Funky Rugs

Weird,

…and what todo with them.

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JULY 2010

CLEANFAX.COM

By Lisa Wagner, CRS

everal months ago, I made a poston the

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magazine BulletinBoard about a rug made from spider silkstrands.It is a fascinating story behind a beauti-ful,uniquerugcurrentlybeingshowcasedin a New York museum.I posted to share something unique. Butsomeone asked, “Would you

clean

it?”Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I havenever washed a spider silk rug. However,I am confident enough in my inspection,cleaning and troubleshooting skills toanswer, “Yes, I would clean it.”Wemaynotcomeacrossapiecethatun-usual or valuable in our careers, but wehave all had rugs come our way when ourfirst response has been, “Huh?”Arug we’ve never seen before, one thatchallenges our skill level.The trick is to have a system in place todo three things:

Inspect to direct your cleaningdecisions

Protect through testing to keepfrom having a rug damaged fromyour efforts

Communicate to the owner so he orshe is aware of why you aremaking the decisions you are, andwork to manage expectations in themore difficult cleaning scenariosyou face.Consistent systems — and checklists —can keep you from inadvertently makingmistakes.Trusted peers can assist you with strate-gies and insight to help you do the job, orto turn it down. But it begins with the ini-tial inspection; that gives you the certaintyof whether you can tackle the job or not.

Funky fibers

The majority of woven and tufted rugsthat cleaners come across are made fromwool, because it is a superior fiber.Cleaners also come across the otherusual suspects: Natural fibers like cottonand silk in handmade rugs and syntheticfibers like nylon and olefin in machinemade rugs.There are always exceptions to everyrule, except one: There will always be onecrazy person that decides to make a crazyrug that

sounded

like a good idea at thetime.I’ve seen rugs made from paper, jute,acrylic, polyester, hemp, sisal, sea grass,leather, torn rags and… the worst fiber(next to paper) in strength for rugs…rayon/viscose.I’vealsoseenrugswovenwithgoldandmetal thread, beadworkandeven sequins.Without very close inspection, a cleanermight treat one fiber in a way he knows issafe, and then end up with disastrous re-sults if he was wrong about the fiber type.Paperwillfallapartwithwashing.Plantmaterials can discolor (from released oils)withunevenmoistureuse.Leathercanloseits sizing, or color, with cleaning. Rayoncan brown horribly without the right pre-cautions, if a cleaner accidentally cleans it,mistaking it for real silk.If you are not 100 percent positive whatyou are working on, clip off a small tuftand perform a fiber identification test tomake certain of the face fibers.Also, do not forget to inspect the insidefibers — warps and wefts — so as not tomiss any fiber concerns there.

Weird dyes

Dyesthatarenotcolorfastcanbeapain, butthisdoesn’tnecessarilyqualifythemas“weird.”Weird is the unexpected. Dyes that mi-grate, despite applying a dye stabilizingsolution on them, qualify as weird.Mostrugdisasterscenariosinthisarenacome from being lazy about the dye test-ing process.Cleaners who eyeball a rug and saywith 100 percent certainty, "I know thatwon'tbleed!"aresettingthemselvesupfordisaster. Even the best of us allow one tooccasionally slip by and our confidencecostsusarugbecausewedon’twanttoin-vest the few minutes it takes for a dye test.The dye scenarios to keep an eye out forare: Over-dyeing (tea wash and antiquingtreatments), excess dye (lack of thoroughrinsing before the weaving process) and

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LisaWagnerisasecond-generationrugcareexpert,NIRCCertifiedRugSpecialistandanownerofK.Blatchford'sSanDiegoRugCleaningCompany.Visitwww.RugSecrets.comtorequestherfreepublication"RUGSECRETS:TheInsider'sGuideToSuccessfullyAddingRugsToYourCleaning&RestorationBusiness."

Thisisarare,one-of-a-kindrugwovenfrom spidersilkthreads.Leatherrugshavetheirownlistofpitfallsto preparefor,sobeverycareful.Hamadanrugover-dyedwithinkthatwill washaway.Grinopenthefiberstolookfor colordifferencesbetweenthebaseandthe tipsofthefibers.

ink (used to cheaply recolor a rug or tocover up flaws).

Tea wash

treatments essentially apply a browndyeover arug,throughsprayingordipping, to give the rug a more muted andsometimes older look.Opening up the fibers, and inspectingthefringetassels,canshowyouifthistreat-ment has been applied. Most cleaning ef-forts will wash away some of thisapplication. A more aggressive cleaningcan remove enough of it to change the en-tire look of the rug, which can create aproblem with the client.You need to identify the situation first,give your client options and realistic ex-pectations, and then let him or her decidewhat they’d like to have you do.

Excess dye

, usually present to a certainextent in rugs that have not yet had theirveryfirstcleaning,issimplyexcessdyethatneeds to be washed away.With enough water flow, and a dye stabilizingsolution,youcangenerallyprotectthe neighboring fibers from grabbing themigrating excess dye molecules. You mayhave to color correct the cotton fringe, butin most cases that won’t be a noticeableproblem.Problems with excess dyes tend to comemost often from tribal rugs out of placeslike Afghanistan. And if the designs aredark, this may not be noticeable if migra-tion happens in the field.That being said, if the dye dry crocks onto a white towel during a dye test, or on adamp towel, you need to decide if this is arisk you want to take.

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