Rug Washing Questions

I know I have talked a little about rug washing but today I have had several questions about our cleaning methods.

1. “Why does the wool rug NOT shrink - when my wool clothes will shrink in the wash?”

Wool fibers have a cuticle an each fiber. This is a natural element of the wool. When you wash a wool sweater the cuticles become all twisted with each other and thus the item looks like it shrunk. This is called “felting”. When we clean a wool rug we keep the rug flat for scrubbing and rinsing so that the cuticles do not get all twisted up. Wool rugs have been wet cleaned for thousands of years and I have seen rugs cleaned by all means out there - steam, dry cleaning, and semi-wet- but the best method is good old fashion soap and water. We are able to wash away grit and grime leaving the rug fresh and clean.

2. “Will my rugs look brand new again after they are cleaned?”

My answer to that is “No.” But there are several factors involved that will keep your rug looking good. If you have purchased a higher quality rug, regularly vacuum it, have a good pad under the rug and rotate the rug in the room then the cleaning process will make the rug look great. Kind of like when you have new shirt and after it is washed it will never look brand new again but it looks clean and crisp. We take great care in the cleaning of the rugs and it will look fantastic. Part of the “mystery” of Oriental Rugs is watching them evolve and change over the years.

If you have any questions please feel free to call me at 513-251-2351 or email me at orientalrugman@hotmail.com. Email me your questions and I will answer them.

Repairs on Oriental/Area Rugs

I had an interesting rug in the other day that I wanted to tell you about. It was a really old and worn Painted Sarouch from about 1925-30. It was a “loved” rug and had graced an elegant home for many years. But had begun to look pretty bare and rough.

After a good cleaning there was a sparkle in the yarn that made me want to repair the rug. Previous repairs had been applied such as a binding sewn on by machine on all sides so the fringe was gone and the sides looked awful.

I removed the machine binding and got to work. I serged the sides of the rug in a matching cranberry yarn and frayed the ends of the rug out so that a small fringe was created. It was reinforced on the ends with stitching and the curling sides were eliminated with leather strips applied to the back of the rug.

Our customer was very pleased to see the enormous transformation that her little rug went through. We did not make it look new but it sure does look a lot better than when it came in. She told me that she is going to move it from the front door to a spot next to her bed so that it will get a little less wear and she can put her feet on it in the morning when she wakes up.

If you have a question about Oriental Rug repairs please call me at 513-251-2351 or email me at orientalrugman.blogspot.com

Dyes - Where Does the Color Come From?

The appeal of a rug has always depended on the colors of the dyes - their brightness, muted colors, reds, greens, indigo, orange and on and on. Originally all dyes were made the from natural sources such as madder red came from the root of the madder plant, cochineal red from the cochineal insect, yellow from the weld plant, vine leaves or pomegranate peal, brown from the walnut shell or oak bark, orange from henna leaves, blue from the indigo plant and green from a combination of weld and indigo. There are people today who still use the original items to dye yarn and the colors are fabulous!

In 1856 aniline dye was discovered in England by William Henry Perkin. The early color was violet and soon were followed by many more shades and colors. These proved to be popular because suddenly there were plentiful easy to use dyes. However these were very unstable and colors and faded into unwanted shades. Blues turned to brownish grey, red to mauve and yellow became an awful greenish brown.

During this period of time the Oriental Rug market became very unstable as people stopped buying the rugs. In 1903 the use of aniline dyes were banned in Persia with severe penalties for those who did continue to use them.

The 1920’s and 30’s brought new synthetic chromatic dyes with extremely good results. The quality of this new dye was very good and actually became more reliable than the natural dyes.
Natural dyes are not used as much now in the weaving of rugs but there is a project in Turkey - The Dobag Project - which encourages weavers to use vegetable dyes.

If you have a question about dyes please feel free to email me at orientalrugman@hotmail.com.

Next time that you are relaxing in your favorite chair in your living room take a look at your Oriental Rug. Look at the vibrant colors, the designs, and how the rug is framed by the floor. A rug is really no different from a piece of art work on the wall - only you walk on it, play on it and it feels really good under your bare feet.

If you maintain your Oriental Rug properly over the years you will have many, many years of use. If you vacuum your rug weekly (if not more) and then have it professionally cleaned by us using our wet full immersion cleaning method to flush all of the dirt out of the rug and also rotate the rug and pad, there is no reason why you can not enjoy your rug for many years.

