Persia Rug
Saf
A prayer rug containing multiple prayer niches.
Savonnerie
La Savonnerie, a carpet factory, was established in 1628 on the site of a former soap factory at Chaillot, near the Seine in Paris. Savonnerie rugs typically feature a center medallion and peripheral border and are often large in size. Motifs are often carved in the rug, adding texture.
They were woven in France up until the end of the 19th century. They were more plush than flat woven Aubussons of the same period and had an impressionist quality many find very appealing. This rug was the model for many Chinese and Indian rugs that gained popularity in the mid 20th century.
Selvedge
A woven edge finish on the side of a rug that is formed either from the wefts as they turn back to recross the rug, or from additional yarns wrapped over the edge to protect the exposed wefts.
Sheikh Safi
Sheikh Safi designs copy the dome of Sheikh Safi's shrine located in the city of Ardabil in northwest of Iran. The medallion is surrounded by 16 leaf-lke pendants; two lamps are also connected to the medallion, one to the top and one to the bottom. The corners look very similar to the medallion itself. This is also the design of the two famous Ardabil carpets now located in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Los Angeles County museum.
Soumak
A flatwoven Kelim rug made from a technique that produces a herringbone effect.
Spinning
The manner in which wool and cotton are spun into yarn. Both handspun and machine spun yarns are used. Hand spinning yields more variation in the texture of the finished rug.
Synthetic Dyes Chemically derived beginning in the mid-nineteenth century for coloring rug yarns.
Tea Wash
An herbal solution with which a rug is treated to change the yarn coloration to a “tea colored” aged look.
Transitional
Broad style that falls between traditional European and Oriental rug designs and new contemporary styles. Floral and botanical patterns are good examples of rugs in this category.
Tree of Life
Represents the connecting link between the three world levels of the ancient Orient: Paradise( in the sky), the World of Humankind(earth), and the World
Below (we know what that is!)
Tufted Rug
Hand-tufted rugs are made using a "gun": a hand-operated tool that punches strands of wool into a canvas stretched on a frame. The design of the rug is drawn on the canvas, and the worker fills in the pattern with the appropriate color wool. The rug is removed from the frame and a scrim fabric is glued to the back of the rug. It is only the glue on the back of the rug that holds the wool pile in place--yarn is not knotted over warps as with a real Oriental rug. As with Oriental Rugs the quality overall is greatly dependant on the materials used throughout.
Village Rugs
Rugs made in villages or in small workshops. There is usually no elaborate cartoon or diagram drawn before the rug is woven.
Wagireh
A small sampler rug, woven with the various designs and colors of the finished product. They are frequently woven in the Bijar region.
Warp
The parallel cotton, wool or silk yarns that run the length of the loom that and are interlaced with wefts to form the foundation of the rug. Warps extend past the end of a rug and form the fringes. (see knots above)
Weft
The yarns laced horizontally through the warps between the rows of knots to anchor them in place. (see knots above)
Yarn A continuous strand of twisted threads of natural or synthetic material.
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