Why buy a Hand made carpet instead of machine made one? The difference in quality and beauty is stag rent.
o They are more durable than machine made rugs. They last for centuries if good care is taken. Machine woven carpets ware off after a few years of use.
o They age beautifully and look more beautiful with age.
o They are like original paintings. They hold their value or even appreciate over time.
o Hand made rugs are not perfect.
It is normal for a hand made rug to be a little bit crooked, or have imperfections in the design, or even in the case of the tribal rugs, inconsistency in the shades of colors used. This adds to their charm and beauty, specially, in the case of tribal carpets. As nomads travel, they can't always match the shades. This tells us a bit of the history of the carpet as to how many times the tribe stopped and resumed traveling while making this particular rug.
o Each hand made Persian Rug is unique because of those flaws.
o They can be repaired. If for any reason the damage is big, an entire section can be rewoven or knotted, thus restoring its old beauty.
o Hand made Persian Rugs is vegetable dyed. That is why they have those vibrant colors.
o A hand knotted or woven rug can easily become a heirloom.
o A hand knotted Persian carpet is the combination of beauty, function and value.
o A hand knotted Persian rug is the pride of its owners.
Why not to buy a machine made carpet if you can afford to buy an authentic Persian rug?
o They are mass produced.
o They are perfect in design symmetry.
o Machine made carpets are not crooked as they are tightly pulled by the machine. However, they don't have the charm and warmth of a hand made rug.
o Machine made rugs are usually made of synthetic materials but you can find some that are made of wool.
o Machine made rugs are mass produced and they are not unique. Thousands of rugs of the same design look exactly the same.
o The dye used on machine made rugs is made of chemical products.
o They ware off very quickly compare to Persian made rugs.
o They can not be repaired therefore, can never become a heirloom.
Astrid Kazarian comes from a background that appreciates the value of Persian Rugs. Growing up in that culture, she too started developing an interest that turned to be a passion very quickly. She became fascinated by the different ways they were made, their different styles and specially their intricate designs, always holding on to the high quality of the fabrication.
Astrid Kazarian is an amateur Persian and Oriental Rugs collector. She bought her first Persian Rug as present to herself for her sixteenth birthday, for which she paid with saved pocket money. Since then, over the years, she put together a small collection of rugs. Today, she has her own site and she is affiliated with the best Persian and Oriental Rugs importers.
By Astrid Kazarian