Our
Know How
Art Design
For more than 15 years, my work has been nourished by artistic projects where I have enjoyed juggling between radical choices and more playful choices without ever forgetting the place of the rug in people's lives. My guide is my hand, intuitive and innovative, and the hand of the craftsman, who guarantees excellent know-how. Hand by hand, we move forward and weave, according to the collections, a contemporary, elegant, original and sometimes unexpected story.
Frédérique Lepers, Artistic Director
Serge LESAGE Collections Designer
The made-to-measure rug
Serge LESAGE has a 'Special Manufacturing' department offering a global and personalised service adapted to each project, thus providing its customers with a truly tailor-made service.
Each request for a new decoration project is met with optimal expertise, from the choice of the manufacturing technique to be used,
to the materials selected according to a budget and a deadline, in a spirit of close collaboration.
Serge LESAGE also provides an online design software that allows you to let your creativity flow by playing with colours and shapes and thus create the rug of one's dreams from existing collections.
Made-to-measure projects
Exceptional Craftsmanship
All our rugs benefit from the ancestral know-how of the craftsmen of our workshops located mainly in the North of India following the technique of hand-knotted pile rugs on vertical looms, hand-tufted on cotton canvas or hand-woven on horizontal looms.
Hand-knotted
This traditional pile rug technique has remained almost unchanged for centuries and is carried out on vertical looms by skilled craftsmen. The drawing, to scale1, made in colour on squared paper (each square corresponding to a knot) is entirely traced and coloured, point by point. The knot-maker will follow it from his loom and knot the corresponding material threads onto the warp threads, forming a row of loops around a rod. The rod is then tamped down with a mallet and the loops are cut to form the pile of the rug. The rug is then carefully washed by hand to accentuate the shine and softness of the pile and then air dried. The finishing touches follow with shaving, carving according to the pattern and overlocking. The quality of a knotted rug is defined by the number of knots per square metre. The more knots, the finer the design. This traditional process, entirely handmade, guarantees durability and exceptional beauty to the rug.
Hand-woven
The weaving process is identical to that of tapestry and is carried out on horizontal looms.
The design painted on paper or canvas is placed under the warp so that the weavers can follow it. Several processes are included in this technique, such as "hand-loom" weaving with double warp (hard back) on manual looms, which allows simple geometric designs such as checks and stripes to be produced, flat weaving or weaving on jacquart looms, which allows a finish to be achieved without the application of a textile backing, thus giving the rug greater finesse and flexibility.
All these weaving methods allow a great diversity of appearance and beautiful creations.
Hand-tufted
This handmade process, introduced more recently, is carried out on a cotton canvas, on which the motif has been drawn beforehand. The craftsman, with the help of a gun, inserts with meticulousness in the canvas the strands of material following the drawing. In the case of carved rugs, the strands are tufted to the maximum height and then carefully " sculpted " entirely with scissors by a carver. The back of the rug is then coated with a layer of latex in order to fix the strands and the back is applied. The finishing of the rug can then be done. The rug is shaved to level the surface; overlocking is done manually all around the rug; and when the design requires it, carving is undertaken. All these finishing operations are done with tools guided by the human hand. This technique allows a great freedom of design and gives the rug its beauty and unique character through the gesture of the weaver and the carver.
