The craft
Behind the Loom
Where every thread has a story.
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh
"Each knot is a decision. Made by hand. Made to last."
The city
Mirzapur — The Carpet Capital of India
Nestled along the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, Mirzapur has been synonymous with handwoven carpets for over four centuries. The city's weaving tradition dates back to the Mughal era, when royal patronage elevated carpet-making to a high art. Today, Mirzapur produces some of the finest handmade rugs in the world — exported to homes across Europe, America, and beyond.
Shabnam Overseas is rooted in this tradition. Our workshop sits in Kantit, Gajiya — a neighbourhood where the sound of looms has filled the air for generations. The weavers who work with us grew up watching their parents and grandparents at the loom. This craft is not a job for them. It is a way of life.
The process
How a Rug is Made
Design
Every rug begins with a design — drawn on graph paper, translated into a colour map. For hand-knotted rugs, this map guides every single knot. For hand-tufted pieces, it shapes the carved relief pattern. Flat weaves follow a warp-and-weft blueprint refined over weeks.
Dyeing the Wool
We use premium New Zealand wool for most of our rugs — naturally soft, low-shedding, and built to last. The wool is dyed in small batches using reactive dyes that bond deeply with the fibre, producing colours that stay rich and true wash after wash, year after year.
Warping the Loom
The loom is set up with a warp — vertical threads stretched tightly across the frame. The width of the warp determines the width of the rug. For a 9×12 rug, this can mean thousands of individual threads, each tensioned by hand before a single knot is tied.
Weaving
Hand-knotted rugs are woven knot by knot — each one tied individually around pairs of warp threads, then packed tight with a comb beater. A skilled weaver ties roughly 10,000 knots a day. A large hand-knotted rug can take two to three months. Hand-tufted rugs use a tufting gun to loop pile yarn through a backing cloth — faster, but still entirely by hand, and finished with a carved surface.
Finishing
Once off the loom, the rug is washed, stretched, dried in the sun, and clipped to an even pile height. The back is inspected, any loose knots tightened. The edges are hand-bound or fringed. A final review ensures every piece meets our quality standard before it leaves Mirzapur.
Our commitment
Made to Order. Made with Intent.
Every rug we make is made to order. We do not hold stock to push sales. When you place an order, your rug enters production — designed, dyed, and woven specifically for you. This means no two rugs are ever exactly alike, and every piece that leaves our workshop carries the full attention of the artisan who made it.
We are proud of where we come from. We are proud of what our weavers know. And we are proud to bring that knowledge into homes around the world — one rug at a time.