The New York City designer
chose the ultimate in simplicity – a one-coloured grey rectangular rug with no
pattern. She also chose the ultimate in luxury fibres – 100% silk.
She was only willing to
trust the simplicity of the design and the luxury of the fibre to the finest
production processes. For this she came to Creative Matters. No detail was to
be left unperfected in the painstaking production of this rug. And that
included the lesser-documented process of binding.
The easiest, most economical way to
finish off the edge of raw carpeting is to sew tape over the edge of a carpet
with a high powered sewing machine. Obviously, this was not our vision for the
grey silk rug.
The Nepalese artisans to whom we
had entrusted the production of the rug, take incredible pride in their work
and for them binding is a three-step process.
First, the loose threads
from the warp and weft were folded back and encouraged to grip each other
tightly with a high quality adhesive. After it had dried, the artisans worked
their way around the rug perimeter with a special stitch that anchors the
threads securely. Finally, they took the same grey silk thread and closely
bound the entire edge with an overcast stitch.
The stitches may look simple but the ability to
anchor the stitch to a weft thread is key. A poorly executed stitch will lead
to a tension inconsistency and eventually knots unraveling from the rug. Search
Google for rug binding and most of the entries will be from companies who
specialize in this oft-needed repair.
This splendid grey silk rug is currently in
shipment - we look forward to presenting it in its full splendour shortly.
