Our Indian Rugs

Our Indian Rugs come from a village near a small city called Bhadohi, which is located near Varanasi. Highlander, Spring twist rugs, Curly rugs, Patterned rugs, Felt pebble rugs, and leather rugs are made here. Bhadohi is wellknown for its carpet production. A large proportion of the world's designer rugs are made here, especially shaggy rugs and patterned woolen area rugs. A large proportion of the population in Bhadohi are Muslims, who came from Pakistan that came here in the 17th century. With them, they brought their rug making expertise. The carpet production has become a long tradition in Bhadohi, where old techniques have improved and new ways have been invented. rug making is an art. There will always be a demand for traditional and new exciting models.

We have worked together with the production in Bhadohi since 2006. We go there to surprise the production at least once a year. We do that so we can check whats going on, and to see if everything is like it should be. We have never had any problems with delivery times and the working conditions there, and we have never had an unpleasant surprise. On the contrary, the production exceeds our expectations. We have visited many factories in India (We import a number of different items!). Those of you that have been to India, know how chaotic it could be. To find a well organised production is really like finding a needle in a haystack! It is not unusual that factories employ children, have dark and cramped facilities, and pay low wages (or not at all!) To be able to work here you have to be at least 18 years old. For teenagers over 14 there is a possibility of getting a part time extra job under the condition that they study full time. There are clear factory regulations, and good safety rules.

The handknotted rugs are made in small workshops in family homes. If you would peek inside of any home in Bhadohi you would see there is a rug loom, and you'd certainly hear the sound of rug knotting where ever you go.. Often there are whole families working together with the rugs. Every person have their appointed task. Its the men that are knotting the rugs.

Here you can see two men knotting a shag rug in their home. In communal workshops the rugs are handtufted. You handtuft by using a tool that looks something like a mix between a stapel gun and a scissor. The tufter aim the tool towards a stretched cloth where its marked which colour goes where.

Here you can see a man handtufting a rug. On the backside of the rug you can see the yarn that the tufter has shot with his handtufting tool. How highlander rugs are made Highlander rugs are knotted in the same way as you can see on the picture where two men are knotting a rug. The knots are very dense, about 1 cm between each knot. In every knot there are 4 thick yarns, 3 yarns of middle thickness, and 6 thin yarns. You can compare shag rugs in the store, where you can see the density between the knots. The cheaper rug the less density. Our highlander rugs have a very high density (6700g/m2). 1,8-2,6 kg/m2 is standard for shag rugs in the shops. We only want to sell the very highest quality, so therefore we dont stock synthetic and light weight shag rugs. Of course its possible to custom order them anyway, if we receive a larger order. Email us for prices if you would like to do that.

Here you can see the different thicknesses of the yarn and the soft backside on the highlander rug.. How Felt Pebble Rugs and Coral Rugs are made The felt pebble rugs are knotted with really thick felted yarn, in 100% wool. The thickness is about an inch. On the left picture below you can see how its knotted on the backside. On the right photo you can see the piece of yarn used to make two pebbles. In this way the rug can be knotted with many different colours to create an exciting felt pebble effect. The wool is felted by heating the wool in a pot with water and soap, boiling it under pressure, and shaping the wool mix so that you get the shape you want. You can make different thicknesses, and even fabric out of it. The Coral rugs have "corals" around the edges. The corals themselves are felted in two different colours so they look like corals. The inside bit is made of short pile wool highlander shag.

Spring twist rugs and Curly rugs The spring twist rugs and the curly rugs are knotted in the same way as the highlander rug. We use melange yarn in smooth colours for all rugs that aren't natural white. The melange yarn creates a beautiful and more lively effect. When the yarn is spun, it's spun so hard so it creates the effect of twisted yarn looking a bit like screws. If the rug has been worn badly its possible that the springs might untwists a little. Our curly rug is made in the same way as the spring twist, but afterwards the springs are untwisted and brushed to make it curly, bouncy and incredibly soft - a bit like the curly fur or a persian sheep. Materials Wool The best rugs are the ones made of wool. They last the longest and are easy to maintain. We never compromise on the quality. Our materials are carefully selected. The wool that we use is imported from New Zealand, which is famous for having the world's best wool quality. When the wool has reached Bhadohi, it's dyed in a local dyeing workshop. The colours used are well known environmentally friendly CIBA-dyes that are AZO-free. We also work with vegetable dyes, and are now creating a range of colours. The colours are exact. We use Pantone Colour Charts. Leather The leather that is used in our leather rugs comes from the same area in India. A large proportion of the population are hindus, so the cow is holy and can't be killed. Therefore they have to do a special thing to go around it: The hindus sends their cows when they have died a natural death to a Muslim tannery that prepares the leather so its fresh and will last long. The Muslim tanneries then sends the leather back to the hindus that sells them to artisans and rug manufacturers. None of our leather products takes a cow's life! All cows live a normal Indian cow life, and their skin is just a waste product that we are happy to make use of. Indian cows are much smaller than western cows. Therefore we don't get any cowhides from India, but it is possible to custom order patterned cow rugs, where shapes of cowhide (with or without fur) have been stitched together to create the pattern. We might expand our range to these as well, until then you are welcome to place custom orders. Our leather rugs that we stock are like shag rugs, with dense knots of leather that smells lovely! Staple Staple is transformed cellulose that comes from bamboo fibres. No harsh chemicals has been used. We use staple because it feels amazingly soft and catches the light in different ways depending on the angle. The staple yarn is sourced locally and in China. We don't stock any synthetic rugs. We do have other materials in stock in the factory, such as syntetic yarns, cotton etc. Of course its possible to order rugs in these materials as well. Rug sellers and people willing to place larger orders can email us for a quote.

The production manager and his family.

Typical rug transport in the village.

The holy river Ganges