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Factory Finishing:  Final Steps
 

Collection:

Because rugs are usually woven out in the villages or among the tribes, the first step to finishing them is collecting them.  Carpet dealers travel far and wide to tents and village houses to find the pieces they will finish and bring to market.  Collection involves visiting numerous houses and imbibing a cup of tea or orange drink before the purchase is made.

Tumbler:

Rugs purchased out in the village often arrive caked in dust.  The first step to finishing, then, is to place the rug in a giant tumbler.  This knocks the dust out of it and makes the other steps go more smoothly.

Shaving or Trimming:

Because the weaver crops the pile as she goes, usually a row at a time, the length of pile can vary slightly.  Maybe in the morning when she is less tired, she cuts it shorter than in the evening.  Perhaps one weaver started the rug and another finished it.  Also, through the process of tying knots it is normal for the weaver to leave the  pile long in order to later adjust the length more evenly.  For the Iranian market, the pile of a rug is often left long.  For the Western market, however, a rug is trimmed.  The trimming evens out the texture of the rug while at the same time bringing out the design.  If a rug is left untrimmed, it's often difficult to see the small details in the design.  In the old days, rugs were trimmed by hand as seen in the picture to the left.  It took a very steady hand and a well-trained eye to be able to evenly trim a rug without cutting too much.

Today, tribal and village rugs are generally trimmed in the factory with a machine that resembles an electric razor as shown above.  Even though the machine is mechanized, it still requires great skill and practice to get the pile just the right length and all even.  Fine city rugs are trimmed by hand using a razor.

Singeing the back:

Wool is, well, wooly.  Even the finest wool yarn will have little uneven hairs that stick out of it.  After a fine city rug is woven, the back of it will often be matted with these small hairs sticking out of all the knots.  Part of the finishing process, then, includes singeing the back of the rug with a blow torch.  This removes the fine layer of odd hairs and makes the back appear smooth, as well as allowing the rug itself to lay flatter.  It takes a specialist to be able to singe the back just enough- too much and a beautiful, time-consuming creation is destroyed.  Tribal and village rugs usually don't need to undergo this part of the process.

Washing Process:

In  the old days, and sometimes for special occasions such as the New Year, rugs were washed by hand in the nearby river or spring as shown in the pictures.  It took a strong man to be able to manage a  big wet carpet or kilim because the water made it so heavy.

Today, rugs are usually washed in factories and then laid outside in the sun-drenched surrounding fields to dry.  Though not a difficult process in itself, certain aspects of it can be very sensitive.  Different carpet dealers wash their carpets using different methods.  Different chemicals and washes can also be used to  give a rug the look of age or to hide undesirable colors.

First the carpet is wetted down and washed with soap.  This allows any fugitive dye to run out and allows the wool to relax and release all dirt.  After a thorough scrubbing, the rug is rinsed.

A washed rug is then placed in a giant spinner and the excess water is spun out of it- similar to the spin cycle in a conventional washing machine.

Stretching, Shaping and Repairing-

Sometimes in the process of washing, a rug will get stretched out of shape.  After the washing process is completed, then, a rug may be stretched out and nailed down to allow it to dry in the desired shape.

This is the final part of the finishing process.  Once the rug has been finished, it is ready for market!

NEXT STEP:  FINAL PRODUCT