Moroccan & Tulu Rugs

Moroccan & Tulu Rugs

Moroccan and Tulu rugs are lush, soft, luxurious shaggy rugs handmade from wool. Moroccan rugs were originally made by the berber people of the Atlas Mountains in Northern Africa. Quite the favorite of the interior design world today, these fascinating rugs  are characterized by modern-looking, primitive designs. When they come in neutral tones of sheeps’ wool, they are in cream, brown and gray or a mixture of these. And when they come in color, their lush texture makes those colors sing and either way, they are never less than impressive and striking in their soft splendor.

Tulu rugs have a similar look to Moroccan rugs with their thick wool pile and coarse weaving, except that they are Turkish by origin. Traditionally, they were made in Konya in Central Anatolia and they feature modern looking, geometric, primitive designs. They were made to be used as floor or bed coverings, blankets as well as wall hangings that functioned as insulators against the cold.

We have been producing moroccan and tulu rugs for a decade using the same traditional techniques and same natural, organic materials. 

We source our wool locally from the Aksaray region. The wool we use to weave Moroccan and Tulu rugs  is dubbed ‘the first cut’ which refers to the thick, soft, luxurious, luminous, lanolin-rich top layer of a sheep’s wool’s growth. It comes in natural colors of cream, dark brown and slightly brownish gray. We mix and match these various neutral colors when necessary to achieve secondary colors such as latte, sand, taupe, fawn etc.

This top quality wool is then hand-spun just as it used to be centuries ago. Hand-spun wool takes longer to make, but it also lasts much longer and maintains its color for a very long time/indefinitely. It is purely natural and organic. We also dye some of our wool using textile dyes or organic vegetable dyes based on the design of a moroccan or tulu rug to be woven.

Our customers can choose a design from our portfolio, which is often, or they can come to us with any design of their own.  Either way, we are confident of the precision of what we will produce and always open to any weaving challenges. 

Once we get an order and a design for a moroccan or tulu rug from a customer, our team of weavers in Güzelyurt starts to weave it using the method of Turkish/ghiordes knot, which is a strong, symmetrical knot that makes for a consistent pile and is used in thicker carpets. 

Weaving usually takes between 4 to 6 weeks depending on the size of the rug and it is well worth the wait. Because what is produced in the end is a rug with the softest, most luxurious texture that simply relaxes and invigorates you the moment your feet or hands touch it.

The freshly woven rug is gently sheared to get rid of any excess wool. It is then heavy-washed and laid out to dry in the sun. When the rug is completely dry, it is stretched for a few days to reverse any minor shrinking that may happen after the wash due to the nature of wool. After the stretching, selvedges are fixed.