Southwest Area Rugs

Southwest area rugs are also known as Navajo style rugs. Southwest area rugs are now becoming highly popular in the market for one specific reason – the rapid rise of Southwestern decors. These decors are found not only in rugs nowadays, but also in other home furniture ranging from wall carpets to some fabrics.

Southwest area rugs can help you create a customized lodge look in any room in your home. They are in the first place designed to depict the culture and the way of life of the Southwestern people.

What are commonly depicted in this style of area rugs are the cultures of the Native Americans which are often portrayed through various types of colors and with images of the Southwestern crafts and fine arts.

Usually, many of the designs and symbols presented in the Southwest area rugs can be seen in the craftwork of the Native Americans and it’s nice to know that many of these symbols depict to some degree the religious ideas and influences that have been deemed as one of the major parts of the Southwestern culture for long years.

Southwest Area Rugs – Symbols Used

For much prominence, the common symbols and designs decorated in the Southwest area rugs include images of:

• Animals
• Rain
• Lightning
• Crops
• Feathers
• Other nature symbols

All of these samples, as you may know, are highly prominent in the artistic expressions of the Navajo people.

Hand Woven

Now, what makes the Southwest area rugs unique and great? Well, there are a lot of answers to that question. One of the most common is that all of the Southwest area rugs are designed and crafted by hand.

Yes, the Navajo or Southwest area rugs are usually noted and valued for their hand woven quality. And, perhaps what’s nice to know about these rugs is that they are hand woven beautifully with a sense of durability attached to them.

The Southwest area rugs are also woven with the natural lanolin found in the unprocessed wool yarn from which the rugs are made. It is this material actually that makes the Southwest area rugs strong and durable.

Preparation

However, to obtain this material, the preparation of the yarn often takes longer than the weaving; the reason that processed yarn has now become very popular among many of the Southwestern rug weavers.

Today, the Southwest area rugs are woven in various style and method. The way they are crafted has in fact changed over the years with the introduction of the most advanced methods.

However, some of the early methods of crafting these pieces of art are retained and continued to be used today although the way the yarn are prepared has become modernized.

Well, this is possibly highly considered to keep the original quality and looks of the Southwestern rugs which are for long years have been favored by the people around the world.