Oriental Rug Corner Rebuild

Damaged corner from front.

Damage from back.

Work begins..

The bottom layer of warps, or lengthwise vertical cords, are done.
This type of carpet has a foundation constructed of two layers of warp with parallel, but slightly offset alignment sandwiching a thicker, primary weft, or horizontal cord.

Top layer of warp done.

Over the years, I've worked out a way of using in-line connections instead of the more forceful traditional splicing methods. They are surprisingly strong and cause almost no distortion or swelling at the splice. I tested many variations before getting it right.

Here you can see the horizontal weft cords going in. They are almost twice the diameter of the vertical warp cords. Each weft loops back into the rug at the edge creating a closed structure that won't unravel.

Looks a bit messy at this stage.

Weft looping done.

After all of the thicker, primary weft is attached, a very thin secondary weft is passed over and under the top and bottom layers of vertical warp. This secures both sides together and creates a sort of grid-work mat.

And done.

Reknotting begins. Each knot works like an individual TV pixel, combining with many thousands of others to create the rug's unique design. This particular carpet had a symmetrical design so I simply copied the pattern from an undamaged corner.

Done. Now for the goat shears.

Not bad after a shave.

And now to replace the decorative, but also protective edge binding.

From the back, fringe trimmed.

Tight!