Other Factors

New Zealand Wool

New Zealand is amongst the leading producers in the wool industry. The wool is whiter than other wools, and the significant color depth allows further colors to be dyed like clean pastel shades and deeper blacks. New Zealand wool is 100% natural and renewable with each sheep growing a new fleece every year. It is biodegradable, recyclable and has essential nutrients beneficial for plant life. A naturally resilient material, New Zealand wool bounces back, reducing flattening and wear of your custom rug.

Colorfast Dye

One of the most frustrating occurrences for owners of antique rugs or any vintage carpet, is when they suddenly discover that their beautiful rug has colors that have run or experienced bleed. Color run can occur for many reasons, and there are some things that you can do to prevent this from ruining your priceless treasure. Let’s talk a little bit about why some area rugs have colors that run or bleed, and others have colors that remain as vibrant and bright as the day they were first dyed.

Color run and bleeding.

To understand color run, you must first understand the concept of colorfastness and how fibers take on different colors in the first place. Let us explore a little bit about the chemistry of color. The color comes from a pigment contained in the dyestuff that bonds to the fiber. This is the same principle, whether it involves natural vegetable dyes on natural fibers or synthetic dyes on synthetic fibers. The color occurs from changes in the way visible light is absorbed or reflected by the fiber that occurs from the addition of this dye substance. This affects the way our eyes and brain perceive the color.

Fringe

The decorative braid is sliding away from this Persian rug, the fringe is unraveling and wool knots are sliding away from the rug. This impacts the value if it continues to lose knots from the outer borders of the design

If the rug is a machine woven rug, then the fringe will be added on after the fact, usually machine sewed on or glued on. So when the fringe on these rugs gets filthy, or damaged, it’s an easy choice – tear off the old and add on some new. With hand woven rugs, where the fringe tassels are the foundation that the rug knots are tied around, it’s not that easy. Fringe that gets torn by the vacuum cleaner, chewed off by the dog, or worn off from foot traffic, needs to be handled right away… and in the right way.

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