A first enquiry to a rug maker is often a single line: “Please send your catalogue.” It’s a natural way to start. But a catalogue shows what a maker has already made, not what they could make for you.
Handmade rugs are made to order. How the rug is built, what it is made of, its sizes, the quantity and the timing decide what is possible and how long it takes. Without those details a maker can only guess, and the back-and-forth eats the first few weeks.
We have been making handmade rugs since 1984, for buyers in 43 countries. The projects that move fastest share one habit: the buyer sends five details in the first email. Price can wait until there is a sample on the table.
The five things to send
- Construction. Hand-knotted, hand-tufted, handwoven or flatweave. This decides most of the lead time and the look. Not sure? Send a photo or a link to a rug you like and say what you like about it.
- Material. Wool, linen, cotton, jute, viscose or recycled fibres, or a blend. If the rug is for a busy room, a hotel or a child’s room, say so. It changes what we would recommend.
- Sizes. The exact sizes you sell, such as 160×230 cm or 8×10 ft, plus any shapes like rounds or runners. Size mix matters as much as design.
- Approximate quantity. Pieces per design, per size, for the first order. A rough number is fine. “Around 50 pieces across four designs” is far more useful than nothing.
- Timing. When the rugs need to be in your warehouse or on your website. Handmade production has real lead times, so the date shapes what is possible.
If you have them, add your design files or reference images, colour references, and any certification or compliance requirements for your market.
What happens after you send them
With those five answers, a manufacturer can give you useful advice and a realistic plan. At our units in Mirzapur, Sitapur and Panipat, the path from brief to bulk looks like this:
- Advice and designs. We suggest the construction and material that suit your range, sizes and timing, with a few relevant designs.
- Sample. Usually 2 to 3 weeks. We dye the yarn in-house, so colours are matched to your reference rather than to whatever pre-dyed stock is available.
- Approval. The approved sample is kept on record as the reference for your order, and pricing is worked out against that exact spec.
- First pieces. The first finished rugs are checked against the approved sample before the rest of the order continues.
- Bulk production. Rugs typically take 75 to 90 days, depending on construction, quantity and approvals. Inspection runs at dyeing, at weaving, and before and after finishing, across 21 quality checkpoints.
The brief you send at the start is what every one of those steps is measured against. A clear brief is the cheapest quality control there is.
A one-email checklist
Copy this into your next enquiry, to us or to any manufacturer:
- Construction: hand-knotted / hand-tufted / handwoven / flatweave (or a reference photo)
- Material:
- Sizes and shapes:
- Approximate quantity per design and size:
- In-warehouse or launch date:
- Design files, colour references, certifications needed:
A buyer who sends this gets a better answer, faster, from any serious maker. If you’d like us to be one of them, write to info@weavinghands.in or WhatsApp +91 87501 19900.
Amit Jain, Weavinghands (Shree Sai International). Handmade rugs and home furnishings since 1984. Author of Mastering Rug Ecommerce.
Amit N JainSecond-generation rug manufacturer and exporter since 2007, author of two books on the rug trade, and builder of the systems that run his family business. More about me · The books
