Excellent Oriental Rugs
The first thing to be considered when shopping for Oriental rugs is what, exactly, constitutes an Oriental Rug in the first place. The best Oriental rugs
are real Oriental rugs, and real Oriental rugs must satisfy a specific set of requirements. First, Oriental rugs must be hand made. If a rug is
machine-made, it is not an Oriental rug.
This does not imply that any rug which is made by hand becomes a legitimate Oriental rug. To give an example there are rugs which are made with
hand in America by the Native Americans and they are popular as 'Navajo rugs' or 'American Indian rugs'. They are also handmade but the method of
weaving is different.
There is another very obvious fact about Oriental rugs that the authentic Oriental rugs are manufactured in the Orient. Orient is a very general term but
in most cases they are woven in Asia, Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe. In fact the design of the rug is different for different places. You
will be able to understand this more once you compare photos as you search for them on the internet before you purchase one.
Tufted rugs which are woven in India, China, as well as some other countries of Asia is a good alternative to the more costly Oriental rugs. They are
also made by hand, the difference being that each knot is not knotted in the same manner as authentic Oriental rugs. This is reason for it they are less
expensive. A tufted rug which is the same size as an Oriental rug would cost $700 compared to the $1500 you would have to pay for the original and it
would also look very similar. But you have to remember that the value of the tufted rugs goes down very fast while the resale value of the Oriental rug
is much higher and they even last longer.
A very basic feature of the Oriental rug is that they are hand woven. There are some other types of handmade rugs made in Asia, like the tufted rugs
which may look similar but the way it is woven is different. The distinguishing feature of Oriental rugs is the way the knots are tied by hand. T