Yesterday, we collected a very fine handmade Persian Qum rug from a client in Holland Park in London. The pile is pure soft hand woven silk and the foundations (that’s the warp and weft that make up the fringes) are also hand spun silk.
The rug is mostly in very good condition. Some of the side is coming away and will need repaired by our workshop after its first hand wash. We call this the cord and its whipped – essentially a loop stitch which runs down the side of rug.
In order to hand clean a Persian Silk rug, it is essential understand the composition of the rug. SILK MUST NOT BE COMPLETELY IMMERSED IN WATER. If you know what you are doing, you can use water, but it must be limited and be removed very very quickly! If you do not know how to hand clean an silk rug, we urge you not to try and clean them at home – best call a professional Persian rug cleaning and restoration company like https://www.orrc.co.uk
We repair many silk oriental and Persian rugs from both people and companies who try to clean them and end up with a disaster – colour run, damaged silk beyond repair and we have even had to rebuild holes in a run that were caused by improper cleaning.
In any case, its best to leave it to the experts. We hand wash each rug very carefully and in fact in some situations we use no water at all. On an average week at The Oriental Rug Repair Co. we clean over four silk rugs and carpets by hand – often each piece needing slightly different treatment from the next.
Our advice is always leave cleaning oriental and Persian rugs and carpets to the experts. Call us for an absolutely free quotation today.