How a Woven Jute Rug is Made
In this day and age, it’s so simple to buy whatever you need or want that sometimes we forget to consider where it really comes from.
Our rugs are a perfect example: All you have to do to enjoy a custom natural fiber rug that meets your exact size, shape, and texture specifications is pick one on our website and check out. It’ll probably take you all of five minutes – and that’s if you stop to really consider your choices!
While this convenience is wonderful, it tends to overshadow just how much work it takes to get that rug to you. This is a shame, because, in our opinion, that story isn’t just fascinating — it’s also one of the most compelling reasons to buy a natural fiber rug in the first place.
Take our jute rugs, for instance. Every time you order a hand woven jute rug from us, you’re getting a product that dozens of incredibly talented farmers, factory laborers, and artisans worked on, which then traveled thousands of miles to get to you.
This is the story of your next woven jute rug, from where it started to how it ends up in your home.
What is jute?
Jute is a natural plant fiber spun from the bast (also known as the phloem, or “skin” of the plant) of flowering shrubs in the genus Corchorus and the mallow family Malvaceae.
Most commercially produced raw (unspun) jute is grown in South Asia, especially in India and Bangladesh. As a highly affordable and versatile fiber, jute is the second-most produced natural fiber in the world, next to cotton.
The jute Sisal Rugs Direct uses to create our woven jute rugs is sustainably sourced from eco-friendly Indian and Bangladeshi farms in the Bengal Delta Plain. These farms produce a very high-quality product that is spun into long, shiny, textured yarns perfect for weaving into rugs.
Why are jute fibers used to make rugs?
Jute fibers have several qualities that make them an ideal choice for rugs. Woven jute rugs are:
- Affordable: Jute is one of the most affordable types of fiber to make a handwoven rug out of — and this affordability doesn’t come at the expense of quality.
- Durable: Jute was once the fiber of choice for creating rope used on ships, which speaks to how tough and durable it is.
- Textured: Arguably jute’s most iconic feature is its naturalistic texture. Though woven jute rugs are soft, they still possess the fiber’s distinct basket-like character.
- Soft: Jute fibers are soft, shiny, and long, making them one of the softest natural fibers used in area rugs today.
- Pet friendly: Woven jute rugs barely shed and stand up well to scratches and stains, making them great for spaces where they’ll come into contact with pets.
- Easy to clean: Dirt doesn’t cling to jute’s hard fibers. Instead, it rests loosely on the rug’s weave, where you can easily remove it.
To learn more if jute is the right fiber for your needs, compare it to wool and sisal.
How a woven jute rug is made
Before jute fibers are woven into rugs, they are processed into yarns appropriate for rug making in several steps. This is a simplified breakdown of the long process that brings your woven jute rug to life:
- Harvesting and soaking: First, farmers harvest the stalks of the jute plant, bundle several stalks together, and soak them in water for 20 days.
- Separating and cleaning: After 20 days of soaking, the manufacturers separate the fibers of the plant from the stalks in long, thin strands. They wash these strands in running water to remove impurities.
- Carding: Next, the manufacturers run the cleaned jute fibers through “carding” machines. These machines split jute fibers to remove inner extraneous materials. This carding process arranges the jute fibers into aligned ribbons called slivers.
- Drawing: Manufacturers use drawing machines to mix jute slivers together, reducing sliver width and thickness while increasing fiber strength. Depending on the intended strength of the fiber, they may repeat this process several times.
- Combing: Manufacturers then comb the drawn out slivers to improve the alignment of the fibers and create the finest and smoothest yarns possible.
- Spinning: After they’ve completed each of these preparatory steps, the manufacturer’s are finally ready to convert jute fibers into the yarns we use to weave rugs. To do that, they start by using a spinning machine to elongate and twist jute slivers into yarn. This spinning process winds the slivers of jute fiber together so tightly that the resulting fibers gain considerable strength and durability.
- Winding: At this point, manufacturers use a machine that winds jute yarn into spools that they can deliver to artisans (like us!) who will use it in commercial applications.
- Looming: When artisans get their hands on spools of jute yarn, the first thing they do is loom it by slowly unwinding many ends of yarn from the spools over a beam. The amount of yarn artisans use depends on the size of the rug they’re making. As the yarn unfurls, it provides a surface for artisans to begin weaving the different strands together.
- Weaving: Finally, the rug-making process begins. Artisans hand weave jute rugs out of this yarn by meticulously weaving different strands of the jute yarn together into tight, overlapping knots — similar to how you would weave a basket.
This long process is worth it when it produces a hand woven jute rug that’s soft, strong, and beautiful.
Where can I get a woven jute rug?
Sisal Rugs Direct offers a wide variety of woven jute rug collections available in different sizes, colors, and shapes. All of our jute rugs are made from 100% natural, high-quality jute fibers and handwoven into beautiful, unique natural rugs.
If you’re interested in our jute rugs, pursue the full collection right now.
