Hand Tufted Rugs

When it comes to floor rugs, you would already know by now that rugs can be either machine woven or hand woven. In hand woven rugs, there are several techniques that are usually employed. One of these techniques is hand tufting. Hand tufted rugs are considered a handmade rug, but it does not cost as much as the hand knotted rugs that you can find today. Although these two types of rugs may seem similar, and are both made by hand, the method in which hand tufted rugs are produced is very different from hand knotted rugs.

In making hand tufted rugs, you will still require the ability of a skilled weaver as the weaver needs to be have control over the placement, color and design of the rug. The rug starts off as a blank canvas or a foundation cloth, which is mounted and stretched on a frame. The design of the rug is then drawn onto the canvas or the cloth before the piles are added. Now the weaver uses a hand operated tool called the tufting gun to punch or insert two ends of the pile fiber onto the foundation cloth. This is called tufting. The pile fibers are inserted according to the drawn design on the cloth. These pile fibers can be made of wool, or any other synthetic materials. So you can see how this process is much faster than hand knotting.

Once the whole rug design has been completely piled, the rug is removed from the frame. Now latex glue is added to the back of the rug and a scrim fabric or backing cloth is glued on. Unlike hand knotted rugs where the piles are securely knotted onto the rug, in hand tufted rugs the piles are glued into the rug. Also, since there is backing material glued underneath the hand tufted rugs; you are not able to see the piles, unlike in hand knotted rugs where knots are visible on the underside of the rugs.

Once the backing is complete, the shearing of the piles can be done. The piles on the top side of the rug are all now loops of tufted fibers. Now these looped fibers need to be split into two. This means that for every looped fiber you will get two pile fibers. How thick the rug is would depend on the amount of material that is cut off from the surface, and of course from how far the initial loops were first added into the foundation cloth.

As you can see, these hand tufted rugs do not have any warp and weft threads like hand knotted rugs, as these rugs make use of a canvas or a foundation cloth. As such, there is no fringe produced. To compensate for this, a separate fringe is then sewn on or glued onto the ends of the tufted rugs.

Even though a hand tufted rug is hand woven, it is no means an Oriental rug, as many rug traditionalists would argue that to qualify as an authentic Oriental rug, the rug has to be hand knotted. Hand tufted rugs also do not have a selling price that is as high as hand knotted rugs. This could be because hand tufted rugs are produced in a much shorter time than hand knotted rugs. It takes much less time and effort to tuft the piles compared to knotting them. As such a hand tufted rug can be completed in a matter of a few days compared to the many months it will take to complete a hand knotted rug.

On the other hand, many homeowners prefer to get hand tufted rugs because of its affordability. Many people also like the fact that these rugs can be found in many styles and designs, ranging from the traditional to the contemporary and everything in between. You can easily get hand tufted rugs in designs such as Persian, Asian, Chinese, European, and many more. And they are available in different types too. Whether you’re looking for a large wool area rug, an acrylic accent rug or a long polypropylene runner rug, you can easily find these hand tufted rugs for sale almost anywhere in stores and online.

Hand tufted rugs can make great complementary pieces of home furnishing. They can provide comfort and beauty as well as color and style.