Our process

From sheep to shipment.

Every rug moves through the same eight stages. The vocabulary is the local trade’s. Verification sits inside the flow rather than bolted on at the end — yarn checked before it becomes anything, colour fixed against the shade card before bulk dyeing, GSM verified on every single piece as it comes off the loom.

01 · Design

A drawing becomes a map

Idea, CAD, then a knot map. Your artwork is redrawn at full size — every square one knot, every colour a numbered yarn. The map also fixes the yarn requirement per square metre, which is what the dye order is built from.

Stage 01 — CAD artwork for a hand-tufted rug, drawn at full size before a knot map is prepared

Stage 01 — the design drawing hung above the loom, three weavers reading it row by row — And on the loom — the same drawing, read row by row.

02 · Fibre

Where the wool comes from

Raw wool arrives and is tested before anything else happens to it — count on the wrap reel, twist on the twist tester, moisture regain in the hot-air oven, weight on a balance calibrated by IICT Bhadohi. RWS-certified wool carries transaction certificates from the farm forward.

Handspun yarn is produced within our own operation. Mill-spun is sourced to specification. Custom blends from a 5 kg spin lot.

Secondary figure is an illustration of RWS-certified wool origin — not our farm, not our sheep. Included to show what the standard covers: animal-welfare-audited farms, land-management standards, transaction certificates that travel with the wool.

Stage 02 — raw wool at intake, tested for count, twist and moisture regain before it is issued for spinning

Illustration — RWS-certified wool origin. Not a photograph of PiHue’s own supply

02 · Fibre · carding

Wool carding, in motion

The carding machine on the floor — the wool being drawn out and aligned before it is spun into yarn. 22 seconds.

03 · Colour

Yarn takes the colour

Yarn is dyed to the design, not picked from stock. Lab dips are matched to Pantone TCX and ARS 1400 references and returned for approval in about ten days. Dyeing is carried out at a contracted OEKO-TEX and RWS certified plant, and colour fastness is tested.

Minimum dye lot is one kilogram — so a custom colourway is available on a single rug, not only on a bulk programme.

Stage 03 — at the contracted dye plant, yarn being lowered into the vat over the furnace — At the contracted dye plant — yarn lowered into the vat.

Stage 03 — freshly dyed yarn lifted from the vat, colour taken, still wet — Lifted out, colour taken.

Stage 03 — yarn suspended above the dyeing vat at the contracted plant

Stage 03 — dyed hanks on the drying yard after the contracted plant returns them

03 · Colour · detail

Balled and ready to issue

Dyed yarn wound into balls for the loom.

Stage 03 — dyed wool wound into balls, ready for the loom

Stage 03 — rows of dyed yarn hung to dry in the open

Stage 03 — the drying yard, dyed hanks in the sun before they go to the loom

Stage 03 — wide view of the drying yard, dyed yarn stretching across the field — Dyed yarn drying in the open before it goes to the loom.

04 · Weaving

Knot by knot, row by row

Yarn is issued against the work order at the per-square-metre figure the design calls for. Consumption is reconciled on return and any shortage carries forward against the next issue.

Looms run to 20 feet in width, so large formats are woven in a single piece.

Stage 04 — the weaving hall in Bhadohi, hand-knotted rugs on vertical looms

Stage 04 — a navy silk rug on the loom, border emerging row by row

04 · Weaving · detail

Weaving at the loom

Detail of a rug on the loom — warp tensioned, weft beaten down, the pattern growing a few centimetres a day.

Stage 04 — a rug in progress on the loom, warp tensioned, weft beaten down

05 · Receiving

Off the loom, weighed against the spec

Finished pieces come off the loom and are received daily against slips. GSM is calculated and verified on every single piece — not sampled, every piece. Actual weight divided by actual area, against the specification.

[DEEP: need bazar receiving photo — weighing or measuring at receiving]

Stage 05 — measuring a rug against the specified size at receiving

06 · Washing

Water opens the pile

Water opens the pile and lifts the lustre once the weaving oils are gone. Rugs are washed flat and sun-dried.

Stage 06 — a rug being washed flat on the finishing floor

06 · Washing · sun-drying

Sun-dried, flat

Washed flat, then sun-dried — on frames or hung, depending on the piece.

Stage 06 — a washed rug sun-drying flat on bamboo frames in the yard

Stage 06 — a bamboo silk rug hung to sun-dry on a wall, an alternative to the ground frames

07 · Finishing

Shear, stretch, bind — and carve

Stretching to true the shape, hand-binding the edges, and carving — the relief cut into the pile by hand, with scissors and carving tools, by several artisans working across one rug.

Stage 07 — four artisans hand-carving a large round tufted rug in Bhadohi

Stage 07 — on the finishing floor — On the finishing floor.

08 · Quality and dispatch

Measured, weighed, wrapped, shipped

Size against ±3% tolerance, weight and GSM against specification, finish against the approved sample. Then rolled, wrapped, labelled, and shipped — air out of IGI Delhi, sea out of Nhava Sheva, all Incoterms accepted.

Stage 08 — wrapped rug bundles with SKU labels on the packing bay floor, ready for the forwarder

Start your programme

What is documented at each stage

Design. Approved CAD, approved knot map, size specification, quality (GSM / KPSI) specification.
Dye. Approved lab dip; record per bulk lot from the contracted dye plant; transaction certificates for RWS wool / GRS recycled yarn.
Weave. Loom register per rug; supervisor sign-off at agreed intervals.
Receiving. Per-piece GSM record at receiving, against specification.
Finish. Wash record, latex-cure record (for tufted).
QC. Per-piece record of measured size, weight, GSM and finish; comparison against approved sample.
Ship. Packing list per rug and per pallet; certificate of origin; export documentation.

More on our three QC gates → · More on the dyeing process →

Start a programme

Send us your design. Quotation within hours.

A CAD, a sketch or a reference photo is enough — we return pricing, material options and a sampling plan the same working day.

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