Silk rug cleaning requires particular knowledge of the dyes used for your fine rug. True silk rugs, that is to say real silk rugs will be thinner than other woven rugs using wool and fine cotton. While attention and expertise is also required to clean Oriental rugs designed and hand woven using wool and cotton extreme care is needed when cleaning silk rugs. Oriental or Persia rugs made from silk will also use different materials to manufacture the dyes depending on the region where the rug was made and the actual period or date that the rug was made. Knowledge of the dyes used on your silk rug is of the utmost importance when determining how to best clean and wash your rug. If a silk rug is cleaned in the wrong fashion that silk rug may very well fade reducing the beauty of the rug and it’s value.
South Western Rugs
The same is true of Native American Indian rugs such as Navajo rugs. Oriental Rug Cleaning methods by hand are certainly the best method
The colors are not color fast, meaning the colors will fade or run, thus ruining the rug. This is why proper care and a professional is needed when dealing with these fine silk rugs. Sometimes if these rugs are not cleaned properly the texture of these silk rugs will change and become more rough. Silk needs to be washed and cleaned with salt water. Back home in Iran there is an area in the city Ghom, where it is known to wash silk rugs because the water is normally salty in that region. Silk Rugs are usually taken there from other parts of Iran to be washed there. In addition must silk rugs that come out of Iran are made in the city of Ghom, mostly due to the salty water used for cleaning. Since most rug cleaners do not know the process of cleaning silk rugs, they use vinegar to prevent color runs. In which after this, the rug will smell like vinegar, which some may not like the smell of. In the silk rug cleaning process, like other hand knotted rugs, it is done by hand and usually with a brush. In this case a fine brush is used for cleaning. After the rug is dry, in order to get the silk texture back to its original smooth texture, limestone is used in order to brush the pile, which brings the silks smooth nature back to normal. Before washing any rugs, an inspection is done, since there are many artificial silk rugs produced. There are two main forms of silk, real authentic and artificial silk. Artificial silk or bamboo silk as it may be known is a synthetic material and is basically a rayon. The process of cleaning real silk and artificial silk is very different and doing the wrong process may ruin the rug. Real silk requires more attention and costs more to clean as a result.
