Antique Persian Rug Restoration
One of my favorite stages in a rug restoration project is the shearing stage when the pile has been reknotted and all that remains is to cut down the yarns so that the pattern can reveal itself. This photo is of precisely that stage in the process of an antique Persian rug restoration. It looks beautiful even with long yarns, but once they have been cut, we aim for the restored area to blend into the original. Note that this kind of restoration is one in which we rebuild the warp and weft and reknot the damaged pile in the same style of the original. This makes the restoration part of the original structure of the rug and therefore allows the restored to last as long as, if not longer than, the original rug. When a repair is done by sewing in a patch from another rug, that is temporary at best, because the sewn edges will eventually come undone through normal wear. A true rug restoration is one in which the new area is knotted.