Machine-made
Machine-made rugs dominate the lower and middle price segments. They are inexpensive, uniform, and available in any pattern. What the major methods involve, and how to tell machine goods reliably from handwork.
#Which industrial methods are there?
Industrial rug production splits roughly into four methods. The Wilton loom, originally from Wilton in England, weaves pile rugs with woven-in loops that are afterwards cut. Axminster machines, also from England, allow particularly complex patterns with many colors and are used today mostly for hotel rugs and wall hangings. Power loom is the general term for modern high-speed weaving machines that can produce dense rugs in a fraction of the time. Tufting machines, a separate category, shoot yarn into a backing fabric and are by far the fastest production method of all.
#What can machine-made rugs do, and what not?
Machine-made rugs have three clear strengths. They are inexpensive, perfectly uniform in execution, and available in every color and pattern off the shelf. What they cannot do: replace a single knot. What is damaged stays damaged. Repair is not economically worthwhile. And they do not age into patina, they age into wear. The lifespan of a machine-made rug, depending on material and load, is between five and twenty-five years. Knotted rugs of the same material quality last three times as long.
#How do you spot a machine-made rug?
Turn the rug over. Machine-made rugs show a perfectly uniform structure on the back. No variation in knot size, no offsets, no small irregularities. Often a machine-made selvedge runs along the long sides and looks like a wide, dense seam. The fringes are usually sewn on or finished off with a binding. On machine-tufted rugs you see the latex layer directly. On machine-woven rugs the pattern is often only faintly visible on the back, or covered by a backing layer.
#Where is a machine-made rug the right choice?
For high-traffic rooms, short-care horizons, or tight budgets, machine-made rugs are often the better choice than a cheap knotted rug. Dining rooms with kids and a dog, rentals, playrooms, entry areas. Machine-made makes sense here. What does not pay off: a high-priced machine-made rug. Anyone with the budget for premium machine-made goods almost always gains more with a simple hand-knotted piece, be it a Berber, a simple Gabbeh, or a modern wool rug from Pakistan or India.
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