Information Regarding the Types of Materials Used in Rugs
Rugs are ancient handicraft items and are used as doormats, mattresses and various other floor coverings. The price varies according to the quality of the material used in making a rug. Generally one can easily find a rug ranging from a few dollars to several dollars.
Handicraft is still keeping itself alive in the form of rugs. There are various materials used in the fabrication of the same and the price varies according to the quality and type of the materials used. The different styles of a rug range from the braided, hooked, rag, needle punch to woven and prodded. The two different types of materials used in the manufacture of either of the mentioned styles are ‘natural’ and ‘synthetic’.
Difference between natural and synthetic rugs
The natural materials used for the purpose of rug making include the plant as well as the animal fibers. The most commonly used natural materials for the purpose of making rugs ranges from wool, sisal, silk, jute, and cotton to bamboo and sea-grass. All these natural materials are high quality and expensive rug materials, as they offer more durability in comparison to the synthetic materials. The synthetic materials on the other hand include rayon, viscose, nylon, olefin and acrylic. However, the synthetic materials offer same shine and look like the natural rug materials do, but still their quality lags behind the ones that the natural rug making materials offer. Thus, the major difference between the natural and the synthetic rug materials is ‘quality’.
Wool and silk are the mostly used materials to produce a woven rug. However, they can be blended into any style as mentioned-above, other than the woven style. Silk offers shine and is thus used for the fabrication of high quality rugs like Persian rug and Oriental rug. The various silk materials offer great comfort, style, shine, look as well as elegance. However, they should be handled with care, as these are delicate items. Rayon is a synthetic replacement to silk and offers the same shine. However, the biggest difference in quality can be assessed from the fact that when exposed to flame, silk never melts, but rayon does.
Apart from wool and silk, cotton is also a very popular and strong fabric to produce rugs. Cotton is ideal for the fabrication of multicolored products due to its quality of absorbing any dye. It can also be mixed with wool to produce even softer products. However, amongst the plant products, sisal is the most popular and first choice. It is durable and absorbs sound. To conclude, rugs can be manufactured from natural as well as synthetic materials; however, quality as well as durability comes handy with the natural rug materials, but the cost is not too low. Though, the alternatives to all the natural materials exist in form of synthetic materials, they offer the same look and elegance and are affordable at the same time, but are not as long-lasting as the natural materials.