch tool from the back side of the pattern. The Monk’s cloth backing is tightly stretched on to a frame. Every time you punch the needle down through the backing, it makes a long thread on the right side of the rug. Then, as you lift the needle, it automatically makes it into a loop. These loops pack together to create a rug so solid that chewing dogs and clawing cats are its only enemy. As long as you use the tool correctly, it will automatically make all the loops the same length.  Sometimes referred to as "speed hooking", this method of rug hooking is loved for its ease and speed. One student described it as "instant gratification with wool.

Prodded - Proddy rugs are made, as the name implies, by prodding or poking strips of fabric through burlap or linen from the back side. Rag rugs made this way have many names; clippies, proddies, stobbies, pricked, and in Scotland they are called clootie mats. They were often made for more utilitarian use such as by the backdoor; their pile hiding dirt well.

Woven - Handmade and machine-made. See carpet. Woven rugs include both flat rugs (for example kilims) and pile rugs.

Hand Tufted Rugs -Hand-tufted rugs use high quality wool so the finished product looks and wears much like a hand-knotted rug. Unlike a hand-knotted rug, a hand-tufted rug is created without tying knots. Making a hand-tufted area rug takes a fraction of the time to make, therefore greatly reducing the cost. As a result, hand-tufted rugs are very affordable area rugs.

These wool rugs are made with a tool called a "tufting gun." Loops of wool are pushed through a backing that has been imprinted with the overall design. When the rug maker is through with this process another foundation, called a scrim is applied with latex glue. When this dries, the final protective cloth backing is applied.

The last step is to shear the rug so that all of the loops on the top of the rug are cut, which in turn creates the pile.

Hand-tufted rugs can withstand high traffic, and will begin to wear out after 12 to 20 years of use. High traffic areas include hallways, family room and entryway. Medium traffic areas include the dining room and home office. Low traffic areas include bedrooms and formal living room.