Oriental Rugs
A category rather than an origin — hand-knotted rugs from across Asia, covering Persian, Turkish, Caucasian, Chinese, Indian and central Asian weaving traditions.
How to tell
Hand-knotted construction is the common thread: individual knots tied on a warp, fringe that is an extension of the foundation rather than something sewn on afterwards, and small irregularities that machine production never leaves.
How we clean oriental rugs
Because the category spans so many weaving traditions, method is decided per rug rather than by label. We identify fibre, foundation and dye behaviour first, then choose immersion or controlled surface washing. A rug that is described only as oriental tells us almost nothing about how it should be handled.
What goes wrong
Being cleaned as though it were carpet. Rotary machines and hot extraction do real, permanent damage to hand-knotted construction, and that is how most irreversible cases happen.