Fleece to floor

Women weavers make each Zarbish Moroccan rug in our workshop in the Middle Atlas. They prepare and spin natural wool, dye it when the design needs color, set the warp on the loom and tie the pile by hand. After the rug leaves the loom, they clip and finish it, wash it, dry it in the sun, complete the edges and chosen tassels, and issue its numbered Craft Record.

The wool

Natural wool spun for knotting starts the process. The yarn does two different jobs. Some remains undyed, giving ivory Beni Ourain designs their warm ground. Some takes color before it reaches the loom, so the color runs through the pile rather than sitting on the surface like a print.

That distinction matters when you live with the rug. A printed surface can lose its drawing as the face wears. In a hand-knotted rug, the yarn itself carries the color and each cut end belongs to a knot below it. Turn back a corner and the construction is still there.

We do not add a romantic origin story to the fleece. What we can say from our workshop is direct: the material is 100% natural wool, prepared for a dense hand-knotted pile, and the finished rug is soft enough for bare feet while keeping the spring and weight that let it settle on a floor.

The dye

When a design needs color, we dye the wool in our workshop with natural plant and mineral dyes. Ivory designs can keep the natural color of the wool. Bloom, Dama, Mozaic and colored pieces in the other collections take their palette from dyed yarn prepared before knotting.

The important proof comes later, during the wash. Our natural dyes are fixed so the color does not transfer or shift with use, and the wash in our workshop checks every color against the final design before the rug ships. That is a workshop control, not a claim that every Moroccan rug is dyed the same way.

Color in wool also moves with the light. The same pink can read clearer at midday and deeper after the lamps come on because the pile catches light from one direction and shades from the other. The dye has not changed. The surface has.

The loom

The loom setup decides the finished width before the drawing begins. Weavers string the warp threads to the confirmed dimensions, setting the foundation for the pile. They build the rug to that width rather than weaving a larger sheet and trimming it down later.

Before the first knot, four decisions are already present:

1. The finished dimensions, confirmed in writing.
2. The design and its palette.
3. The chosen pile height: short, medium or shag.
4. The tassel choice, with or without.

The warp holds those decisions steady while the hand at the loom builds the surface. On a custom design, the approved mockup is the design record. On a catalog design, the weaver follows the authored drawing while leaving the small shifts that show a person made it.

The knot

Hand-knotted means the pile is the construction. Weavers tie each tuft of wool around the warp, working across the width and building the rug upward. The pattern therefore appears on the back as well as the front, slightly coarser, with the rows and knots visible when a corner is turned.

Hand-tufted is different. A tufting gun pushes yarn through a backing, and glue holds it there, so the pile can look similar from above while the reverse tells another story. A glued canvas or blank backing is not the back of a hand-knotted rug. The full authenticity check sits in how handmade shows in the knots, where the only published knot number belongs.

Our weave uses a high knot density. The useful point is qualitative: dense knotting gives the drawing enough resolution for a thin lattice in Jibal, a small tiled repeat in Mozaic or a carved surface in Terrain without changing the basic hand-knotted construction.

Off the loom

Once the knotting is complete, the rug leaves the loom and the finishing work makes the surface readable. The pile is clipped to the chosen height. On Terrain pieces, the workshop carves the design relative to that chosen field, so raised blocks or channels appear through height as well as color. The long edges and ends are finished by hand, and tassels are completed when the order calls for them.

The workshop then washes the rug. The wash clears loose fiber, checks the colors against the final design and leaves the rug ready to use after delivery. After that wash, we dry the rug in the sun. That is the confirmed drying fact. We do not attach a duration, a location or a weather story to it.

The table shows what each finishing stage proves.

Proof and updates

The last proof is documentary. Each rug ships with its Craft Record, a numbered record of the design, the workshop and the completion date. It also records the family, collection, shape, finished size, pile height, tassel choice and materials. The physical card travels with the rug, while the digital record stays tied to the order.

The Craft Record is provenance, not a repair warranty. It tells you what the workshop made and which choices belong to that piece. During production, the order record does a different job: it carries the confirmed dimensions and the updates from loom to shipment. The FAQ explains how production updates work.

Across collections

The method stays consistent while the surface changes. Jibal uses the knot to draw dark lines across an ivory ground. Bloom carries saturated color through the wool. Dama and Mozaic organize the floor with blocks, checks and tiled repeats. Dune lets the wool itself lead. Terrain adds carving after the loom, turning the pile into a second drawing.

Tichka shows what the loom can carry in Jibal: black lines crossing ivory wool into a diamond lattice. Warda shows Bloom's color already held inside the yarn before the rug reaches finishing. Zitoun lets Dune's solid olive surface put the wool first. Tadla adds Terrain's extra step, where the workshop carves a peach check into the pile after knotting.

The finishing step is easiest to see in sculpted Beni Mrirt rugs in Terrain. No print sits on top of the wool. Weavers knot the drawing into the rug, then the finishing hand makes it tactile by clipping and carving the pile.

• Tichka, Jibal collection. /product/tichka-ivory-black-moroccan-rug
• Warda, Bloom collection. /product/warda-pink-moroccan-rug
• Tadla, Terrain collection. /product/tadla-peach-beni-mrirt-rug

Then read what a Moroccan rug costs, stage by stage.