Who Weaves a TVR Carpet in 2026

On my first buying trip with my father, standing in front of a loom for the first time, I saw what I have built the atelier around since: a hand-knotted carpet is a record of the hands that tied it. Roughly five hundred weavers tie the knots in our carpets, and we have kept faith with the same weaving regions for the whole life of the atelier.

Designers, architects, and private clients regularly ask me who actually ties the knots in the piece they commission. This is who.

In 2026 that answer has not changed: the same roughly 500 weavers, in the same four regions, on looms we have returned to for years. A 240 x 300 cm carpet at our standard 121 kpsi density still holds 1,350,000 individual hand-tied knots, exactly as the point-by-point cartoon has always required.

Five hundred weavers, four regions, the same looms

Every TVR carpet is hand-knotted by weavers in Rajasthan, Nepal, Kashmir, and the Pakistan-Afghanistan corridor. The carpet is designed in Belgium, woven by hand in those regions, and reviewed a final time in our Evergem atelier before it reaches a client.

We do not move a commission to whichever floor can take the work fastest that season. The relationships behind these looms have been continuous for years, which is the only way the quality stays constant from one carpet to the next.

How a knotter becomes a master weaver

A weaver does not start on a 225 kpsi loom. Knotting is a craft learned over years, beginning on lower-density work and progressing to fine densities only once the hand is reliable.

Reading the cartoon

Every weaver works from a point-by-point cartoon, a paper chart where one square equals one knot. A 240 × 300 cm carpet at 121 kpsi holds roughly 1.35 million individual knots, and a master weaver reads that chart row by row without losing the line of the design.

A fixed pace, by hand

A weaver ties roughly the same number of knots every working day, and that pace cannot be pushed. Going from 121 to 225 kpsi nearly doubles the knot count and more than doubles the months on the loom.

Several knotters work side by side on a single loom for the months a piece takes. At our standard 121 kpsi density that is four to five months on the loom; at 196 kpsi around nine months; at our 225 kpsi maximum, eleven months or more. The full timeline is on the lead-time page.

How the work is checked, knot to shearing

Quality is held at the loom, not discovered at the end. A master weaver or supervisor checks completed rows against the cartoon continuously; a dropped colour or a slipped count is corrected while the loom is still strung, because it cannot be corrected afterward.

After the carpet comes off the loom it is washed, sun-dried, shaved to even pile height, stretched, and hand-carved, every step by hand, in the region where it was woven. Only then does it travel to Evergem for a final inspection and its holographic authenticity label, sewn into every TVR carpet since 2014 (see Innovation).

Why it matters who weaves it, and how they are treated

The weavers are the reason a TVR carpet is still in the family two generations on, so how they are treated is part of how the carpet is made. We work within the Care & Fair framework: regular independent audits of the weaving floors, plus our own visits twice a year, and two schools funded for weavers' children.

A carpet woven by people who are treated well, on looms we return to year after year, is a different object from one woven by the lowest bidder. That is most of the answer to why ours costs what it costs. The rest is on the craftsmanship and sustainability pages.

In short

Every TVR carpet is hand-knotted by roughly 500 weavers in Rajasthan, Nepal, Kashmir, and the Pakistan-Afghanistan corridor: the same weaving regions for the life of the atelier.
A knotter progresses from lower densities to fine work over years, reading a point-by-point cartoon of around 1.35 million knots for a 240 × 300 cm carpet at our standard density, and roughly double that at 225 kpsi, tying them at a fixed daily pace.
Quality is checked at the loom against the cartoon, then through washing, shaving, stretching, and hand-carving, with a final inspection and holographic label in Evergem.
The weavers work within the Care & Fair framework, with our own twice-yearly visits and two funded schools. See Sustainability.

Who weaves a TVR carpet in 2026