If a rug is advertised as silk or hand made and the price seems too good, slow down, because the rug industry plays fast and loose with both words. A great deal of what is sold as silk is actually viscose, a cellulose product that degrades with water and can be ruined by a single spill. And a lot of hand made rugs are machine made. Knowing the difference protects your money. If you want to be sure what you are buying, reach out to our team at (480) 947-4822. At Organic Looms, we replace a lot of ruined viscose rugs with the real thing.
Is that rug real silk or viscose?
There is only one true silk, and it comes from a worm. Everything else marketed as silk in the rug world is usually viscose, a man-made cellulose fiber used as a cheap substitute, and it behaves nothing like the real thing. Viscose degrades with water, so foot traffic, a common spill, or a pet accident can permanently damage it, and once it is damaged the rug is essentially ruined. Blended in small amounts, viscose can add a little sheen to a wool fiber. Used on its own as the main fiber in a rug, it is a problem waiting for the first wet day. This is not a subtle quality difference you can shrug off. It is the gap between a rug that survives real life and one that stains and mats the first time it meets water. Understanding how our rugs are made from real natural fibers is the surest way to see why the difference matters.
What is the difference between hand-made and hand-knotted?
They sound alike and could not be more different. A hand-knotted rug is tied knot by knot by an artisan and built to last for generations. A rug labeled hand made or hand loomed is often produced on a machine operated by a person feeding a shuttle, which is a completely different process that yields a completely different rug. The giveaway shows up in durability. An inferior hand made rug frequently cannot even be cleaned without literally coming apart, because it was never constructed to hold together the way a knotted rug is. So the word on the tag is doing a lot of quiet work to make a lesser product sound like a better one. When you are comparing rugs, the construction matters far more than the label, and hand-knotted is the one that earns its keep over decades of real use. If a seller cannot tell you plainly which one they are selling, treat that hesitation as the answer.
How do you protect yourself from a bad rug purchase?
Buy from someone who controls the quality and can tell you exactly what the fiber is. Ask plainly whether a silk is real silk or viscose, and whether a hand made rug is actually hand-knotted, and watch how confidently the answer comes back. A seller sourcing directly from the loom knows the fiber, the origin, and the construction of every rug, because they were there for it. We do, which is why we can stand behind our rugs and why so many of our jobs start with replacing a viscose rug that failed within a year. You can also feel the difference in person, since real wool and silk carry a weight and a hand that the fakes never quite match. Browse our natural fiber rug inventory and the contrast is obvious. Real fiber is not a nice extra. It is the whole point of buying a rug that lasts.
How do you know you are getting the real thing?
Come see and feel it for yourself, and ask every question you have. In the showroom you can handle genuine wool, linen, and real silk, compare the weight and the knotting up close, and get a straight answer about exactly what each rug is made of. There is no sleight of hand, because there is nothing to hide when you source directly and control the quality. Once you have felt the difference between real fiber and a substitute, the tags stop fooling you for good. You will know exactly what you are standing on, and you will know it will still be there in twenty years. It is your floor and your money, and both deserve the real thing. If you are tired of wondering whether a rug is what its tag claims, get in touch with our team at (480) 947-4822 and we will show you the real thing and explain the difference.