There are "rug cleaners" out there who are very skilled in wall-to-wall cleaning but they are not skilled in cleaning Oriental Rugs. They will pick up your rug and take it to their warehouse and simply steam clean the surface of the rug. This is not good for two reasons, 1.) They only clean the surface of the rug leaving deep down dirt still in the rug and 2.) There will always be a soap residue in the pile of the rug that will eventually lead to dry rot of the fibers.So if you take care of your rugs they will last all of your lifetime and you can pass the rugs onto future generations. Many of our customers are still bringing in Great Grand Mother's rug for cleaning. Please give me a call at 513-251-2351 or email me at orientalrugman@hotmail.com with any questions you may have about cleaning.

NO FIDO

NO FIDO!!!!!!!!
Those of us with animals have all had to endure the occasional accident involving our pooches or kitties and the Oriental Rug.

The best treatment is an immediate treatment. BLOT with a white terry cloth rag to transfer the urine into the rag. DO NOT RUB or the stain will become a part of the rug for ever. You can add some clear cold water and blot some more to try to remove any urine that is still in the rug.
Next you want to get the rug to us as fast as possible in order to begin the cleaning process. If there is only a small amount of urine in the rug maybe just a cleaning and deodorizing is appropriate. However if Fido has been using the rug on a more regular basis then lets talk about an ENZYME BATH. We actually soak your rug in a solution of water, deodorizer and a urine digester. This will loosen up the urine and allow us to flush it away. The first rule of odor removal is to remove the source of the odor - that being the urine. So once that the urine is flushed out of the rug we can begin the scrubbing process and wash and rinse your rug.
Will we get all of the stains out???? Maybe not as urine is extremely hard on the wool fibers causing color loss and texture change, but we can get the odor out for you. I can not guarantee that Fido will not go back to the rug again but now your rug is fresh and clean.

So if Fido maybe was just a little under the weather and made a mistake all will be good now or if he is ill then please get him cured before putting you rug back on the floor.
If you have any questions please call me at 513-251-2351 or email me at orientalrugman@hotmail.com

From Sheep to Rug

From Sheep to Rug
Wool is by far my favorite fiber. It is warm, resilient, and looks darn fine in an Oriental Rug. Did you ever wonder about how it went from the sheep to the rug?

First the sheep is sheared. This looks painful to the animal but is really only a hair cut. From there is it is washed and rinsed - because lets face it - the sheep do not shower on a regular basis, and then it is thoroughly dried.

Next it is “carded”. During this process the wool fibers are continually brushed between two brushes that resemble dog brushes. This process straightens out and blends the fibers together into a consistency that will be easier to spin into the wool thread.

Then it is time to spin the wool. There are many different ways to spin the wool using several different tools to turn the wool fibers into thread. This is then coiled into skeins to ready for the dying process.

The dyes are usually in large boiling pots with the proper mixture of colors and chemicals to set the dye. There is a whole science in the dying of yarn that we will not go over at this time. The boiling dye not only colors the yarns but it also will “set the twist” of the yarn to hold it texture through the weaving process.

The wool is dried and then the weaving of the rugs can begin. I have made this sound like an easy process but it is all rather time consuming and in the end you get to have a very nice Oriental Rug on your floor that will give you years of enjoyment.

I Have Dog Hair in my Oven

We just finished waiting on a customer who had a few interesting stories about dog hair in her home. Let me preface this with they own a large Golden Retriever who is just about as sweet a dog that God has ever blessed a home with.

She brought in three small rugs that had their fair share of dog hair on them. She mentioned that she and her son vacuumed the devil out of the rugs last night but in just a matter of a few short hours there were more hairs on them. She apologized for the hair and as I always say “We love dirty rugs” and there was no need to apologize. We are able to clean the rugs and will do our best to make them hair free.

She said that the dog is so sweet but she has recently found dog hair in the oven! She was certain that the pooch only enjoyed sleeping on the king sized bed while they were out but now it appears that he also enjoys a hot lunch before retiring to the bed. What we put up with for our pets!

If your pet is shedding or for any other cleaning problem associated with your pet please call us at 513-251-2351 with any questions or email me at orientalrugman@hotmail.com.