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Making Process
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Silk carpets,made of High quality natural silk, are produced in a complicated traditional work. A lot of pre-work was involved before weaving.
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1. Drawing and coloring
Draw design on a chart and match the different colors on it so that the weavers can follow. This is a creative work. The artisans must have a blue print in their mind. Actually the finished carpet is the representation of the design. To some extent, this is the first important thing because it can determine the value of the carpet.
2. Prepare material
Reel off the raw silk fiber from the cocoons. One third of the silk from the cocoons can be used to weave silk carpets. Then bind the silk fiber into silk strands. Put the silk strands into boiling alkaline water for 30-40 minutes to make it soft and later rinse the alkali and impurities by clean water.Traditionally use natural pigments (indigo, saffron crocus, acorn cup, and larkspur stem...) to dye the yarns into different colors.But now we use also chemical dye. Generally speaking, about 30 kinds of colors of silk strands will be used when weaving carpets.
3.To hang up the Warp
Warps will be fixed on the loom rack, which is almost like a standing frame consisting of 4 bars. The warps will be looped tightly between the top bar and the bottom one. Heddles will be bound between another horizontal bar and warps. After the foundation is woven by plain silk thread the carpet knotting will start.
4. How to knit silk carpets
The silk yarns will be clasped around the warps by either the Turkish Ghiordes knots (Double knots) or by the Persian Senneh knots. Then the end of the silk thread will be cut off by knife. When a raw of knots is finished the weft will run through compartment space between front and back warps. With the comb the knots and wefts will be struck hard against the wefts.
5.Making tassel trimming and washing the carpet
After monthes or even years' work the whole carpet is finished. It will be cut down from the loom rack. The ends of the warps will be coiled up into beautiful tassels. The carpet will be sheared evenly and washed thoroughly before being sold.
How long it will take to make a rug?
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It will take one girl about half a year to make a 2×3ft carpet of 300 lines (90,000knots per square foot), 1.5 years to weave a 2×3ft silk carpet of 500 lines(250,000knots per square foot), two years to knot a 1×1.5 feet silk carpet with 800 lines(640,000knots per square foot) and 3 years to make a 1.2×1.5 feet silk carpet with 1000 lines(1000,000 knots per square foot). The silk thread used to knot top quality carpet is as thin as a hair. When knotting, weavers even need to use magnifier. The work is so harmful to weavers’ eyes that they seldom can make the second same piece. So this kind of silk carpet is named "soft gold".
Chinese silk carpets are woven out of the high quality silk, Hand-knotted, with high-density and superb quality, graceful and various in design, harmonious in color matching, shining and smooth in surface, soft yet durable in texture, well proportioned and orderly in pattern. Free from confusion, anti-worm-eaten. Due to these features, Chinese silk carpets are of high artistic value, and good for decorations or collection. In addition the reasonable price, Chinese Silk carpets become one of the best-welcomed carpets in the international market.
The density
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120lines:14,000knots/square foot 300lines: 90,000knots ∕square foot 400lines: 160,000 knots ∕square foot 500lines: 250,000knots ∕square foot 600lines: 360,000knots ∕square foot 800lines: 640,000knots ∕square foot 1000lines: 1,000,000knots ∕square foot
Normal size and shapes
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1ft= 30.48cm 1m=3.28ft
1sq m= 10.76 sq ft
Rectangular, square, runner, oval and round are normal shapes of silk carpets.
When choosing a carpet you should consider the size and shape of the carpet. Silk carpets have special measures. So the size could be approximately with that you want. Silk carpets are works of art and are not made to cover the entire floor, so there usually will be at least 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) of vacant space between the edge of carpet and its surrounding furniture or walls. For the sizes of rectangular, square and runner carpets, it is no need to explain. However for the round carpet the size is measured by its diameter. For the oval shaped carpet, the longer diameter is considered to be the length and the shorter one the width.
Basic pattern
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1. Allover
Carpets in this layout have no central design and the designs spread throughout the whole carpet separately or connected. There may be one same design or several designs appearing repeatedly throughout the whole carpet.
2. Medallion or Kui Long type
This pattern is made up of a prominent large center as the main pattern, this center is called a medal or Kui Long, this pattern is the most common. The center of Kui Long can be round,oval,star-like, but also polygonal or radial. This pattern is mostly axisymmetric.
3.One-Side pattern
This pattern is straight type. So only from one direction to watch, its contents are mostly characters, animals, scenery. They are mostly high count of tapestries.For this layout, the designs are woven in only one direction. Therefore the carpet can only be properly viewed from one side. Since one-sided carpets should not be viewed upside-down they are often used as tapestries.
Colours
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Silk carpets have many colors but the first impression of the color a carpet gives you is the contrast of various colors that creates the different designs. This is the same way in all other art fields. The colors of a carpet are mainly identified by the field (background) color and the border color. The field color is dominant. It usually covers the entire carpet with the exception of the border and the most commonly used colors are red, blue, black, beige and yellow. But some times, the colors of background and the border are so distinguishable. So when choosing the silk carpet you should consider whether the field color matches your furniture and the wall.
style
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Silk carpet pattern has a variety of styles. Typical Chinese-style dragon and phoenix pattern, Buddhism, Taoism in the auspicious symbol pattern. Persian pattern is noble and gorgeous,Now they are very popular. Silk carpets in high density are generally with Persian style, of course, there are character stories, landscape patterns.
Quality standard
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The knot density is one of the most important criteria of quality. The quality of silk,the workmanship, the harmony of colors and the balance of the pattern are also important factors to determine the quality.
As far as the knot density concerned, we consider 120 lines (14400knots/sft) silk carpet medium fine, 300 lines (90,000knots/sft) silk carpet fine, 400 lines (160,000 knots/sft) silk carpet super fine, above 500 lines (250,000 knots/sft) silk carpet extreme fine, 1000 lines (1000,000 knots/sft) silk carpet the finest. The Persian and Turkish silk carpet are very famous for their design and quality but compared with Chinese silk carpet, the knot density is much lower. China produces extremely high knot-density silk carpets and silk tapestries, which workmanship are incredibly exquisite.
How to maintain silk carpets?
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Silk carpet is a high-level luxury decorations, should pay attention to extend its service life.
1.Laying a silk carpet
It is best to lay a pad under the silk carpet to make the foot feel better, to extend its life, and further speaking, the pad can make the silk carpet not to slide, can absorb the ground moisture. and prevent the carpet from slipping.
2. Cleaning and decontamination
In general, every two to three years it can be cleaned once, silk carpet needs professional cleaning, in daily life, you can use vacuum cleaner to get rid of dust but not vacuum the fringes. If the wine or oil accidentally sprinkled on the silk carpet, but not very serious,you can quickly spread with a towel to suck dry the stained area . Then wipe the dirt with a cloth dampened with warm water ,detergent and vinegar, and wipe it dry.
3. Save
the silk carpet can be rolled up in accordance with the direction of hair when not using it , placed in a ventilated place, it can't be placed in plastic bags for a long time.
4. Change direction
Every six months to a year to change the direction of the silk carpet to make its hair forced evenly.
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