Journal

Notes from the Atelier, page 5

Buying guides, material explainers, care advice and craft stories, from the loom rooms of Bhadohi to living rooms and projects around the world.

Care · 8 June 2026 · 10 min

How to Care for Handmade Wool and Silk Rugs: A Complete Guide

Handmade wool and silk rugs are investments that reward proper care with decades of service. This guide covers routine maintenance, stain response, professional cleaning, storage, and the repairs that extend a rug's life.

Read article →

Contract · 7 June 2026 · 10 min

Sourcing Rugs for Hospitality and Contract Projects: What Specifiers Need to Know

Hospitality and contract rug specifications carry requirements that standard residential sourcing does not: traffic performance, fire compliance, custom sizing, phased delivery, and total cost of ownership. This guide covers all of them.

Read article →

Design · 6 June 2026 · 8 min

Colour and Design Trends in Handmade Rugs: What Is Shaping the Market

The handmade rug market moves more slowly than fashion, but it does move. This article examines the colour directions, pattern movements, and construction preferences that are currently shaping buying decisions for importers, designers, and retailers.

Read article →

Education · 5 June 2026 · 9 min

Understanding Knot Density and Rug Quality Grading: A Buyer's Technical Guide

Knot density is the single most commonly cited quality metric in hand-knotted rugs, yet it is also the most frequently misunderstood. This guide explains what knot density actually measures, how it relates to other quality variables, and how to use it sensibly in a specification.

Read article →

Heritage · 4 June 2026 · 10 min

Bhadohi: Inside India's Carpet City

Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh is the centre of India's handmade carpet industry, a designation earned over generations of concentrated craft production. This article traces the history, the geography, and the human scale of a city defined by its looms.

Read article →

Logistics · 3 June 2026 · 9 min

Exporting Rugs from India: Ports, Incoterms, and the Documentation Every Importer Needs

Getting a container of handmade rugs from Bhadohi to a warehouse in Europe or North America involves a defined sequence of logistics decisions, documentation steps, and compliance requirements. This guide covers all of them.

Read article →

Trade · 2 June 2026 · 9 min

Lead Times and Production Planning for Bulk Rug Orders

Understanding production lead times is the single most important variable in a successful bulk rug buying programme. This article explains what drives timelines for different constructions, how to plan an annual buying calendar, and how to avoid the delays that derail import programmes.

Read article →

Care · 22 May 2026 · 6 min

Caring for a Handmade Rug: Notes from the Atelier

A hand-knotted rug is one of the most durable objects a home can contain. It is also one of the most misunderstood. The care it requires is less than most people imagine, and different from what most cleaning guides suggest.

Read article →

Interiors · 8 May 2026 · 5 min

The Rug as Anchor: An Essay on Grounding a Room

In the language of interior design, the rug is rarely decoration. It is architecture underfoot, the element that determines where a room begins and where it ends.

Read article →

Craft · 18 April 2026 · 5 min

A Knot a Day: An Essay on the Slow Time of Hand-Knotting

A nine-by-twelve Raheem & Son rug can hold more than a million knots. Each one is tied by a single pair of hands, cut with a hook, and pressed into the pile, one gesture, repeated across months.

Read article →

Material · 27 March 2026 · 5 min

Natural Dye and Living Colour: Notes on Abrash

The word abrash refers to the tonal variation that occurs in a naturally dyed rug, shifts in hue across the field that no two dye batches, however carefully matched, can entirely prevent.

Read article →

Care · 10 March 2026 · 8 min

How to Care for a Kilim or Flatweave Rug

Kilims and flatweave rugs are among the most durable handmade floor textiles you can own, but their care needs differ from pile rugs in important ways. This guide covers everything you need to keep a flatweave looking its best.

Read article →

Follow the journal in Google Search. Readers who add us as a preferred source see our writing marked in Top Stories and in AI Overviews.